Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

By beginning with Jeremy and Lizzy about to open the box, Mass introduces the book’s major theme: Life as a Journey of Discovery. The novel adopts the form of a hero’s journey—a narrative trope in which the protagonist must undertake a perilous journey to find or uncover something of great value. As in most examples of this trope, the journey itself turns out to be of even greater value—for the unexpected lessons it teaches and the connections it facilitates—than its ostensible objective.

Chapter 1 begins the journey with the delivery of the box as an interruption in Jeremy’s carefully controlled, predictable life. Having lost his father suddenly to a car accident five years before, Jeremy depends on a predictable routine for emotional stability, and he fears surprises. He’s been looking forward to an uneventful summer of hanging out with his best friend Lizzy, and the arrival of the mysterious box threatens to rupture the bubble of stability he has created for himself. It takes a lot to break him out of that routine. A mysterious box alone would likely not be enticing enough, but the fact that it comes from his father means that he cannot refuse the quest, thus propelling him on his journey of discovery and highlighting another theme: Finding Value in Relationships. Jeremy has no idea what is in the box, but because his father left it for him, it automatically has value to him. Any connection to his father is a source of value, and that value will only grow as he comes to understand why his father left this strange gift and what it meant to him.

Almost immediately, the search for the missing keys propels Jeremy out of his comfort zone, forcing him to confront the myriad possibilities that a crowded city brings with it. When he and Lizzy bring the box to a lock shop, the shop owner tries to reassure them by saying, “A lot can happen in a month” (38), a declaration that, to Jeremy, sounds like both a promise and a threat. As Jeremy and Lizzy react to the surprises the journey throws at them, they begin to understand The Interplay of Chance and Choice: Though they cannot control or predict everything that happens to them (any more than Jeremy’s father could predict or prevent his death) they can choose how they react to what happens, and these choices will shape their lives and determine the outcome of the quest. Choices made by others also have a determinative impact on Jeremy and Lizzy’s experience: In truth, Mr. Oswald has the keys and makes them accessible to Jeremy and Lizzy toward the end of the book, but since the kids don’t know this, they believe they are on a wild hunt for something they don’t know how to find. As a result, they travel out of their comfort zones—Jeremy by traversing the city and Lizzy by looking within herself—in an effort to find the keys and open the box by Jeremy’s birthday. The obstacles they face show how dedicated they are to the mission and one another. Both face fears and are forced to look at themselves in ways they never have, showing the power of friendship and what it means to care for someone.

The visits to the lock shop and flea markets in Chapters 3 and 4 are the beginning of the journey and represent the systematic way Jeremy and Lizzy initially approach the mission. The lock shop is a logical first step because it is the place to go for lock or key needs. The kids later learn that the lock shop owner was in on the mission and intentionally didn’t help the kids, which shows it is difficult to know the truth about other people. Jeremy is unaware that the shop owner is in on the secret, and he believes the man is simply out of his element. The flea market similarly shows Jeremy and Lizzy hunting for a solution. Unlike the lock shop owner, the people at the flea market are not in on the secret—even Jeremy’s father’s careful planning cannot overcome the element of chance. The people Jeremy and Lizzy meet and their interactions result in unpredictable ways from the choices the kids make. The couple in Chapter 4 is not part of the plan, but Jeremy still takes something from the conversation—a physical key in addition to a greater understanding of how keys may all look different but ultimately serve the same function.

The box promises, tantalizingly, to contain the meaning of life, and in these chapters, Jeremy and Lizzy begin discovering that meaning—though they don’t know it yet. In keeping with the trope of the hero’s quest, the meaning is not in the objective but in the journey itself, as they learn about Finding Value in Relationships. Their interactions with the different people in Chapters 3 and 4 show how everyone gives different value to the same things. Keys—a ubiquitous and easily overlooked category of object—provide an early example of this lesson. Jeremy and Lizzy have never given them much thought until they need four specific ones. The lock shop’s owner works with keys for a living, and the people at the flea market collect keys for their own reasons. Whether it’s the couple who just collected them for fun or the girl who uses keys in art projects, the keys hold a certain worth to each person, showing how people place meaning upon the things they deem important. As the story progresses, Jeremy’s relationship to keys and their importance changes, and he learns to appreciate the objects for the worth they bring. Jeremy also sees keys for what they truly are—just objects—and realizes that the meaning of life is greater than what four keys can unlock. Together, these perspectives make the box both the most and least important part of the novel.