Tbh, adults perceiving Jonathan at various points throughout his childhood and adolescence is so important to me. It's fascinating, but there's also just so much there potentially. Did they see? Did they care? Did anyone try to say something? Did they all look the other way? Was someone kind to this boy? Did they want to be?
I think Jonathan was in a very fucked up situation that affected his development and lived experience profoundly, and certainly the confluence of stressors and relevant factors particular to his circumstances are as unique as anyone's, but Jonathan is neither the first nor the only abused or neglected or overburdened or neurodivergent or impoverished or atypically masculine or stressed out child his teachers would have taught or interacted with (and his situation could be worse). Other adults, who don't have as much regular contact with a lot of different kids, I dunno.
But I really think Jonathan just read as a very strange child because he absolutely was a child and not equipped for what was happening and what was put on him, but he was also unsettlingly mature. A lot of people think they like that and praise it (and some probably did, unfortunately), but a lot of adults are kind of freaked out by that. Jonathan has a lot of traits that frequently don't inspire a lot of warmth or understanding in adults or authority figures, some of which could even be received with disdain or contempt. And he's tired, like, all the time.
And! Let's not forget he's our little anti-establishment, fuck authority darling. He thinks differently, he notices things, he has a sense of justice and the unfairness of it all. He's independent, thinks for himself, and trusts his instincts. He's suspicious and wary and reserved, maybe even aloof. So... Yeah, I just don't see a lot of adults warming to him.
But maybe someone did. Someone had to be kind to him now and then.
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