The Jacket

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Danger of Making Assumptions

Bias is defined as a disproportionate level of judgment toward someone without reason. Implicit bias is an unconscious form of bias influenced by societal views, and The Jacket explores how the biases we don’t know we hold can be harmful, both to ourselves and others. Through Phil’s character arc and his relationship with Daniel, the novella emphasizes the importance of understanding and overcoming the biased assumptions we make.

Phil’s initial judgment of Daniel shows the trouble assumptions can cause. Due to a combination of factors (including upbringing and societal messaging), Phil has unconscious negative attitudes toward Black people that lead him to believe the only way Daniel could have gotten the jacket was to steal it. In his limited understanding, there can’t be another explanation. Once Phil calms down and learns who Daniel’s grandmother is, the truth becomes clear, showing how the automatic nature of implicit bias prevents us from thinking rationally. Phil was already under stress when he saw Daniel wearing the jacket (worrying about finding his brother and being late for class), and this stress, along with the brain’s tendency to categorize information, triggered Phil’s unreasonable reaction. If he had stopped to think, he may have talked to Daniel first and asked about the jacket. Instead, he made assumptions that started a fight and hurt Daniel’s feelings. Letting implicit bias control us can lead to strife, both internal and external, that could be avoided by seeking first to understand and to unpack the biases that lead to unreasonable reactions.

In Chapter 2 while Phil tries to figure out how he feels about the confrontation in Chapter 1, he compares his family situation to what he knows of Daniel’s at the time. When he learns that his family’s cleaning lady is Daniel’s grandmother, Phil makes assumptions about Daniel’s life: his family must be worse off than his own because otherwise Daniel’s grandmother wouldn’t work for them. When Phil goes to Daniel’s house in Chapter 6, he realizes that Daniel’s house is as nice as his own. The experience challenges his assumptions about Blackness, “blue collar” jobs, and poverty and allows him to reevaluate those assumptions in light of his experiences.

The end of the novel shows that the best way to overcome assumptions resulting from bias is to face them. On his journey to Daniel’s house, Phil travels through his own white neighborhood, through an area of town where people of various ethnicities live, and to Daniel’s primarily Black neighborhood, where Phil is surprised to learn Black people live similarly to him. Until this journey, Phil’s bias remained intact because he knew nothing about Daniel’s life outside of the fact they attend the same school, so his bias filled in the gaps with stereotypes based on what his upbringing and his community taught him. Only when he enters Daniel’s (and his grandmother’s) world does he come to understand that “Others” (Black or otherwise) are more like him than they are different. Watching Daniel play a familiar video game and eating lunch at Daniel’s house that consists of food Phil has eaten many times at home creates a commonality with Daniel that removes the assumptions Phil’s bias was based on. Without these assumptions, Phil is able to build a new image of Daniel and to understand that lumping people together into a group that’s “Other” is inaccurate and unfair. Tearing down the “us and them” mentality forces us to overcome our bias and see people as individuals.

The Harmful Effects of Racism

Racism comes in many forms, each producing a unique set of challenges for those at the receiving end. The Jacket explores the effects racism can have on a personal and societal level and highlights the long-term harm done to those at the receiving end of racist attitudes and structures. Through Phil’s thoughts and the interactions between the characters, the novel shows the problems of individual and institutional racism. For example, while Phil is walking home from school in Chapter 3, he is struck by the thought that the Black women don’t look like they belong in the shopping area. The thought horrifies him because he’s always thought he was devoid of racism. With this realization in mind, he thinks about accusing Daniel of stealing the jacket, wondering “if he had looked like he belonged in that jacket, would I have said he stole it?” (36).

When implicit bias is involved, holding racist attitudes does not always mean someone hates a given group. In Chapter 2, Phil reflects that “I don’t care what color anybody is. I never pay attention to that. I’m friends with everybody” (18). While Phil’s mind is in the right place, his actions toward Daniel show that his subconscious is not on the same page. Phil doesn’t hate Daniel or any Black person, but he still holds subtle racist beliefs and attitudes because he’s a white kid who lives in a white neighborhood whose contact with Black people is either in the microcosm of school (boys on the basketball team) or home (his family’s cleaning lady). Further, this kind of thinking leads to individuals ignoring or not realizing the racist words and behaviors they exhibit. Phil’s belief that he isn’t racist because he doesn’t have a problem with anyone keeps him from seeing how accusing Daniel of stealing the jacket is based in racist attitudes. Phil shows how hatred doesn’t need to be present for racism to be a factor in how people treat those they deem different.

