The Caretaker: A Novel

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Parts 2-3

Parts 4-5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Themes

The Costs and Rewards of Devotion

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, child death, death by suicide, mental illness, and ableism.

Love and commitment impact several characters throughout the novel, suggesting that devotion to another person is admirable as long as it respects that person’s autonomy. The love between Jacon and Naomi is genuine and powerful. When forced to choose between maintaining a relationship with his parents and his marriage to Naomi, Jacob chose the latter. He finds his parents’ disapproval of Naomi misguided and rejected their attempt to use his inheritance to control his choices. His love for and commitment to Naomi outweigh any benefits that wealth might bring. His parents, in turn, have worked hard and made wise financial choices so that Jacob can live a prosperous life. They view his marriage to Naomi as a betrayal: Because she is perceived as belonging to a lower social stratum, they see his relationship with her as a rejection of the status they have worked to build. Like Jacob, Naomi has demonstrated the same kind of commitment by willingly marrying Jacob despite the loss of his future financial security. Her commitment to him extends beyond his (supposed) death, as Naomi is willing to risk violating the legal mandate of the Hamptons by visiting Jacob’s gravesite. In the same way, her seeking out opportunities for their child is a sacrifice that she feels she owes to Jacob for the sacrifices he was willing to make for Naomi. Because their devotion to one another is selfless, it is rewarded by the couple’s eventual reunion.

Blackburn, too, pays a heavy price for devotion. He honors his promise to Jacob to care for Naomi because Jacob has proven his own love and commitment to Blackburn. The “blood brother” oath that they entered into as children cemented Blackburn’s trust in Jacob and has also kindled in him a brotherly love for Jacob that is unshakeable. Indeed, Jacob’s friendship with Blackburn is unconditional—and unpopular since many in the town shun Blackburn due to his disability and facial paralysis from polio. Though the Hamptons threaten Blackburn with the loss of his job, he never ceases to act in the best interest of Jacob and, by extension, Naomi. In many instances, this means maintaining respect for the bond between Jacob and Naomi, even as Blackburn himself develops affection toward Naomi. When Naomi’s father offers Blackburn both a job and the opportunity to marry Naomi in exchange for Blackburn’s complicity in his plan to keep Naomi away from Jacob and the Hamptons permanently, Blackburn honors his promise to Jacob, refusing this opportunity. His honorable behavior and dedication to his friend pay off in the end, as Blackburn is able to take on a better job on the Clarke farm.

The Dangers of Prioritizing Appearance Over Truth

Daniel and Cora Hampton place such a high value on their social reputation that after their son has married a partner whom they consider beneath them, they are willing to risk their relationship with him to avoid the loss of social standing. To undo what they view as an unsuitable marriage, they are willing to lie not only to their son but also to many others, and they have few qualms about this decision even as it causes great pain to themselves and others. This sequence of events illustrates the danger that comes with placing too much value on appearances and reputation.

As they set their plan in motion, Daniel and Cora are keenly aware that they are acting rashly and without taking time to think through all the potential repercussions. Their business success, and the respect they enjoy in the town, leads them to believe that their wants and preferences are more important than those of other people. They go to great lengths to ensure that their lies are never discovered, even taking legal action to prevent the Clarke family from attempting to contact anyone in Blowing Rock in the future. These intensive efforts to hide the truth suggest that Daniel and Cora are used to manipulating appearances to preserve their reputation. Their actions cause anguish not only for Jacob—who is led to believe that his beloved wife and unborn child are dead—but also for Daniel and Cora, whose relationship with their son is severely damaged. When they begin to worry that their lies will be discovered, Daniel asserts that even if they are found out, it will all have been worth it to have had Jacob back in their lives even for a short time. This statement makes clear how deeply they love and miss Jacob, but they could have had him in their lives all along had they not interfered with his love for Naomi. Instead, their actions show that they care far more about the opinions of strangers than about their own happiness or that of their son.

