Orbiting Jupiter

“…since he left Stone Mountain, he won’t wear anything orange. He won’t let anyone stand behind him. He won’t let anyone touch him. He won’t go into rooms that are too small. And he won’t eat canned peaches.”

When Joseph’s trauma is triggered, his behavior can change drastically. While explaining these triggers to the Hurd family, Mrs. Stroud illustrates the caution they will have to take while fostering the boy. Mrs. Stroud’s description is the reader’s first impression of Joseph, setting an expectation of Joseph’s behavior and creating a baseline against which Joseph’s growth can appear.

“It was almost dawn when we went outside, Joseph and me. The peaks to the west were lit up and spilling some of the light down their sides and onto our fields, all harvested and turned and ready for the long winter. You could smell the cold air and the wood smoke. The pond had broken panes of ice on the edges, enough to annoy the geese…”

Orbiting Jupiter is set in winter, and the imagery of the season often tracks the journey of its characters. Here, Jack establishes the setting. Winter is a treacherous time in the context of the novel, and this paragraph highlights its beauty and its danger as the broken ice foreshadows tragedy.

“I looked behind me. He’d dropped his backpack and picked up a stone from the side of the road. He turned and lobbed it toward the bell tower of old First Congregational. I’d never heard that bell ring before.”

Joseph and Jack build several rituals together. The first is their daily walks to school, during which they often throw stones and snowballs at the church bell. Jack comes from a Christian family, and his parents would likely frown upon this activity, however throwing the stone symbolically opens Jack’s eyes to a larger world. The ringing of the bell draws attention to the fact that Joseph will alter the way Jack experiences the world.