Racism is just as harmful when accompanied by hate. In Chapter 5 when Daniel’s grandmother arrives at Phil’s house, she greets Phil with a smile and calls him “Phil,” his nickname. Then, when she greets Phil’s father, she tones down her emotions, quiets her voice, and addresses him in a much more formal manner. Phil’s father receives her greeting with a quiet coldness. Phil’s dad doesn’t hide either his racist attitudes or disregard for Daniel’s grandmother and, by extension, for Black people in general. As a result, Daniel’s grandmother has trained herself to tiptoe around him so she doesn’t offend him and trigger a negative or possibly dangerous response. Daniel’s grandmother knows her own worth, but she also knows that Phil’s father is in a position of power. Though very different from the harm done by implicit racist attitudes, outright hatred does its own harm by forcing people to behave a certain way or risk negative consequences.

Racism also permeates various levels of how society works. Institutionalized racism is the perpetuation of racism through political and economic systems that cater more to white people than to people of color. A good example of institutional racism exists in Phil’s nearly all-white neighborhood, an artifact left over from early 20th-century red-lining laws, which sanctioned segregation and racism in housing policy. While institutionalized racism isn’t explored in The Jacket, the racist attitudes shown in the characters is a result of how institutionalized racism contributes to implicit bias. Phil’s jumping to the conclusion that Daniel stole the jacket is partly informed by institutionalized racism. Black people, in particular Black men, are more likely to be arrested because society has reinforced the belief, through media and other avenues, that Black people are more likely to commit crimes. From absorbing this institutionalized bias, Phil has come to believe the same thing, so when he sees Daniel, a Black kid, wearing the jacket, Phil accuses him without thinking. Since Phil later sees the flaw in his actions, it is clear he doesn’t feel this way about Daniel, meaning that institutionalized racism informed his reaction. The presence of institutionalized racism in a society causes people to be brought up with a preset system of beliefs that, if left unchallenged, results in different groups automatically being treated a certain way based on the color of their skin.

Racism is not always intentional, but this doesn’t make its effects any less harmful. Whether conscious or subconscious, racisms create a disparity in which marginalized groups are left at a disadvantage, both personally and societally. By identifying our own biases, implicit or otherwise, and helping to restore a balance among people, we work to overcome our own prejudices, as well as create a world more equitable for all.

Blackness as “Other”

Our understanding of our surroundings changes as we grow. Phil’s understanding of his own world is disrupted in Chapter 3. As he walks the familiar path home from school, he notices things about his neighborhood that he didn’t before, specifically that almost everyone who lives there is white. Whiteness is his default. The homogeneity of his neighborhood has never seemed odd to him because he sees the nonwhite kids at his school a few hours a day and then doesn’t think about them after they get on a bus and return to their neighborhoods. Phil’s implicit bias has triggered an “us and them” mentality, where “us” includes people who look like Phil and “them” or “the other” are people who don’t. Phil defines himself (and, thus, “us”) as people who look like they belong wearing his jacket. Since Daniel is Black, he falls into Phil’s “other” category of people who don’t look like they belong in the jacket.

More broadly, Phil subconsciously categorizes Blackness as “Other” because Black people don’t live in his neighborhood or ride his bus to school; they aren’t an integral part of his world Phil, other than as basketball teammates, as basketball players on TV, and as housekeepers.

Following this realization, Phil’s all-white neighborhood no longer seems like just the way things are and instead feels like a place that welcomes only white people. Phil questions whether his neighborhood is mainly white by coincidence or somehow by design. The neighborhood’s appearance in his mind has irrevocably changed due to an event that has altered how he views the world. Phil learns his worldview has been limited and there is only so much he can learn without seeking out different perspectives. By expanding his understanding to incorporate others’ (Daniel’s and his grandmother’s) experiences, Phil learns how other people’s realities don’t necessarily match his own, and his reality isn’t the only one.