Jacob Have I Loved Themes

Your mother probably told you that you should never judge a book by its cover. But heck, all of us judge books by their covers—and we judge people, too. We totally judge people, and appearances a...

Growing up isn't easy. It's tough making the transition from being a little kid to a full-fledged grown up, but Louise Bradshaw in Jacob Have I Loved struggles more than most. It's bad enough that...

Albus Dumbledore famously said, "To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." Yeah, Dumbledore said a lot of awesome things, and we think he'd be amused by the characters in...

Family. They're the people you love. They're the people who've been there for you. They're the people you're stuck with through no fault of your own. In Jacob Have I Loved, Louise definitely feels...

Home is where the heart is—and in Louise's case in Jacob Have I Loved, it's also where her crazy family and oppressive social life are. Good times. Louise has a love/hate relationship with her ho...

Identity is pretty major—it's basically how we see ourselves in the world relative to other people. So, yeah, it's kind of critical. In Jacob Have I Loved, at her core, Louise sees herself as una...

Shakespeare said that jealousy was like a "green-eyed monster." No, he wasn't talking about Mike Wazowski—he meant that feelings of envy can really start to take over. That's what Louise finds ou...

Of the two things you never talk about in polite company—politics and religion—you can pretty much count on Grandma Bradshaw to bring Christianity up to make everyone squirm in their seats. Bec...