When the Wolf Comes Home

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child abuse.

Inner Jess is a motif for The Struggle to Be Brave and Navigating Familial Cycles of Violence. Jess introduces Inner Jess in Chapter 2, distinguishing it from the outward façade that Jess projects while pretending that she is unaffected by the death of her estranged father. Inner Jess sees Tommy in everything, embodying Jess’s fear that she may be just like her father. Throughout the novel, Jess fights to suppress Inner Jess’s voice, pushing herself to believe that she is more than her father’s daughter.

When Jess reaches Tommy’s cabin, she discovers letters that Tommy had attempted to write to her. One of the letter drafts reveals that Tommy had his own version of Inner Jess, a critic that convinced him that he was defined by his worst character traits. This discovery reinforces Jess’s fear that she and Tommy are more alike than she thinks. However, the novel’s close shows Jess’s triumph over Inner Jess when she wills herself onto the improv stage and discovers Little Jess—a younger version of herself. Little Jess, unlike Inner Jess, teaches the adult Jess that she can choose to be brave.