46 pages • 1 hour read
Wendy MassJeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Interplay of Chance and Choice
The characters of Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life make choices and often carefully plan their actions, but they are also subject to events beyond their control. Because life is full of chance occurrences, they find that every choice they make generates unpredictable outcomes, and they are forced to make new choices in response to events they could not have anticipated. Jeremy’s father’s accidental death is the chance event that sets the entire story in motion. Though he could not have known how or when he would die, he created the hunt for the keys as a way to teach a posthumous lesson to his son, thus illustrating the power of choice to give meaning to chance occurrences. Jeremy’s hunt for the keys forces him to confront the unexpected and adapt his plans to fit changing circumstances, and in the process he learns that although he cannot control everything that happens, he can control how he responds to chance.
Although Jeremy’s dad didn’t actually know whether he would die at age 40, as the fortune-teller predicted, he chose to live with this deadline in mind. As a result, he lived every moment to its fullest, carefully choosing what experiences to have so he could include the ones he wanted. Living as if on a deadline caused Jeremy’s father to exert a greater level of control over his choices, knowing that each mattered. However, Jeremy’s father also realized that, even if he lived past age 40, there wouldn’t be enough time to do everything he wanted to do and that micromanaging his time couldn’t change that. While he was careful about his choices, he also chose to let life happen, relinquishing control to see what came naturally. This is an important part of the lesson Jeremy’s father teaches through the search for the keys: Jeremy must learn to accept and even welcome the role chance plays in his life.
When Jeremy learns that his father and Mr. Oswald planned out the entire search, he develops a deeper understanding of the degree to which other people’s choices influence his life. Mr. Oswald nudged Jeremy in the direction his dad wanted, but the man was also very careful not to make decisions for Jeremy. New York City is a crowded and often chaotic environment in which the role of chance is constant, but Mr. Oswald and Jeremy’s father made careful choices to ensure that Jeremy’s search would be both successful and safe. Mr. Oswald left the choices within the search up to Jeremy while pushing him down the right path, meaning that Jeremy held most of the control over how the hunt played out. Mr. Oswald’s role in the search was that of a guide, and his relationship to Jeremy’s choices shows how influence can only direct, not make choices for someone.
When Jeremy and Lizzy miss their bus stop in Chapter 6, they choose to get off at the next one, where Lizzy finds a playing card she needs for her collection of found cards. Amazed at this turn of events, Jeremy thinks, “[I]f we hadn’t veered away from our original plan, we wouldn’t have gotten off here, and she wouldn’t have found her card” (82). The choice to deviate from the original plan created space for an unexpected outcome. This happy surprise encourages Jeremy to accept that he can’t control everything—an impulse that stems in large part from the shock of his father’s sudden death. He begins to understand that not all surprises are painful ones, and he makes room for chance in his life.
Though no one can predict the future—as the fortune-teller’s granddaughter makes clear—Jeremey’s adventure teaches him not to fear the unexpected. With a supportive community around him, he has the agency to control what he can and to make the best of what he can’t control.
Life as a Journey of Discovery
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life is a coming-of-age novel in which the two adolescent central characters, Jeremy and Lizzy, undertake a quest to discover the contents of a mysterious box. In the course of this journey, they also discover who they are and who they can become.
Jeremy begins his journey as a self-protective character who is averse to surprises. His father died suddenly in an accident five years before, and the shock of this loss has left Jeremy clinging to routine in order to feel safe. Prior to receiving the box in the mail, Jeremy’s summer plans involved sleeping, eating, and hanging out with Lizzy. Once the box enters his life and he chooses to search for the keys, his path is irrevocably altered. His old summer plans no longer apply, and all his energy goes toward completing the task his father has laid out for him. His new path presents obstacles that challenge and frighten him, such as taking public transportation without an adult, but Jeremy’s determination to open the box pushes him to step out of his comfort zone. As a result, he has new experiences and meets new people his old path never would have crossed. The influence of the box and the search change Jeremy, pushing him to discover reserves of courage he didn’t know he had. Jeremy forces himself to make difficult choices that ultimately lead to growth and a greater understanding of himself and the world.
Lizzy’s journey throughout the novel shows how paths can circle back to where they began. At the novel’s outset, Lizzy and Jeremy have been best friends for years, and there is no predicted change in that part of their combined journey. When the new kids move into their apartment building, however, Lizzy finds herself attracted to the boy and admiring the girl, feelings that shift the path Lizzy chooses to take. Suddenly, she wants more than to be Jeremy’s best friend. She wants to explore these new feelings and the interests they inspire, such as makeup and dolls, and this exploration takes her toward new things and away from Jeremy. When Lizzy gets her first period toward the end of the book, her worldview shifts. She realizes that she can’t stop the changes that will enter her life and also that new things don’t mean she has to leave old things behind. Instead of letting her new interests and friends consume her, she circles back to being Jeremy’s best friend, though now she realizes that she can also have a life outside of this friendship. Lizzy’s path both brings her forward and teaches her that what’s behind is worth carrying with her.
