Small as an Elephant

Jack’s mom, Becky Martel, isn’t physically present in the story and is instead defined primarily by her absence in the wake of her abandoning her son at a national park in Maine. Despite her absence, Becky is a dynamic character because more is revealed about her through Jack’s memories. He describes her as having a “tall, willowy” (13) appearance and cropped blonde hair. The mysterious air about her is largely a result of her unique outlook on life and her having a severe mental illness.

As Jack describes his mother, she functions in two basic modes: high and low. He compares these to a pinwheel, which is still without wind but spins wildly when a strong breeze hits it, as though Becky goes with the flow of life and her moods: Rather than resisting her whims, she indulges them fully. Jack knows his mother to be flighty and unreliable: “He doubted she’d be able to reason, to stay put, to wait patiently as he had” (42). He often has to be the bigger, more mature person in their relationship and resents his mother for this yet loves her deeply. He’s drawn to his mother’s vibrant spirit when she’s in her “manic” (high) state, but knows that it can easily go too far, like when Becky harassed strangers in the subway, or more recently, when she abandoned him to go to the Bahamas with a man she just met. Becky is “drawn to anything that promise[s] a story” (59). When she has “depressive” (low) periods, she often becomes irritable and angry, and it may be either a high mood or a low mood that leads to her leaving Jack, sometimes for days or weeks.

In the end, Jack no longer resents his mother and instead wants to go see Lydia to, in a way, reset his relationship with his mother and bring back the feeling of a time when life was simpler and warmer. Becky used to surprise Jack with elephant-related objects, take him on whirlwind adventures (such as to the hardware store to find the rarest color), and joke with him. All of this seemed to be absent lately, and Jack wanted to get it back. Ultimately, he realizes that he must live with his grandmother while his mother gets the help she needs, and he comes to accept that his life, as it was, has ended.

A mentor figure that Jack meets at a bar while looking for his mother, Big Jack can see himself in Jack and suspects that Jack may not be telling the truth about why he’s looking for Becky. He teaches Jack that “mudo” means thank you in Ewe, which Jack uses to name his plastic elephant later on. Big Jack is the one who catches Jack while Jack is trying to evade the police. He grabs Jack and calms him down, hugging him and allowing him to feel a moment of safety. Big Jack agrees to take Jack to see Lydia but also tells Jack that he’ll have to report him when they arrive him York. When Jack sees his grandmother sitting by Lydia’s pen, he panics, but Big Jack talks him through it again. Big Jack brings Jack immense clarity when he explains that he was in foster care and knows what it’s like to feel rejected or neglected by his own parents. He helps Jack see the truth: that his grandmother is only trying to help and that she doesn’t hate Becky at all. All of this allows Jack to feel grateful for the support he received from others and to accept that his life will change. Big Jack and Jack share a name, symbolizing their similarities.

Near the end of his journey, Jack meets Sylvie and then her cousin, Wyatt. Both are dynamic characters in that the novel introduces each of them as one type of person and later reveals them as another. Sylvie appears when she recognizes Jack as the missing boy in Searsport and bravely chases him into the bookstore vault, where they both become trapped. Sylvie is a couple years older than Jack but listens empathetically to his story and his desire to meet Lydia. While she initially states that she has no choice but to come forward with Jack, she changes her mind and helps him escape. Sylvie shows concern for Jack after he’s gone, asking her cousin Wyatt to go after him and help him reach his destination safely. She feels a responsibility for Jack since she was the one who discovered him and then let him go again. While Wyatt seems to be on Jack’s side like Sylvie at first, he soon starts asking Jack questions about his grandmother’s wealth and then reports Jack to the police. In reality, this was the right thing to do, but Jack views Wyatt as untrustworthy and runs away from him. Sylvie turns out to be an unlikely ally for Jack, and in the story’s conclusion, he asks Big Jack to give her the plastic elephant as a token of gratitude. Jack knows that without Sylvie’s help he may never have made it to Lydia in time.