56 pages • 1 hour read
Jennifer NivenHolding Up The Universe
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Pages 214-245Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 214-245 Summary
At the next Conversation Circle, the students play a basketball game as a team-building activity. Libby witnesses the problems that Jack’s prosopagnosia gives him firsthand during the game as Jack keeps passing the ball to the other team. Afterward, Libby encourages Jack to tell someone else about his condition or at least visit the Prosopagnosia Research Centers’ website for resources. However, Jack seems largely dismissive of her advice. Meanwhile, Caroline grows increasingly frustrated with Jack’s unavailability and seems to blame Libby for cutting into their time together.
At Masselin’s Toys, Jack decides to take Libby’s advice and look up the Prosopagnosia Research Centers. He learns that he may be able to get in touch with the researchers and prepares to write them an email, but in the process, he accidentally finds an email to his dad from Monica Chapman. It is clear his father and Monica are still having an affair. Monica also recommends that Jack receive counseling for his anger. Jack writes an angry email in retaliation, and while he decides not to send it, he leaves it open for his dad to see later. Afterward, he sends an email to Brad Duchaine, a researcher at the Prosopagnosia Research Centers, asking for help.
The novel moves into a new section titled “Saturday” and opens with Libby and Jack painting the school’s locker room as part of their community service. While on break, Jack sees several students, including Moses Hunt, bullying a vulnerable student named Jonny Rumsford. Jack sees an ugly side of himself reflected in the bullies, and he impetuously rushes to Jonny’s defense. Jack starts throwing punches, and Libby and another member of the Conversation Circle, Keyshawn Price, intervene before any adults realize what has happened.
Back at the bleachers, Libby and Jack talk more about Libby’s history. She tells him about her mother’s death, explaining that it was the sudden, unexpected result of a cerebral hemorrhage that may be passed down genetically. Both Libby and her father worry that Libby might have a brain hemorrhage, too. This moment of vulnerability sparks a new connection between Jack and Libby. It also sparks attraction: Libby makes note of Jack’s “guyness” (244), even though she wills herself to not “think of him like that” (245).
Pages 214-245 Analysis
The fact that Jack initially rejects Libby’s advice to seek help for his prosopagnosia—or even to learn more about the condition—further represents his desire to “stay home.” For Jack, telling someone else about the prosopagnosia puts his carefully constructed identity at risk. He believes seeking help would reveal his vulnerability and his imperfection, and the truth could damage his social standing among his peers. Jack still sees keeping his condition secret as a way to stay safe.
For Libby, who has come much further in terms of “coming out” and embracing her imperfection, Jack’s secrecy is illogical and frustrating. After the confrontation with Moses Hunt and the other students bullying Jonny Rumsford, Libby begins to see the real Jack. Instead of viewing him as a popular jock, Libby thinks, “This isn’t charming Jack Masselin. This is a boy who is burdened by life” (241). Perhaps for the first time, she sees that Jack carries a tremendous amount of weight himself—not physical weight, but rather the mental and emotional weight of being torn between seeking the help he needs and preserving his precious identity.
Weight—both literal and metaphorical—is one of the novel’s recurring themes, and Niven shows readers that every character in Holding Up the Universe has his or herown weight to bear. Even the novel’s title reinforces this theme as it alludes to the Greek myth of Atlas. According to the myth, the titan Atlas was condemned by the Olympian gods to hold up the sky on his shoulders as punishment for rebelling against the gods. This is an important theme for Niven’s young adult readership, as her audience understands the feeling of carrying an unmanageable weight. Adolescence is a period in which stressors come from several directions. At the same time as they are asked to perform in school and in extracurricular activities, many teenagers also feel the intense social pressure of fitting in among their peers while also carving out their own unique identities as they write their own stories. In fact, the frequent advice they likely hear from parents and teachers, to “be themselves,” is at direct odds with the unspoken but constantly reinforced advice they get from their peers to be “normal” and conform.
Ultimately, every significant character in the novel has his or her own weight to carry. Libby carries the burden of her mother’s untimely death and the spiral of weight gain that, despite her remarkable efforts, still makes her the target of her peers. Jack carries the weight of his prosopagnosia and the self-imposed need to keep it a secret, as well as the secret of his father’s affair. Even Caroline Lushamp carries the burden of preserving her social status. With such flawed characters, Niven shows readers that humans are inevitably imperfect, but this is not necessarily a bad thing—in fact, by the end of the novel, even a character as seemingly one-dimensional as Kam seems to realize that flaws are inevitable and perhaps even desirable. Teenagers often feel the weight of thinking that there is something wrong with them, and hiding any and all imperfections often seems to be the only way to “fit in.” However, Niven lays bare the fact that people are flawed, and the effort to mask that imperfection often causes more problems than it fixes.