The three adults Jeremy and Lizzy make deliveries to have all been on journeys of their own. In their youth, each person chose to pawn an object of importance to them, believing the money they got would help them toward something even more important. However, their choices to pawn the objects changed their paths, leading to gains or losses they carried forward. The woman lost her best friend, something she’s regretted ever since. She never gathered the courage to reach out, and thus, that relationship was lost forever. The man who pawned the lamp started his journey toward acceptance and understanding with that single action. As a child, he was spoiled, but as an adult, he wants for little, knowing that everything he needs is within himself. The scientist pawned his grandfather’s telescope in hopes that doing so would let him provide for his future, and when it did, he never looked back. Each of these characters gained or lost something that followed them through their lives, changing who they were and who they became. The stories they tell Jeremy and Lizzy symbolize the paths they didn’t take—a reminder that every choice brings new possibilities even as it forecloses others.
In Chapter 10, Jeremy and Lizzy ask Mr. Oswald if the second delivery will be like the first, to which Mr. Oswald says it will be similar but that “nothing is ever exactly like anything else” (135). This holds true for both the deliveries and the journeys of the novel’s characters, as every step on the journey yields new discoveries.
Finding Value in Relationships
In their quest to discover the contents of the box, Jeremy and Lizzy learn that the value of objects comes from the memories and personal connections attached to them. The box itself is only an object, and its value initially comes from its association with Jeremy’s father. The mystery of the box’s contents is compelling to Jeremy because he knows it is a message from his father, whom he longs to speak to again. When the box turns out to contain only ordinary rocks, the message is driven home: Things have meaning not because of what they are but because of their power to symbolize connections to other people and to shared experiences.
From the moment the search begins, Jeremy is determined to find the keys and open the box because it’s what his father wanted him to do. Though his dad has been gone for years, Jeremy still feels a connection to him, and that connection gives value to both the quest and the box itself. Though Jeremy doesn’t know what is in the box or what value it might hold, this does not matter. The contents of the box are automatically valuable to him because they are from his father. Later, when Jeremy learns the entire quest was planned by his father and Mr. Oswald, he feels as though his father is watching over him. This makes everything Jeremy faces feel more meaningful to him. Not only did he learn and grow from the experiences, but he finally did open the box. The things he collected, both physical and spiritual, are important to him because they link him to his father and to his own arc as a person. The search itself is valuable to Jeremy as a source of connection to his father and to others in his community, and this personal, subjective value goes far beyond the objective value of anything that could be in the box.
The objects Jeremy and Lizzy deliver for Mr. Oswald each have a specific meaning to their owner, and these meanings too are inextricably tied to relationships. To Jeremy and Lizzy, the Winnie-the-Pooh book, the lamp, and the telescope are just objects, if interesting ones. To their owners, however, these objects call to specific moments in their lives and the relationships they gained or lost as a result of those moments. The book has worth to the woman because it reminds her of the friendship she lost and the choices she made, and in the present, it lets her look back at her life to find the meaning therein. For the man, the lamp symbolizes his ultimate choice to leave his material life behind and live a simple existence full of things and people that are worthwhile to him. His choice to give the lamp to Lizzy illustrates how emotional value changes over time. When he pawned it, the lamp held great value to him, but that value was monetary and superficial. Giving it to Lizzy brings it new value as a gift and as a symbol of how much he has changed. The telescope was always of great value to the scientist, but he gave it up to access experiences and relationships of even greater value, showing how value and meaning shift over time.
In Chapter 11 while Jeremy and Lizzy deliver the lamp, Jeremy asks the man whether the picture of a sunset on his wall has meaning, to which the man says, “[T[hat sunset will still shine just as surely, just as colorfully, whether it is shining on a wedding or a war” (155). By this, the man means that objects themselves don’t have meaning and that their worth is decided by context. This holds particularly true for the contents of the mysterious box. To Jeremy’s father, the rocks have meaning because each came from a special moment in his life. By extension, the rocks also have meaning to Jeremy and Lizzy because both feel so connected to Jeremy’s father. Though they are just ordinary rocks, their connection to Jeremy’s dad gives them enormous value to Jeremy and Lizzy.
Throughout the novel, value is shown to be subjective, based not on the rarity or monetary value of any object but on the memories attached to it. To live fully is to build up a storehouse of such memories and associations, making the material world meaningful by overlaying its connections.
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By Wendy Mass
