ATKM CCQC 2

How is Jack’s philosophy on life evolving?

Jack’s philosophy began to change drastically when he learned about Anne’s affair with Willie Talos.  Anne was a girl that jack had an extensive and complex past with, as we learned throughout chapter 6.   Jack had known Anne Stanton since a very early age.  They had countless memories together.  “And always there was Anne Stanton”. (380)  They played together when they were little and swam together and played tennis together, until it turned into a romantic relationship when they got older.  “Then there came a time when the nights were Anne Stanton….  That began the summer when I was twenty-one and Anne Stanton was seventeen”. (381)  They nearly made love one time, but ended up not because the parents had returned home, and because of some doubts Jack had.  As you can see, Jack and Anne’s relationship has much more of a past than we knew of.  When Jack learned that Anne was in a romantic relationship with Willie, he felt a sense of betrayal, which he was not ready for.  “That was the Anne Stanton whom Willie Talos had picked out, who had finally betrayed me, or rather, had betrayed an idea of mine which had had more importance for me than I had ever realized”. (430-431)   This made Jack rethink everything that had ever happened between him and Anne, in turn, it made him rethink life as a whole, and his philosophy on life.  He claims that Anne never really loved him, that she just “…had a mysterious itch in the blood and he was handy and the word love was a word for the mysterious itch.” (431)  He had convinced himself that Anne was never a part of his life, that the words Anne Stanton had no meaning.  From these thoughts, he created his new philosophy on life.  “First, that you cannot lose what you have never had.  Second, that you are never guilty of a crime which you did not commit. So there is innocence and a new start in the West, after all.  If you believe the dream you dream when you go there.” (434)