#litterati

New Years resolutions?

Why not “pick up” a new habit and use Litterati (Google Play) (App Store) to pick up and capture litter!

New activity list everyday (most picks)

Costs you nothing, gets you outside

Create helpful data, locations, type of trash

Best of all: help Mother Nature 🌬

(Not sponsored! I genuinely love and use the app for quite some time now 🥰)

Facts:

Abandoned by his father as an infant

Grew up with a neglectful mother

His mother dealt with minor alcohol dependency throughout his childhood

mother dated “losers, “deadbeats” giving an unstable childhood.

Seemingly smoked from a youngish age, and found taking beer as minor normal behaviour for him

Was sent to live with an uncle he had little of a relationship with

was continuously hated by the town

formed a bond with Rory and became very attached

Struggles in school while understanding most of the material.

Sticks to solitary behaviours

Has very limited social interaction. Only seeming to form connections with few people.

Mother goes through periods of radio silence.

Finds he would rather be in stars hollow than his original home (NYC)

Breaks taboos and rules often.

Runs away when faced when he fails high school and fights with his uncle

Searches for belonging with his biological father

Was willing to come to celebrate his mother’s marriage, even when he was wary of her husband and didn’t have a trusting relationship with his mother.

finds himself through creating and working within the art scene

Analysis:

Jess is a character who simultaneously is presented as a cliche Bad Boy, and love interest in many ways, but is also a character who breaks the dichotomy  of Lorelai’s world vs Emily’s world, he isn’t either of these worlds which makes him a standout character even if he isn’t a lead for the majority of the show. But in a thematic and plot way, he is seamless in the story. His plot is reminiscent of many of the full-time leads, and struggles with many of the same problems of our leads but coming from a different background and world.

When the show starts Jess is already jaded and grown in ways he shouldn't be yet. He's experienced a lot of material and emotional hardships with no one even attempting to help him understand. He's casual about drinking, smoking, sex, and having to support himself. But he isn't exactly mature, he does all these things without being able to process them or react to new stress well. He is still a teen who feels he has nothing. I think he experiences something a lot of kids who experience unstable childhoods do simultaneously having to be older than you are, but not getting there in a way that allows it to be true maturity. Often struggling once you are a real adult to having the context to work with what you know.

His relationship with Rory is one that is s central point in both of their narratives. It’s sweet and cute at a lot of times, romantic in the way only happens with people who aren’t yet adults tragic in how it ends.  Their relationship was also kind of cursed from the start having formed while Rory was still in love with someone else. The relationship also is plagued with problems in the form of neither of them knowing how to communicate. Jess is working through everything from his childhood, and Rory has a warped vision of relationships she can’t push through. Jess is also overly attached to Rory because he’s the only person she even likes, and the only person who shows open affection for him. The first end to the story is a kind bittersweet tragedy, it’s ar a crossroads point in time for both of them.  It’s done beautifully with Jess knows this is goodbye and Rory I think kind know too, she’s not surprised he cut and run, though she is of course hurt.

After he runs away he stays in love with her but doesn’t ever properly communicate. He is still used to cutting and running, and Rory is tired of being the one left behind. This is exemplified in the scenes where he admits he loves her but neither of them knows what to do with it, then when he asks her to run away with him she can’t trust him. Then at the bookstore, we notice he still loves her, but she doesn’t love him. This clearly hurts jess, but by that point, he has a life to fall back on. But their relationship did change them for the better Jess references her being the only one who really believed in him, and He pushes Rory back into college. His reality check helps remind Rory that she isn’t only a Gilmore like her grandparents but also a Gilmore like her mother. Reminds her of her dreams and talent. He pushes her to try and not let Emily mould her into what she wants her to be. In A Year In The Life, we see him again help Rory find her way, his ability to be a foil to her erratic way of viewing the world is even stronger here as he has been in a stable life for a while, and he still cares for her quite a bit.

