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Pristine Chan

Ms. Jorgensen

English 10 Honors P. 5

18 September 2018

Contrasting Journeys to Self-Discovery

In the novels ​Orbiting Jupiter​ by Gary Schmidt and ​The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and

Mr. Hyde ​by Robert Louis Stevenson, Schmidt and Stevenson use similar themes and underlying

ideas in order to portray the comparable messages of self-discovery and reflecting on one’s

identity in order to overcome or grasp inner conflict. The two main protagonist of these novels

both face obstacles pertaining to overcoming inner conflict that ultimately leads them to the main

purpose of their hardships: self-enlightenment.

Gary Schmidt’s main protagonist, Joseph, endures various challenges and deals with

several issues from his past, resulting in further complications in his later life. As a result of

Joseph’s unstable family life and abusive relationship with his father (Schmidt 71), Jack’s lapses

of judgement ultimately led to him being a father at a young age. Karyl McBride Ph.D from “Do

You Feel Not Good Enough?” affirms, “In abusive families, or families with domestic violence,

the child does not understand why the adults are acting in horrible ways and not seeming to tune

into how that affects their children” (McBride 1). Throughout the course of the novel, Joseph

faces inner conflicts regarding his past, remaining fixated on reuniting with his daughter (Jupiter)

and the mother (Maddie). Joseph’s feeling of inadequacy and insufficiency in his life prevent

him from moving forward and being able to build substantial relationships with others; rather
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than coping with his problems rationally, he chooses to close himself off and obsess over the

unrealistic possibility of him raising a child and taking the role as a father figure at his age.

Likewise, Robert Louis Stevenson’s protagonist, Henry Jekyll, also experiences internal

conflicts that provoke a vital realization. Dr. Jekyll recognizes his dark tendencies, choosing to

conceal them and conform to “gentleman” societal standards; “Many a man would have even

blazoned such irregularities as I was guilty of; but from the high view that I had set before me, I

regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame” (Stevenson 67). Jekyll

successfully hides these “irregularities”; however, he took it to the extremes, consequently

secluding himself from his friends single handedly ruining his life. His downfall results in his

life-altering realization that you can't alter nature without severe consequences and the

realization that duality cannot be successfully achieved without repercussions.

In the conclusion of ​Orbiting Jupiter,​ the protagonist, Joseph, comes to a life altering

realization when he is introduced to the character Jack. Jack’s contrasting childhood and home

life opens Joseph’s eyes to the concept of stability and dependence. However, despite the fact

that Joseph had an assured chance of a better future, he was still set on revisiting his past

(Maddie and Jupiter). This results in Joseph losing touch with the full extent of the

transformative opportunities that were ahead of him. In​ Wherever You Go, There You Are ​by Jon

Kabat-Zinn, he corroborates this fact when stating, “We have got to pause in our experience long

enough to let the present moment sink in...only then can we accept the truth of this moment of

our life, learn from it, and move on. Instead, it often seems as if we are preoccupied with the

past, with what has already happened, or with a future that hasn’t arrived yet” (Kabat-Zinn 1).

Once Joseph resolves his issues with his past and reunites with Jack, Joseph dies before he can
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truly appreciate and value the promises of a new life that were presented to him, showing that the

present should have been cherished and dwelling in the past can come at a cost.

Comparable to this, Dr. Jekyll from ​Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde f​ aces similar conflicts that

eventually lead to his self-realization. Jekyll faced a feeling of scarcity in his life relating to his

lack of expression of his personality; he felt that society is not accepting enough to support his

dark tendencies. Subsequently, he irrationally ignores the consequences to his actions and makes

a rash decision to manipulate nature in order to achieve duality. Similar to what was mentioned,

the article “Self Discovery: The Ultimate Destination for Inner Exploration” echoes, “The

journey of self-discovery exposes the moral and monetary discipline of various periods… It

exhibits the physical and psychological dilemmas of people belonging to different kinds of

societies” (Kanchana 2). Jekyll’s split personality, Hyde, expectedly fell out of his control,

leading to his suicide. Before his ultimate death, Jekyll realizes that actions have consequences,

and that manipulating nature comes at a price. Jekyll writes, “I saw that, of the two natures that

contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be set to either, it was only

because I was radically both” he further asserts, “I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a

beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these elements” (Stevenson 62).

Both the stories ​Orbiting Jupiter​ and​ The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ​share

the same themes and ideas of self-realization and discovery when relating to the main

protagonists. Devi Kanchana sums it up well when saying, “The ultimate goal of self-realization

is to discover the fact about an individual's life and its relation to the world around them”

(Kanchana 1).
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Works Cited

Hatcher, Jeffrey, and Robert Louis Stevenson. ​Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde​. Dramatists Play Service,

2008.

Kabat-Zinn, Jon. ​Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life​.

Hachette Books, 2014.

McBride, Karyl. “Do You Feel Not Good Enough?” ​Psychology Today​, Sussex Publishers, 13

Oct. 2013,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-legacy-distorted-love/201410/do-you-feel-not-go

od-enough​. Accessed 10 September 2018.

“Self Discovery - The Ultimate Destination for Inner Exploration in Literature.” ​Ashvamegh

Indian Journal of English Literature​,​ 2​(21), 1. 13 Oct. 2016,

ashvamegh.net/self-discovery-ultimate-destination-inner-exploration-literature/.

Accessed 10 September 2018.

Schmidt, Gary D. ​Orbiting Jupiter​. Andersen Press, 2017.