The selfish nature of these lies leads to their eventual undoing, as other characters—Blackburn and, to a degree, Dr. Egan—become suspicious of the story that the Hamptons have given. Blackburn is dismayed by the callous way that Naomi’s burial is handled, as Daniel not only fashions a crude casket for her but also refuses to allow a funeral service to be held. Daniel is unable or unwilling to afford his lie the respect that would be due a real person; he cannot bring himself to hold a funeral for an empty casket. He treats it as an object because it is an object. In effect, his knowledge of the hidden truth prevents him from keeping up appearances effectively. This poor performance is indirectly responsible for allowing the truth to eventually come to light. Indeed, the novel argues that because their deception is motivated by such selfish beliefs, the truth will ultimately prevail and those who have made selfless and moral actions will be rewarded.

It is because Blackburn takes his commitment to Jacob so seriously that he pursues the truth. Jacob has earned Blackburn’s loyalty by treating him as a friend when others shunned him because of his appearance. For this reason, Blackburn is willing to risk his own livelihood to prove his suspicions that Naomi’s child is alive. His strict adherence to his morals bears out when he resists the temptation of accepting Mr. Clarke’s offer to keep Jacob’s survival a secret so that Blackburn can marry Naomi himself. This strict moral code serves as a foil between Blackburn and Daniel and Cora. The novel’s ending illustrates the lasting harm that can come from valuing appearances over the truth: When Jacob and Naomi move out of state to live a life without contact with his parents, Blackburn hints at the possibility that the Hamptons have been led to believe that Jacob has died by suicide. By seeking to preserve appearances at the expense of their son's happiness, the Hamptons have only harmed themselves in the long run.

The Importance of Confronting Grief

Both Jacob and his parents have experienced profound loss—Jacob with the (purported) death of his wife and unborn child and his parents with the deaths of their young children. Their ways of dealing with grief, however, are diametrically opposed. While Jacob honors his grief and refuses to forget his love for Naomi, his parents urge him to move on as quickly as possible. This is the approach they took when their children died—the only way they know how to deal with difficulty is to sweep it under the rug, an approach that has devastating consequences for them, their son, and the woman he loves.

Jacob’s sorrow at the loss of Naomi is compounded by his parents’ refusal to honor his grief and the post-traumatic stress he suffers from his war-time experiences. Concerned with success and respectability above all, they wish for him to forget all his pain and get back to the business of life as fast as possible. They enlist a fellow veteran, Seth Nolan, to reinforce this message. Nolan knows what it’s like to live with PTSD, but he encourages Jacob to throw himself into work to take his mind off his bad memories. Likewise, he urges him to socialize and meet new potential romantic partners, telling him that this is what Naomi would have wanted. Jacob refuses to numb his grief and addresses it by visiting Naomi’s grave frequently and talking about her with Blackburn. It is this resistance to his parents’ attempted erasure of Naomi that allows Jacob to persevere.

Jacob’s parents believe that they are doing what is best for him. Cora urges him to forget Naomi and place his memories of her completely in the past. She speaks of taking this approach with her own grief when she ceased visiting her daughters’ gravesites. For Cora, the emotions of sadness were too powerful to deal with. In order to maintain the successful, economically productive life that had become her identity, she had to ignore these feelings. However, the novel argues that this approach has only embittered Cora and Daniel—Jacob notes that Naomi, too, has suffered the death of her mother at a young age but has not allowed it to harden her against the world.

Indeed, Naomi also grieves for the supposed death of Jacob, whom she loved and with whom she had planned a future. Like Jacob’s parents, she perseveres in her personal goals despite this loss. Rather than allowing herself to feel defeated, she continues her pursuit of education, studying for the GED and considering possible routes for a career path. Unlike them, however, she does not attempt to forget her grief. In working to build a good life for her daughter, she feels that she is honoring Jacob’s memory. She visits his gravesite despite the risk of legal repercussions for doing so. Though she mourns Jacob, her life remains a purposeful one, and her love for her daughter motivates her and gives her inner strength. As Blackburn testifies throughout the novel, the ritual of mourning the dead is an important part of the grieving process, and Naomi is determined—despite the legal mandate that the Hamptons have enacted—to visit Jacob’s gravesite. Her willingness to risk her own future is performed out of love and commitment to Jacob and a refusal to let the Hamptons dictate her future.