Jess’s relationship with Luke is the second most pivotal during the story. It’s an extremely dysfunctional relationship. This comes from Jess never having had a real parent figure he can’t accept Luke’s attempts to support him. Luke has never been a father before and having stunted emotional communication make it hard for him to articulate his thoughts. He can only show his care through actions. Buying him nicotine patches, building him a room, bringing him back from new york and trying to get him to stay in school. Another factor in the struggles they have is Luke is equally connected to Lorelai & Rory. He considers Rory his responsibility as much as Jess, even taking “her side” after the car accident. Their relationship does form into a deeper connection after Jess starts to find his way and appreciate what his uncle meant to do. When Luke visits him at his job and then when Jess visits in AYITL we see that they are able to truly connect as they both learn to work on their struggles. We also see through that Jess still has his characteristic slightly cynical view on the world easily assuming Lorelai is leaving Luke instead of trying to have Luke just ask her what's wrong. Though he does still come to visit him before the wedding showing he does support Luke and Lorelai's wedding even if he and Lorelai were never best friends. 

As for his mother Liz, by the point, he enters the show she has sent him away instead of dealing with his mental health and behavioural issues. He even only calls her by her first name and doesn’t really try and repair the relationship even when he comes for her wedding, it’s clearly based around Luke wanting him there. Then even after he comes from her wedding she never tries to involve him in the future up to him never meeting his half-sister Dula. She is clearly a neglectful mother, not out of any kind of malice but by never being able to put him before her own whims. She dated around, married multiple people they all describe as loser and deadbeats, not getting to know jess as a person and struggling with implied alcohol addiction (ex: she has only ever been sober for one wedding). This affects him greatly and a large part of his character is learning what to do with this. In AYITL Jess explains he has to go help his mother and sister after they joined a cult, within the narrative, it comes across as mostly an explanation for Jess leaving and where the other characters are. However this raises a question of how much connection Jess has to his mother and sister at this point, and it shows he might have taken up Luke's role of bailing Liz out now that he's an adult. 

Lorelai and Jess are generally antagonistic most of the time, though she does work to apologise when Rory is in love with them. Their visceral reactions based on their similarities not based on differences. Neither of them grew up in a loving household, neglect and poverty in Jess’s case and psychological and emotional abuse for Lorelai. Jess is a lot like a young Lorelai trying to do anything to rebel from the status quo, he acts as a mirror to her past mistakes and some of her personal issues. Jess dislikes her she’s just another judgmental adult, she actually does understand what he’s going for trying to connect with a teen like that doesn’t work right off the bat, they have to see it. She isn’t actually thrown off by him being rude that isn’t her problem, she only really gets defensive when he attacks her relationships and motives. Then he worries he might hurt her daughter and friend also.

I do think Jess is being a jerk in their conversation in Nick & Nora/Sid & Nancy with her because he didn’t want to be there. But I don’t read him assuming she is sleeping with luke is just wanting to be a jerk, I think that was honestly what he assumes. In Jess’s eyes that would be bad and the only reasons, someone would view another person as that good. People dating and marrying his mother was destabilizing form as a kid I think in his mind if Lorelai was that to Luke it would just follow the pattern.

He is averse to Stars Hollow style of life, but he also seems to want the security of that lifestyle. Even choosing to come back after returning to New York for a period of time. He wants to be close to Rory again hoping she would choose him, and he is going back to the only stability he’s ever had.

The rest of the town generally hates him because he pushes back on many of the assumptions they have with life.  He doesn’t want to be part of the town and doesn’t believe in the small town interconnection. Jess doesn’t believe that the way stars hollow is a family is worth people being nosy or wanting him to be someone he isn’t. None of the town regulars cares about him, takes his motivations into account, or listens to Rory or Luke when they say he isn’t the worst bad guy. Dean and he are rivals for Rory’s affection, Jess usually pissing Dean off in the process.

The only other person who likes him at all is his girlfriend Shane, but their relationship is shallow and I think they both knew that. Jess dates her I think because he came back to Stars Hollow to not be alone, he assumed Rory wanted him as well. But Rory is gone for the whole summer cutting him off, so he hangs out with someone who will pay him attention. They also do a lot of PDA and possibly go further it's not clear again I think it's some form of connection that doesn't include his emotions. Shane doesn't really seem all that upset that there is definitely an aspect of their relationship that is showing off for Rory. She doesn't like it, but i don't think she's as hurt as she could be becuase i don't think she loved jess also seeing it as just some fun. This relationship also doesn't make him anymore liked in town, or give him a connection to Stars Hollow. 

