Jake, Reinvented
Love or Obsession?
What comes to mind when you think of The Great Gatsby? Is it the love triangle between three characters? What about the magnificent parties that are thrown in hopes of just one individual’s appearance? Maybe you think of a hopeless romantic’s desperation to impress the girl of his dreams. All are central themes. What if there was another story that was more relatable to your own life? Running parallel to the themes and characters of The Great Gatsby is Gordon Korman’s book Jake, Reinvented; however, this book is staged with high school kids instead of upper class, married adults. While some aspects are a bit exaggerated, such as the parties thrown, Jake, Reinvented is a good representation of how lovestruck teenagers change for the people they “love” and what despair they endure to achieve even the most unrealistic desires.
All of the characters in Jake, Reinvented have a counterpart from the original storyline, The Great Gatsby. Rick Paradis is Nick Carraway, and in both stories, Jake Garrett and Jay Gatsby turn out to only have one real friend; Rick is Jake’s, Nick is Jay’s. Jake and Jay are the characters that have reinvented themselves hoping the love of their lives will fall in love with them. They both change their name. Jacob to Jake and Jay Gatz to Jay Gatsby. Todd Buckley and Tom Buchanan are the cocky and arrogant characters that know they have it all, money for Tom and popularity for Todd. In both stories, these characters know their women will never really leave them because they have everything that their women really care about, riches and fame. These women, mentioned later, are Daisy Fay Buchanan, Tom’s wife, and Didi Ray, Todd’s girlfriend. Jordan Baker and Nick end up getting romantically involved, and Jennifer Belanger and Rick, long time best friends, finally confess their feelings for each other. Jordan is best friends with Daisy, and Jennifer is best friends with Didi. Also, in both novels, the arrogant characters are unfaithful. Tom cheats on his wife, and Todd cheats on his girlfriend. The last important similarity to make known is the high school that Jake, Rick, and Todd attend holds the name of the author of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
“On a scale of one to ten, this party was at least an eight.” This is Rick Paradis’s first thought as he walked into Jake Garrett’s enormous house party. The host may have been from F. Scott Fitzgerald High, but that certainly did not prevent kids from surrounding schools from attending. This is the first of Jake Garrett’s parties that Rick had been too. He had been away for the summer working as a camp counselor, and Rick had yet to meet Jake. Todd Buckley, the star quarterback, and Rick, the kicker, just arrived, and as they are making their way through the crowd, Todd updates Rick on how Jake is the new long snapper. Jake just moved here this summer, and for only being in the F. Scott Fitzgerald High School district for a few weeks now, he has already made a name for himself. When Rick met him, he noticed that he dressed to kill. He looked like he had “just waltzed off the pages of a J. Crew catalog,” and he had a certain charisma about him that had everyone intrigued.
Rick began to notice that Jake was exceptionally pushy about certain things, especially Rick bringing his friend Jennifer to his next party. He would casually bring it up and then act like he didn’t really care. When Rick said he would ask her, he came back and said, “Only if you want.” He started to always ask for Jennifer to come to his parties and anywhere else they went which was weird because he never even took his eyes off Didi to say hi to Jennifer. Didi was no different. She was all goo-goo for Jake, never mind the fact that she was still dating Todd. Every time Rick passed Jake’s house, Didi’s car was there sitting out by the driveway. One day Didi came to Rick’s house alone and asked him to go shopping with her to find Jennifer a birthday present. Low and behold, when they passed by Jake’s house, she suggested they go say hey to him. Needless to say, Jake ended up going shopping with them.
“She’s going to dump him, you know.” These were the words that Jake kept repeating to Rick and probably more to himself whenever he saw Todd and Didi hanging all over each other. Jake was the only one who seemed to think Didi would break it off with Todd. Didi was certainly in no hurry to end it with Todd even though she knew he cheated on her. Didi was Jake’s when she was with Jake alone or at one of Jake’s parties, but in situations such as football games, Didi made sure she was seen in the spotlight with Todd. Even after it was evident that Didi was never going to leave Todd because her reputation was more important than her own self-respect, Jake would still not give up. He insisted time and time again that she was only with Todd because she felt sorry for him and soon enough she would break up with him. The devastation on his face whenever she saw Didi hanging on Todd was enough to make a heartless person feel bad, but he never gave up.
Jake’s next and final party was destined to be the end of everything when it started. Rick warned Jake not to have it because he knew that Todd told Nelson, the biggest and scariest guy on the football team, that Jake was the one who his girlfriend had cheated on him with. Nelson would undoubtedly come to the party with the intentions of literally tearing Jake apart. It was the moment that Jake refused to cancel his party even though his life was literally at risk that Rick realized Jake didn’t just have a huge crush on Didi. It was much more than that. He was obsessed, and his stubbornness to have the party for Didi contributed most to his own downfall.
