Holding Up The Universe

Although Jack crumples up the list of “Top Ten Reasons to Date a Fat Girl” and directly tells Seth to “lay off” Libby (334), he remains fixated on Libby’s weight as her identifier. Jack seems more confident in his feelings for Libby but still self-conscious about them, as if he feels the need to justify those feelings in spite ofher weight. His anxiety is further evidenced by his regret for bringing Libby so far from home; at the pizza place, he tells Libby, “It doesn’t mean I want to keep you a secret. I would never hide you away, if that’s what you’re thinking,” but at the same time, he thinks, “Is that what I’m doing?” (353-354). At this point, Jack clearly likes Libby, but he is not quite sure why he likes her; he does not yet realize that the reason he can more easily recognize Libby is that he sees her differently from the “normal” people who have that “sameness” to them.

These pages also help readers gain more sympathy for Caroline. As she questions Jack about his date with Libby, Jack observes, “I can hear the hurt in her voice, buried underneath all the venom. I want to say It’s okay to be a person. We’re all afraid. We all get hurt. It’s okay to hurt. You’d be so much more likable if you just acted human” (363). As easy as it may be to cast Caroline as one of the novel’s main antagonists, she is a sympathetic character in that she, too, must grapple with establishing her own identity. Jack appears to be learning from Libby that to be imperfect is to be human, and he seems to be gradually giving himself permission to be flawed. In Caroline, Niven explores the folly of constantly trying to maintain the illusion of perfection to the point that it creates a constant feeling of inadequacy.

Then again, Caroline hardly redeems herself when she essentially dashes Libby’s hopes of joining the Damsels. Again, Caroline serves as the archetypical “mean girl” bully, who uses passive-aggressive tactics to devastate her targets. In literature, an archetypal character playsa recurring, easily identifiable role, such as the “damsel in distress” in fairy tales or the “survivor” in horror. The purpose of archetypes is to give readers predictable, easily recognizable characters that move the story forward in specific ways. However, in Holding Up The Universe, Niven plays with Caroline’s archetypical role by making her more complex than the typical one-dimensional bully (like Moses Hunt). Readers are constantly jerked between feeling sorry for the obviously insecure Caroline and the cruel young woman who takes out her frustrations on her vulnerable peers. The fact that Caroline is such a complex character furthers the idea that all people are more complicated than they initially seem. Niven uses Caroline as example of how even those who seem “big” on the outside can struggle on the inside.

Lastly, Jack’s mistake picking up Dusty represents a turning point for his character because his prosopagnosia results in something genuinely hurtful rather than just socially embarrassing. The tone of Jack’s reaction to this mistake is vastly different from the playful tone in his earlier list of “Top 5 Most Embarrassing Moments of My Life,” in which herecounts a handful of awkward but harmless situations. In contrast, the mistake at Tam’s house clearly devastates Jack. He thinks, “My hands are shaking, but I don’t want him to see…I can barely hear him over the sound of my heart as it goes BAM BAM BAM against the walls of my chest” (382). The difference is that for the first time, Jack’s face blindness has caused direct harm to someone he loves—idolizes, even. This section concludes with Jack coming face to face with a critical decision: continue hiding his condition at the expense of others, or come clean about his face-blindness and bear the consequences. Niven suggests that Jack’s choice will dictate the person he will become.