Jess seems to simultaneously be bored in school but also struggles to view himself as adequate.  He has no drive to finish school and cuts and runs instead of facing fallout, being pushed over the edge when he feels like Luke is angry with him too. He doesn’t ever flex the intelligence he has or skills with writing till the end. This is stated to be because of boredom and wanting money, I also think that he probably missed things in school. People who have unstable childhoods often miss multiple days in school, struggle to focus while in school, and may find it to feel impractical with so much else going on. Even if someone could understand and excel when given the information you can miss lessons that are hard to make up. As you get older there become things teachers assume you know, particularly in math, science and foreign language courses.

His lack of self-esteem often makes him rejects attention while also seeming to really want healthy connections. Or he experiences an obsessive connection as he does with Rory. This also plays into not always paying attention to what he needs and not believing he can be more than other people assume he is.

Jess acts out from wanting to express his anger which is then fed by the town anger and rejection of his presence. He does stupid stunts and fights with the people he loves. It’s a think a way to express anger and somewhat to get attention (usually Rory’s or Luke’s) he does want someone to care but doesn’t know.

Jess makes mistakes that hurt Luke And Rory. With Rory, some top examples are stealing her bracelet, not communicating with her and leaving without ever talking to her.  With Luke, the mistake is mostly mutual neither of them know how to show or accept affection from the other. Jess usually resorting to trying to piss off his uncle and Luke not figuring out how to deal with issues before he reaches a breaking point. These problems are greatly connected to his trauma but are still things he should have tried to work on.

Jess is a character who I find is either demonized or over-romanticized. I think what both of these reads mistakenly view him as only a romance character, basing almost their entire read of him through a high school romance or Nicholas Sparks book lens.  The reason Jess works in this story aren’t those influences they are present but why he works is he a different view on the main themes of the story.

It’s undeniable that Gilmore Girls is a story about family/generations, culture differences, and dealing with broken family relationships. Jess is driven by these themes as much as Rory or Lorelai. The family/generations theme isn’t as in your face with Liz and jess not sharing much screen time, but it’s still there, it acts mostly as prologue but it’s still the inciting event in his arc. His story with luke is also based on family, a found family arc to some extent. Then with broken relationships again his story is based on dealing with the fallout of his abusive and neglectful childhood, he isn’t managing broken relationships like most of the others but managing the way it changed him. Jess is an arc of someone having to overcome this, and it causes him to crash many times. Lastly, the culture clash is still important, You have the blue blood yale culture, the small town of middle-class Americana, and then Jess is a person who lives in shit in a dirty city. I think those themes are the crux of why jess works, his character is another view on the themes and motifs the story is built on, like with the others those motivations drive his relationship with Rory.

Jess is a character who only was major in two seasons but manages to be one of the most loved people on the show. He’s a character that if you watched it as a kid/teen you probably crushed on a little bit. He’s controversial but relatable to people who have similar backstories and his level of disillusionment with life plays well on the rose-coloured manic world Rory and Lorelai inhabit.

There is also such a skilful ability that even with it being slightly scattered his growth in the later seasons is believable, at each stage we see how he was able to internalize what he learned during his main arch and work it into his natural art and survival instincts. I wish we had seen more of it, but it is also one of the most hopeful and real stories on the show.

ADHD:

Inattentiveness

hyper fixations

Hyperfocus

Misunderstanding social input

Stimulus seeking

RSD

Hyperstimulate

Inability to focus in school

Works better in environments of action or art

Impulsive behaviour

Irritability

AVPD:

Struggles with maintaining relationships

avoids face to face interactions

negative self-perceptions

A safe person with Rory (ie: I don’t like anyone else)

Hides his feelings

avoids participating in group activities

heads off rejection by leaving or ignoring the problem

Avoids situations of both praise and rejection