Holding Up The Universe

One of the most common themes of young adult literature is identity—namely, being able to establish one’s own identity and come to terms with it. Since adolescence is the age at which many young people struggle to figure out exactly who they are, the theme permeates this literary genre, and Holding Up the Universe is no exception. The introductory pages of the novel characterize Jack and Libby as complicated, multi-dimensional figures, grappling with how they identify themselves and others. For example, readers come to know Jack as a popular, outgoing jock-type figure. In his letter (i.e. the novel’s Prologue), he writes that he “gets by” through nodding and smiling, charming people, and being the life of the party. At the same time, though, Jack has a secret that obviously causes him a great deal of stress: his prosopagnosia, which makes it difficult for him to recognize faces and sometimes leads to severe social missteps. Jack even implies that it makes him a “freak” (16), suggesting that the outwardly-confident young man is inwardly plagued by self-consciousness and anxiety.

After Jack’s letter, Niven provides a dictionary definition of prosopagnosia: “1. an inability to recognize the faces of familiar people, typically as a result of damage to the brain. 2. when everyone is a stranger” (18). The first entry offers a straightforward, textbook definition of the condition; the second entry, on the other hand, is more symbolic and relevant to the novel’s theme of identity. For Jack, his popularity at school can only get him so far in hiding his prosopagnosia. He clings to his popularity and the few friends he can consistently recognize, despite their negative influence on him, because it provides him an identity beyond his disorder. However, Jack must ultimately decide whether standing up for what he believes is the right thing to do is worth alienating the few “constants” in his life, despite them pushing him to do “shitty” things (15). Jack finds himself pulled between his popularity and the truth of who he is. If he decides to do the right thing, Jack risks becoming lost amid a sea of strangers.

Meanwhile, Libby is similarly confident, friendly, and funny, but she is haunted by her past as “America’s fattest teen” and her mother’s untimely death. Her mother’s passing deeply affects her, and Libby blames the trauma for her extreme weight gain and the panic attack that forced her to be lifted by crane out of her bedroom. Niven shows that Libby is no longer that girl, at least physically: by the time readers meet Libby, she has lost hundreds of pounds. As she looks in her mirror as she prepares for the first day of school, Libby seems happy with whom she sees: “I only see me—adorable navy dress, sneakers, medium-longish brown hair” (26). Libby is both nervous and hopeful about trying out for the Damsels, her high school’s dance team. However, at the same time, she is reminded of Moses Hunt’s hurtful nickname for her, “Flabby Stout” (26). Despite her earlier confidence, Libby becomes plagued by “What if” questions.

Like Jack, Libby also struggles with identity. While she might be confident in who she has become, she remains haunted by the morbidly-obese girl she once was. She worries that she will not be able to outrun her former self when she returns to public school, meaning that she has let down all the people who have helped her to recover from her weight gain and grief. AsLibby and Jack wrestle with their identities, Niven continues to characterize them in a way that shows their identities are in a constant state of flux and uncertainty throughout the novel.