52 pages • 1 hour read
Katherine PatersonJacob Have I Loved
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1980A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Katherine Paterson
American author Katherine Paterson is a highly acclaimed author of children’s and young adult literature. Born in China in 1932 to Presbyterian ministers, she and her family fled to China during the Japanese invasion in 1937 and returned to the US during World War II (WWII). She earned English and Education degrees in college and then intended to be a missionary in China, like her parents. She became a missionary in Japan instead. She has four children and currently lives in Vermont (“2007 – Katherine Paterson - Neustadt Prizes.” The Neustadt Prizes, 2007).
Her first children’s novel, The Sign of the Chrysanthemum, was published in 1973, and she has since published over 40 books. She is one of only six authors to earn the Newbery Medal twice: once for Bridge to Terabithia in 1977, and again for Jacob Have I Loved in 1981. She has also received the National Book Award twice, for The Master Puppeteer in 1977 and The Great Gilly Hopkins in 1979. Her other awards include the Scott O’Dell Award for Children’s Literature (1982), the Hans Christian Andersen Medal (1998), the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2006), the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature (2007), and the E. B. White Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters (2019).
Her novel The Bridge to Terabithia remains her most popular book, twice adapted for film. However, Jacob Have I Loved is also highly regarded and beloved both commercially and critically. Three of Paterson’s novels were voted into the Top 100 Chapter Books poll in 2012, with Bridge to Terabithia at #10, Jacob Have I Loved at #43, and The Great Gilly Hopkins at #63 (“Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results.” School Library Journal, 2012).
Literary and Cultural Context: Esau and Jacob
The novel’s title comes from Romans 9:13: “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Jacob and Esau are fraternal twins whose birth is recorded in Genesis 25. When their mother, Rebekah, asks God why she is experiencing so much pain during her pregnancy, God tells her that “Two nations are in thy womb […] and the elder shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23). Esau is born first and is covered in hair; Jacob arrives holding onto Esau’s heel. Esau grows into a skilled hunter and the favorite of his father, Isaac, while Jacob is “a plain man, dwelling in tents” (Genesis 25:27) and is closer to Rebekah.
One day, a famished Esau returns from working in the fields and asks his brother for food. Jacob gives him a bowl of stew but forces Esau to give up his birthright in exchange (Genesis 25:33-34). Much later, when Isaac is blind and believes himself to be dying, he summons Esau and asks him to hunt and prepare some venison for him, promising a blessing in return (Genesis 27:1-4). Rebekah overhears the conversation and convinces Jacob, her favorite son, to bring his father goat meat instead. Because his father can no longer see, Jacob disguises himself as Esau by wearing hairy garments, thus gaining Isaac’s blessing. When Esau returns with the meat his father has requested, Isaac realizes his mistake but cannot retract his blessing. Esau, once again having had his rights usurped by Jacob, vows to kill his brother; to save his life, Rebekah sends Jacob to her brother’s house.
Paralleling the biblical tale, Louise feels that Caroline receives the blessings and attention that Louise deserves, despite Caroline being the younger twin. Caroline is praised for her musical gifts and for her cleverness, even though Louise is also intelligent and proves herself a conscientious character. As the novel comes to a close, the interaction between Louise and her mother suggests that Louise’s perception that she is less loved than Caroline is what held her back from achieving her goals; after recognizing this psychological barrier, Louise is able to leave her mother and seek out her own happy ending.
Genre Context: Bildungsroman
Jacob Have I Loved is part of a literary genre called bildungsroman, or “novel of education/formation,” also known as a coming-of-age novel. The German term bildungsroman, coined in 1819 by German scholar Johann Morgenstern, refers to novels that follow the development and education of a protagonist from adolescence to adulthood, and usually includes spiritual or moral growth. Traditionally, the protagonist of a bildungsroman faces disappointments and setbacks in their childhood ambitions, learns from mistakes, and reaches a hopeful, if not happy, ending that is tempered by resignation with the harsh realities of the world. Quite often, the protagonist must grow out of their foolish youth and gain moral maturity through a central conflict with societal expectations (“Bildungsroman.” Britannica, 2020).
Louise’s bildungsroman finds her first a resentful and childish girl whose focus is on the difference in treatment between herself and her twin sister. By the novel’s close, Louise has changed her perception of her place in her family, has cast aside childish notions of love and has married a widower, and has educated herself and become a person who can affect real hope and change in the locale of her dreams.
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