41 pages • 1-hour read
Jake Drake, Know-It-All
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Character Analysis
Jake Drake
Jake is the story’s narrator and protagonist. When he tells the story, he is 10 years old and in the fourth grade at Despres Elementary School, but when the story actually takes place, he is in third grade. Jake’s narrative voice is casual and humorous. He uses vivid images and relatable similes, often using these to inject notes of comic absurdity, as when he describes Principal Karp as looking like “a giant piece of celery” (9). Jake is a generally kind child who enjoys his friendships and cares about others’ feelings. He worries about hurting his father’s feelings in Chapter 5, and in Chapter 10, he devises a way to make his father feel included and valued even though he really does not need his father’s help with the science fair project. He goes into detail in Chapter 1 about how much he enjoys spending time with his best friend, Willie, and in Chapter 8, he feels terrible when he realizes how he has been devaluing this friendship. Jake also shows concern for the feelings of people who are not his close friends or relatives. Although Jake is quite intelligent, he is humble about this—he points out that “almost all the kids [he knows], they’re pretty smart, too” (3). This contrasts him with Marsha and Kevin: Jake has no desire to be seen as a “know-it-all” who wants to stand out as smarter and better than other students at the expense of others’ feelings.
Jake also loves computers, and this is what temporarily leads him astray. He spends as much time as he is allowed playing computer games with Willie. He has gotten good enough at using the computer that his teachers often ask him to teach other students computer skills. When a top-of-the-line computer is offered as the prize for winning the first Despres Elementary science fair, Jake cannot resist this lure, and he immediately devotes himself to winning. In the process, he starts to betray some of his own values, selfishly doing what he sees as necessary in order to secure first place and have exclusive use of the computer of his dreams. Eventually, Jake’s essential integrity wins out, and he returns to behaving with his usual concern for others. The temporary changes in Jake’s temperament and the lessons he learns from this make him a dynamic character whose shifting understanding of himself conveys important messages about what is important in life.
Phil Willis (Willie)
Willie is Jake’s best friend and has been for several years. They share a love of computers and computer games and spend a lot of time with one another outside of school. In third grade, the two are in different classes, but Willie suggests that they work on the science fair project together. Willie is a positive and upbeat person who assumes the best about people and situations. He is very surprised that his best friend would not want to work together or share the prize computer if they win because to him, this would “be great!” (25). Even though he is disappointed by Jake’s refusal, he says that if he wins on his own, he will still share his computer with Jake. Because Jake does not return the sentiment—in fact, Jake privately doubts that Willie could possibly win and thinks, “Forget about it, Willie. That grand prize is mine” (26)—Willie functions as a foil for Jake, illustrating Jake’s self-centered behavior by contrast.
When Jake finally comes to his senses in Chapter 9, Willie shows his usual optimism and good humor by immediately agreeing to get back into the science fair as Jake’s partner—he does not hold Jake’s earlier rejection against him, and just as Jake expects him to, he brings both good ideas and an element of fun to the process of working on the science fair project. Because of this, Willie’s character functions as the vehicle for the lessons that Jake learns about The Importance of Loyalty to Friends.
Pete Morris
Pete is a student in Jake’s third-grade class. Jake describes him as “a science kid” (21). Pete is especially interested in insects, and he says that his hobbies include bugs, rocks, worms, plants, and monkeys. Pete makes only three appearances in the story, but his character is an important part of the text’s arguments about Learning as Its Own Reward. Pete’s first appearance is in Chapter 3 when he asks Mrs. Snavin whether one of his hobbies can be used as the basis for a science fair project. This demonstrates that Pete is an ethical child and conveys how enjoyable he finds science to be—it is what he chooses to do for fun in his free time. Pete reappears briefly in Chapter 4 when Jake notices him using his recess time to continue his scientific observations outside on the playground. Pete’s idea of playtime, in other words, includes learning. Pete does not appear again until the end of the story. In Chapter 11, Pete wins the science fair for a project that he has been working on for months, just for the fun of it. This again stresses that learning can be its own reward—Pete is not interested in the new computer or in proving that he is “better or smarter than anyone else” (85). It also reinforces the depiction of Pete as not only interested in but also truly good at science.
Kevin Young and Marsha McCall
Kevin and Marsha function as the story’s antagonists. They are students in Jake’s grade, and Jake has been in class with them since kindergarten. He calls them “know-it-alls” because both Marsha and Kevin are determined to prove that they are the smartest students in the class (6). They refuse to let Jake teach them anything about computers, and they constantly wave their hands in the air to get called on, as if school is “a TV game show” (4). Jake views Kevin and Marsha as his main competition in the school science fair, and for much of the story, this seems to be true. As soon as Mrs. Snavin passes out the booklets, the two begin studying the rules, and the pair ask several questions that make it clear how determined they are—as when, in Chapter 3, Marsha asks how she can start working on her project immediately if she has to wait and get her project approved. Both Kevin and Marsha are nosy about Jake’s project and try to intimidate other students into dropping out of the science fair. Each is determined to win the science fair and be number one.
The two characters are somewhat differentiated. Kevin is described as having red hair, freckles, and pale, unblinking blue eyes. He is the one who asks Jake directly about the subject of his science fair project. Marsha, by contrast, is sneakier and tries to find out by snooping. These small differences help flesh out the two characters as separate people, but essentially, the two function as a unit. As the third grade’s biggest know-it-alls, they provide a negative example. By demonstrating the impact of know-it-all behavior on others and illustrating what Jake could become if he does not change his ways, they reinforce the story’s themes of The Value of Personal Integrity and The Importance of Staying Humble.
Jim Drake
Jim is Jake’s father. He is introduced in Chapter 5 as a somewhat comic figure, accused by his wife of being a “Know-It-All/Do-It-All” and creating minor disasters in their family life by assuming that he knows more than he actually does (33). He has, for example, gotten the family lost by refusing to ask for directions and broken the garage door opener because he could not be bothered to read the instruction manual. He can get fixated on things he is excited by. In Chapter 5, for instance, he persists in trying to get Jake to build a rocket for the science fair for several minutes, even when it has been made clear that Jake is not interested and that it is an impractical project given the contest’s rules. He gets so excited about the Bluntium Twelve computer that Jake worries that Jim will try to take over his project and want to use the computer once the project wins at the science fair.
Jim does not, however, try to take over. In fact, after Chapter 5, his actions show him to be a devoted father and a mature person willing to put his child’s interests above his own. He takes time to drive Jake to school at the beginning of Chapter 9, and although he shows interest in the progress of Jake’s project and offers his assistance, he is gracious when Jake tells him that he does not need help. He suggests that he should at least look at the work, however, showing that he takes his responsibility as a parent seriously. In Chapter 10, he shows this same pattern—he offers help, is gracious when it is refused, and then comes to Jake’s room to have a look at his and Willis’s work. He praises and encourages both boys, and he helps them set up their exhibit on the day of the science fair.
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