WINKLER #2 CCQC :)

• How is Jack's philosophy on life evolving?

Jack's philosophy on life subconsciously begins to change after he reads Cass Mastern's journal but really takes a turn when he finds out Anne is sleeping with Willie, eventually creating his own theory on life he names the "Great Twitch." Jack has been living his life and working for Willie Talos without giving much thought to his actions or considering the repercussions. In all honesty Jack does not really understand emotions or human motivations as seen when he wonders why his scholarly father is helping the unfortunate, his mother continues to remarry, Anne doesn't want to marry him, and especially why Cass would go through all the trouble to free his ex lover's slave, Phebe. Jack has yet to take any responsibility for his decisions but is deeply changed when he hears his childhood sweetheart Anne has had an affair with Willie, after which Jack actually takes time and reminisces about Anne as an innocent girl saying, "That was Anne Stanton. And little girls are fraidy-cats and try the surf with one toe that first day in spring, and when the surf makes a surprising leap and splashes their thigh with the tingle and cold they squeal and jump up and down on thin little legs like stilts. That was Anne Stanton (380)," Jack does not exactly understand how Anne grew up into a women who decides to sleep with his job obsessed Boss but he begins to blame himself and realize why Anne did not choose him "I had not understood then what I have now come to understand: that we can keep only the past by having the future, for they are forever tied together. Therefore I lack some essential confidence in the world and in myself" (433). Although Jack continues to work for Willie, the man who has the ambition he himself lacks, he is on the edge of coming to a fuller understanding on how the world works having finally been able to admit that there is something missing inside himself. Jack additionally questions his role in the scheme of life after the Judge, his real father, kills himself in spite of Jack framing him with the information about the bride he had long ago forgotten he made. "Perhaps I had done it. That was one way of looking at it. I turned that thought over and speculated upon my responsibility. It would be quite possible that I had none, no more than Mortimer had" (492). Jack then goes on and considers the fact that everyone played a role in killing the judge, eventually concluding that everyone is connected in some way, fueled by some unknown force, drive, or twitch. Jack's ideas are eventually solidified into his idea of "The great twitch." I predict sometime throughout chapter 8 Jack's new idea of the interconnectedness of the world will transform his actions or at least alter the way he views certain people in his life, shedding light on their reasoning Jack once believed to be absurd.