Jasper Jones: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

The day after he sees Jeffrey, Charlie wakes up and sees a large wasp on his window. He throws a copy of The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer, at the wasp. The book misses its target, but causes the window to fall shut. Charlie wonders if he’s banished the wasp, or just made it angry.

Charlie enters the kitchen, where his parents are sitting. His mother tells him to stay in sight of the house if he spends time with Jeffrey. Charlie asks why, and in response, she only glares at him and says that she’s his mother. Charlie is angry with his mother for always winning arguments. He’s also angry that his father remains silent during these arguments. Charlie remains silent, and his mother takes this as an affirmation that he’ll stay near the house.

Charlie sits at the kitchen table and reads the paper. There is news of the Vietnam War—more Australian soldiers are being shipped there to help the Americans. Charlie’s father has wanted to protest the war, but Charlie’s mother always tells him that it’s a waste of time. Charlie wants his father to stand up to his mother and be brave.

After he reads the paper, Charlie walks to Jeffrey’s house, where An Lu is still working on his garden. Charlie knocks on the door, and Jeffrey answers it, even though he almost never does so. Jeffrey explains that he’s been grounded for swearing. Yesterday, Mrs. Sparkman was at the door when Jeffrey told his mother he was going to play “fucking cricket.” Sparkman told Mrs. Lu what the word meant, and she grounded Jeffrey. Jeffrey isn’t allowed to listen to the radio or go outside. He tells Charlie to go find Eliza, and teases Charlie for being “queer,” which Charlie finds ridiculous.

Charlie walks down the street, unsure where he wants to go. He passes by his school, where a few children are playing, and eventually arrives at the town library. It’s empty except for the librarian, Mrs. Harvey. Charlie browses the fiction section, collects a pile of books, and goes to read them at a desk in the building. Most of the books are mysteries and thrillers. Charlie looks to see who has checked them out before, but he doesn’t see Mad Jack’s name, or any other names he recognizes.

As Charlie looks through thrillers and mysteries, he remembers the Nedlands Monster, a criminal who was hanged last year, to the pleasure of everyone except Charlie’s father. Charlie goes to the newspaper section of the library to find information about this subject. The Monster killed five people in one weekend three years ago. The culprit took two years to find. It turned out to be a quiet man with a harelip: Eric Edgar Cooke. Cooke stabbed a woman and shot several other people. As a child, his father had beat him, and throughout his life he was bullied for his cleft palate.

As Charlie reads about Cooke, he thinks about Jasper, with his alcoholic, physically abusive father, and other victims of bullying: Jeffrey; Prue Styles, a lonely girl with a birthmark; and Sam Quinn, a boy with a cleft palate. He wonders if all people have the capacity to commit murder if they’re bullied and abused enough. He reads that Cooke’s explanation for killing was simple: “I just wanted to hurt somebody.” Cooke was executed on October 27, 1965.

As Charlie examines the newspaper with a description of Cooke’s execution, he notices another article, about the murder of a 16-year-old American girl named Sylvia Likens. Sylvia’s mother and father worked at carnivals, and they were forced to pay to leave Sylvia, along with her younger sister, Jenny, in the care of a woman named Gertrude Baniszewski, since they couldn’t afford to travel with her. Gertrude hated Sylvia and Jenny, especially because she had seven children of her own already. When Sylvia’s parents didn’t send Gertrude the money they’d promised, Gertrude began beating Sylvia, and telling her other children to hurt her too. They trapped Sylvia in their basement, where they forced her to eat her own urine and vomit. Sylvia told Jenny that she was going to die soon, and shortly afterward, she died of shock and starvation.

As Charlie reads about Sylvia’s death, he wonders why Jenny didn’t tell someone about Sylvia sooner. Jenny wasn’t being held in the basement, and she went to school—she could easily have told a classmate or a teacher what was happening to her sister. Charlie wonders how an entire community—all the people who heard Sylvia’s cries and did nothing—could allow something so horrible to happen.

Charlie leaves the library and walks home, passing by the town bookstore. He tries to forget about Sylvia, but finds that he can’t. Then he hears a voice, and realizes that it’s Eliza asking him if he’s all right. He forces a smile, knowing that it must look like a disgusting leer. Eliza smiles and laughs, and he thinks that she looks beautiful, like Audrey Hepburn. He tells her that he’s been at the library, and adds that he’s been reading. Eliza feigns surprise, and Charlie doesn’t realize at first that she’s being sarcastic. He’s conscious that his wit and humor have left him altogether. He manages to tease Eliza about standing outside a bookstore, reading for free, and she smiles. Eliza asks Charlie to walk her home, and he nervously agrees.