As soon as Nelson arrived at the party, he began plummeting through everyone to get to Jake. He was practically blowing smoke out of his ears he was so mad, and everyone was scurrying to get out of his way to avoid being trampled. Within seconds, Nelson had Jake in a chokehold with one hand, and Jake was beginning to turn blue. Just as quickly, Didi smashed her champagne bottle down on Nelson’s head which sent him to the floor and out cold.
The ambulance and police arrived, and the paramedics tended to Nelson and rushed him to the hospital. The police, on the other hand, were not leaving without someone explaining what happened. Didi was scared and shivering under the arms of Todd when Jake finally spotted her. Jake stepped forward to take the blame to protect Didi. Instead of trying to stop him, she let him take the heat while she stayed cozy under Todd’s arm. Todd caused all of this but planned it out to where he didn’t have to dirty his own hands, so he walked away with the girl and his popularity untouched. Jake was taken to jail, and later, his dad came and bailed him out. Not long after that, Jake’s dad moved Jake to another city. Before he moved, Rick stopped by to say goodbye. Jake handed him a piece of paper with a phone number on it and asked him to give it to Didi. Rick was stunned. Didi had put him through so much pain and misery, and he still wanted to be with her. Rick couldn’t believe it. Jake was undoubtedly the victim in the situation; however, he was putting himself in a position that he would never gain anything but heartbreak.
Similarly to Jake Garrett’s “little get-togethers”, Jay Gatsby throws magnificent parties as well; however, Gatsby lives in a mansion and is an adult who isn’t worried about his parents or cops busting the party, so his parties are nothing short of extravagant. He hosts these parties and doesn’t even know half of the people who attend. He invites as many people as possible and has those people invite more people. His main concern is having Daisy eventually attend a party.
The first time Nick was around Gatsby and Daisy at the same time, he noticed a strange tension in the air. Soon enough, they began to see each other more and more, and Nick began to notice that they were always together. The sad thing is that Daisy had Gatsby believing that she was really going to leave her husband for him, and she actually may have if Gatsby had as much money as her husband. Daisy knew Gatsby was the better man and treated her like a woman should be treated, but she was too self-absorbed to leave her fancy lifestyle for one not as extravagant; however, Gatsby would swear on his life that she loved him and was going to run away with him. Gatsby was so blind sighted by love that he was unable to see that the only person Daisy would ever care about was herself.
Just as for Jake and Didi, Gatsby and Daisy’s carelessness led to Tom confirming his own suspicions. When Tom discovered their romance, he invited Gatsby over to his house. At the house, Tom suggested they all go into town and Daisy ride with Gatsby. In town, Tom then confronted Gatsby by accusing him of being a liar about everything he has ever claimed about himself. As they continue to argue, Daisy finds herself moving closer and closer to Tom. Tom then sent Daisy to ride with Gatsby back home. On the way back, Daisy is driving and accidentally hits a women who ran out into the road. The woman turns out to be Tom’s mistress. Gatsby’s car is identified, and the husband of the woman killed assumed Gatsby was driving, as well as being his wife’s lover. Little did he know that neither was true. Gatsby and Daisy were the only two that knew what really happened that night and who was driving, but Gatsby was willing to take the blame to protect Daisy. The heartbroken and grief stricken husband took matters into his own hands. He went to Gatsby’s house, found him, wading in his pool, shot him, and then shot himself. Tom and Daisy moved far away and continued their lives as if nothing had happened.
Both Jake and Jay went through a tremendous transformation that required more than just will power. They was geared by determination and obsession. Ever since the beginning, they only had eyes for Daisy and Didi; however, they were both so lovestruck that they were unable to see that Daisy and Didi were completely self-absorbed and too worried about their status. As a result, the two reinvented themselves to try to create an image that the two women would want to be a part of. Gatsby tried to take on a lifestyle full of riches and elegancy. He purchased a mansion near Daisy’s home and invited important people to the extravagant parties he threw. Jake changed his wardrobe, the way he talked, and eventually, he upgraded his social status from biggest loser to the guy everyone wanted to be. Even after they were dumped for a second time, their obsessions consumed every aspect of their lives and masked how truly unrealistic the relationships were. They were blind from the beginning and bound for heartbreak.
Working Bibliography
Korman, Gordon. Jake, Reinvented. New York: Hyperion, 2003. Google books. Web. 23 Sept. 2013.
This book is not as related to my project as much as the original story line. Jake, Reinvented focuses more on high school kids. The Great Gatsby is more relatable to my grandmother because it takes place during the 1920s. Although my grandmother had just been born in 1926, her parents and siblings were older during that time. Gatsby and Nick Carraway both fought in World War I. No one in my grandmother’s family served in World War I, however, my grandfather’s father served in World War I. Unfortunately, I can’t make many connections with either story and my grandmother really. As far as I can see, Jake, Reinvented and my grandmother have virtually nothing in common which can be a good thing depending on how you look at it. I would hate to know my grandmother or any of her friends were involved in a relationship that had that much obsession going on. Anyways, I don’t see any correlation between the book I wrote about, Jake, Reinvented, and my oral history project which focuses on my grandmother growing up during the Great Depression and World War II.
History in the Making 