Bloody Jack's advice

In chapter 6, after hanging out with his friends, Jimmy run home but then rush off to see Bloody Jack at the wharf. Bloody Jack is different from Jimmy’s school mates. He is old and a little bit queer. For some reason, Jimmy finds it more comfortable to be sitting with Bloody Jack than being at his own house, where he seems to be invisible.

Bloody Jack is an experienced man. Jimmy often sit and talk to him about his life and what is going on. Jimmy is confused and troubled because of the situation back home. Bloody Jack insists Jimmy to “pretend” that he “doesn’t care” about it at all even though Jimmy “couldn’t help it”. In my personal opinion, I don’t think this is a good advice because anger is a slowly ticking bomb. Telling a kid to compress his feelings and ignore the word is not healthy at all. Till a point where he can’t control it any further, his emotions will burst out at once, causing even more traumatic problems. Even though Jimmy says that he’s mature for his age, he is still only 11 at the time. His emotions are vulnerable. Especially when we consider the fact that no one is around to teach him how to deal with them. I think it is quite irresponsible for Bloody Jack to give Jimmy that sort of advice.

It may be that Bloody Jack has forgotten or he doesn’t want to remind himself of his own issues. He took his own advice and stopped caring. He should know better than any one that it will not lead to a bright future. May be Bloody Jack did not see the situation that way, which would be why he suggested it to Jimmy. This advice that Bloody Jack has given to Jimmy may work for a short period of time but for long it will create a total negative effect.

What would have worked better is that Bloody Jack explaining briefly why his parents act the way they do. Jimmy is 11 but he is strong and mature enough to receive an explanation from an adult. He doesn’t necessarily need to know the detail, for example the abortion, but he needs someone to tell him that it is not at all his fault. That way, Jimmy can open up his mind and not be angry at him self and everything else so often.