Nieves 1

Lily Nieves

Jorgensen

English 10 H P. 1

23 September 2018

Friendships

Good friendships always push people to do more and it enhances your health. Everyone

has a good friend that will help them and have your back. Good friendships are a big part of

people's lives. This explains why people make friendships and how they become their motivators

(Levine 1).

In ​Orbiting Jupiter ​by Gary Schmidt, it shares the friendship between the two characters,

Jack and Joseph and it shows how the friendship started and how they care for each other. This

friendship easily starts when they are walking to school in the cold weather, “‘You should have

stayed on the bus. Maybe’” (Schmidt 13). This is where they started to connect. After a while,

throughout the book they start to be good friends and have each others back. Jack comes running

in, “‘Watching as Joseph got slammed again and again’” (Schmidt 93). Joseph is getting into a

fight and he's losing real bad and then Jack steps in, “‘I pushed off from the lockers, took three

quick steps, and slammed intos Jays Perkins back’” (Schmidt 94). Jack comes in the locker room

and stands up for Joseph and beats Jay off of him. This moment brought them together and this is

where Joseph starts to care for Jack with him stating, “‘Don't let them get behind you,ever he

said’” (Schmidt 103). Joseph is giving him a tip of advice just in case if he's in trouble and if

Joseph wasn't around to help. Jack is Joseph's motivator in this novel since Jack is trying to make

Joseph more open and not scared of anything. He’s helping him be a better person, “‘Joseph
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came up slowly. Let’s go, he said almost whispered’” (Schmidt 175). Joseph took a chance for

his life, so Jack and his family don’t get hurt from his drunk and abusive father. If it wasn’t for

Jack befriending him in the beginning, Joseph probably wouldn't have done anything. Joseph

sticks with him no matter what happened.

In ​The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, t​ here is also a friendship between the

main characters, Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Utterson. Unlike ​Orbiting Jupiter​ this friendship has lasted

since they were young. In present time, Mr.Utterson and Mr. Enfield are going on a walk and see

an ugly short man trample over a little girl, “‘... for the man trampled calmly over the child's

body and left her screaming on the ground’” (Stevenson 8). Mr. Utterson later gets a document

and its Dr.Jekyll’s Will, “‘... all his possessions were to pass into the hands of his friend and his

benefactor, Edward Hyde’” (Stevenson 13). He then opens it and finds out that he doesn't get his

belongings even though he and Jekyll are good friends. This moment drives the plot forward

since he thinks something is wrong with Dr.Jekyll. Jekyll trusts Utterson more than any other

person in his life because he stated, “‘I would trust you before any man alive’” (Stevenson 24).

This also shows how Jekyll is Utterson's motivator. Even though Jekyll refuses the offer of

knowing about Hyde, he would still investigate since they are good friends and because he

knows Dr.Jekyll needs his help.

Both of these novels have their similarities in plot. They of course involve friendship and

they sadly both end with tragic deaths. In ​Orbiting Jupiter, ​his drunk father drove really fast and

rammed through fences in a lake, “‘They didn't get the pickup out of the river for two days’”

(Schmidt 177). It was ironic since almost the same thing happened to Joseph happened to a

yellow dog on the icy lake, “‘The yellow dog was out farther into the ice Than Joseph, but not
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much, and it had fallen through and its eyes were huge and it was grabbing on its front paws,

scratching, looking for something to hold on to’” (Schmidt 37). The yellow dog died in the lake

struggling and Joseph could have been struggling too in that truck with his father. In ​The Strange

​ r.Jekyll died due to Hyde killing ‘Jekyll’ since Hyde wanted to

Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, D

be his own self. Later on that doesn't end well either, “‘Jekyll (who was composite) now with a

greedy gusto, projected and shared in the pleasures and adventures of Hyde…’” (Stevenson 77).

Another similarity these novels both showed is a quest of the friendships they had. In

Orbiting Jupiter, ​Joseph ran away to find his daughter, Jupiter. Jack met up by the school buses

and he wasn't there. Jack was worried since they didn't talk to each other all day, “‘We didn't talk

at supper. Or though homework that night. We didn't talk when I went to bed and Joseph stood in

the cold dark, watching for Jupiter. Or breakfast. Or at the bus. In any of our classes’” (Schmidt

136). Jack and his dad went looking for him and starting asking around in Brunswick where

Joseph mentioned where Jupiter might be. Later on Jack and Joseph meet up at an librarians

house because Jack found out that the librarian is the foster parent. Joseph is there at her house

already, “‘Joseph's at your house’” (Schmidt 157). This shows how their journey led them to the

librarian, who was the foster parent of Jupiter at the time. In ​The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and

Mr.Hyde, ​Utterson goes on a journey to find out who Mr.Hyde is and why he's doing what he's

doing. It all starts when Utterson questions Dr.Jekyll's judgement since he signed everything to

Mr.Hyde and not him, “‘I thought it was madness, he said, as he replaced the obnoxious paper in

the safe, and now I begin to fear it is disgrace’” (Stevenson 14). This leads to a journey of

Utterson finding out everything, “‘Mr.Utterson reflected: and then, raising his head, If you will

come with me in my cab, he said, I think I can take you to his house’” (Stevenson 28). This is
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where his investigation starts. Utterson is at Jekyll's House since Poole, Jekyll’s Butler, is the

one that asked for his help. He thinks that the person in the laboratory is not his master,

Dr.Jekyll, “‘Ah, that's not Jekyll's voice- its Hyde’s! Cried Utterson. Down with the door,

Poole!’”(Stevenson 53). They soon realize that it's not some voice but it's none other than Mr.

Hyde and then they break down the door. They get inside and see Hyde’s body on the ground

with a crushed phial in his hand. Utterson also sees that he's wearing clothes that are way to big

for his body. Awhile later that same night they find out that Jekyll and Mr.Hyde are both dead

since Hyde wanted to get rid of Dr.Jekyll and just be his own person. He didn't know that ‘killing

Jekyll’ would also kill himself.

In both ​Orbiting Jupiter ​and ​The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, ​they include

very good friendships even though they both ended tragically and had a quest in both plots.

Throughout both novels it shows how friendships can motivate them to help when they are in

need and how they can be motivators too.

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Works Cited

Levine, Saul. “The Importance of Friendship.” ​Psychology Today​, Sussex Publishers, 1 Feb.

2016, ​https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/our-emotional-footprint/201602/the-

Importance-friendship. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.

MacMillan, Amanda. “Friendship: Friends May Be More Important Than Family.” ​Time​, 7 June

2017, time.com/4809325/friends-friendship-health-family/. Accessed 29 Sept. 2018.

O'Hagan, Andrew. “Reflections on True Friendship.” ​New York Times Style Magazine,​ 23 Nov.

2016, ​https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/t-magazine/friendship-​social-media.html.

Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.

Schmidt, Gary D. ​Orbiting Jupiter​. Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. ​The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde​. New English Library,

1974.