How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"I wanted to call myself Jack, after Jack London. I believed that having his name would charge me with some of the strength and competence inherent of my idea of him." (2.2)
Right off the bat, Jack's focused on his masculinity, to the point of wanting to change his name to be more of a man. It's also interesting that his ideal version of what a man should be is a writer.
Quote #2
"The rest of us carried on. We did so in a resolutely innocent way, without ever admitting to ourselves what the real object was: that is, to bring somebody down." (2.11)
Jack's suggesting that masculinity is a social construct here, something they adopt to impress each other. Is it just another mask for him, another fake identity to put on? Or is it more?
Quote #3
"I thought Roy was what a man should be." (2.23)
Bad move Jack: Roy is really kind of a tool. But this idea of masculinity might lead him to okay his mom's marriage with Dwight, even over his better instincts.
Quote #4
"I needed that rifle, for itself and for the way it completed me when I held it." (3.2)
And again, gunplay comes into the scene, this time as a way of showing him what kind of a man he is. It's an illusion, like a lot of other things in the book, but it definitely fools him.
Quote #5
"We should have looked cool, but we didn't." (5.20)
It wouldn't be masculinity without a little insecurity creeping into the mix, now would it?
Quote #6
"He was grinning. He crossed the room and sat on Skipper's bed. Still grinning, he said, "Who won?" (12.38)
Dwight seems to be trying to make a man out of Jack. The fact that his idea of "being a man" means beating up a lonely kid at school says a lot about Dwight. Interesting that Jack seems both attracted and repelled to this notion. It could be that he sees Dwight's idea of manliness as "normal" and wants it because of that, even though he's not comfortable with what it entails.
Quote #7
"And when, as sometimes happened, a girl of my own age showed some interest in me. I treated her swinishly." (20.26)
Masculinity has its down side… or in this case, Jack's idea of masculinity, which involves turning nervousness about a girl back on the girl in question. (That's not actually masculine, by the way; it's just really jerky.)
Quote #8
"Dwight was in his glory. He cleared the utility room for action and put me back in training." (23.13)
Funny how Dwight equates hurting other people as the only real way to be a man. That may explain why he's such a shabby example of the gender.
Quote #9
"I felt a surge of pride and connection; connection not to him but to Dwight." (23.26)
This is kind of an epiphany for Jack… though a very scary one. Dwight's particular brand of masculinity is rubbing off on him, which is definitely NOT something he wants.
Quote #10
"There was a dash of swagger to his pose, something of the stage cavalier, but his smile was friendly and hopeful." (29.42)
There's a lot of passages like this one in the book: Jack's putting on a show, but that show entails the kind of guy he'd like to be. In this case, someone friendly and approachable, but very confident and a little brazen. Could that, finally, be the kind of man Jack wants to be?