Jacob's Room

“Rebecca called her ma’am, though they were conspirators plotting the eternal conspiracy of hush and clean bottles.”

Betty employs Rebecca to help raise the three boys. During the storm, they enter into an “eternal conspiracy of hush and clean bottles” (7), illustrating how close they are. In spite of this closeness, however, the class divide between the two conspirators can never be overlooked. As the phrase denoting their conspiracy is repeated, the narrator reminds the audience that Rebecca must call Betty “ma’am” (7). Every time she addresses someone so close, the underlying class dynamic asserts itself.

“The tombstone, though plain, was a solid piece of work.”

In life, Seabrook was an unimpressive and unfocused figure. His tombstone is solid yet deceptive, commemorating him as a merchant even if he spent very little time in this job. The tombstone is Betty’s attempt to alter her late husband’s reputation, signifying his worth to posterity by manipulating the truth. In future generations, Seabrook’s true character will not be known but his tombstone will remain. This speaks to the novel’s theme of The Ineffability of Individual Identity, in which Seabrook’s true identity is obfuscated by his own tombstone.

“Sending for Archer, Jacob, and John to say good-bye, he told them to choose whatever they liked in his study to remember him by.”

Rather than directly inform the audience of the boys’ individual characters, the narrator constructs identity through choices. The boys each choose an object by which they can remember Mr.