Charlie walks Eliza home, frantically wondering what he should say, and whether or not he should hold her hand. He asks Eliza what book she bought at the bookstore, and she shows him a copy of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Eliza tells him that she dreams of living in Manhattan, and adds that she thinks Audrey Hepburn is brilliant and dignified. Charlie pretends to have seen many of Hepburn’s films, but when Eliza asks him which ones, he can’t name any without her help. Eliza seems to find this endearing.

As they walk, Eliza tells Charlie that her sister is missing. She adds that her mother can’t stop crying, and that her father is drinking and yelling. Charlie notes that Eliza is very calm as she explains this, but he senses that she’s secretly distraught. He considers putting his hand on her back, but he dismisses this gesture as “fake.”

Charlie and Eliza reach Eliza’s house, where Eliza’s mother, who is waiting outside, immediately yells at her for leaving the house without permission. Eliza insists that she asked her father if she could leave, and pretends that Charlie bought her the copy of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Eliza’s mother irritably tells Charlie that he should leave. As he walks away, Charlie watches Eliza’s mother pull her into the house. After he’s walked a few blocks, Charlie realizes that Eliza knows something about her sister’s disappearance.

When Charlie returns to his house, his mother slaps him and calls to Charlie’s father, whom she addresses as “Wesley,” telling him that Charlie is all right. Charlie thinks that it’s rare both for his mother to slap him and for her to call his father by his first name. Charlie’s mother yells at Charlie for leaving sight of the house against her permission, and tells him that someone kidnapped Laura Wishart. She orders him to go his room, even after he swears and yells that there is a wasp in his room.

Charlie goes to his room. He wonders what Norman Mailer would say to him—he’d probably call Charlie a “pussy,” Charlie thinks. Before Charlie can do anything more, his mother walks in without knocking and orders him to come outside with her. Outside, she gives him a shovel and tells him to dig until she says to stop. Charlie complains that it’s hot, and asks why he’s being forced to dig at all. His mother simply tells him to keep digging, or she’ll take his books. She goes back inside.

Charlie angrily digs, silently cursing his mother and imagining throwing her into the hole he’s digging. As he digs, he wonders what the hole could be used for—perhaps a tree. His mind jumps to Laura and Eliza, and he feels a strong desire to ask Eliza more questions about what she knows. He notices a large centipede in the dirt, and stops digging. At exactly this moment, his mother walks out and yells that he must keep working.

Charlie continues digging and thinks about his mother. She has always hated Corrigan, he knows, but lately it seems as if her sarcasm and curtness have lost even the trace of warmth and kindness they once held. Everyone can see that she hates Corrigan, except for Wesley. She and Wesley moved to Corrigan shortly after they married. This fact suggests that they may have been shamed into eloping.

Charlie keeps thinking about his family. His mother comes from “old money,” while his father’s family lacks any money at all. His father was the youngest, and he showed great aptitude in school. His brothers, who had to drop out of school to work, wanted him to become a doctor or a lawyer—thus, they were disappointed when he said he wanted to study literature. Because Charlie’s mother’s parents didn’t approve of Wesley, the couple eloped before his mother finished her degree. Wesley planned to become a novelist, but he never managed to finish a novel. Now, 13 years later, Charlie’s mother is clearly bitter, especially after losing a daughter. Sometimes, she visits her family for weeks at a time, never announcing that she’s leaving more than a day or two ahead of time. Charlie thinks that one day, his mother might not come back from her visits. Her family doesn’t want her to stay married to Wesley, and they remind her of the wealthy lifestyle she left behind when she eloped. Charlie wonders about his mother’s wealthy upbringing, and about how lucky he was to have a kind, loving father. Perhaps if Cooke had had a similarly easy life, he wouldn’t have gone on to kill.

Charlie wonders what the hole he’s digging could be for. After a few hours, he’s dug to the depth of his thighs. He continues thinking about Cooke. It seems odd that after a lifetime of being abused by men, beginning with his father, Cooke would kill women. But perhaps this was because he wanted to become the people who bullied him—he wanted to take on the role of his own father.

By the late evening, Charlie has dug a hole as deep as his ribs. Charlie’s mother comes out of the house and surveys his work—Charlie thinks that she’s secretly impressed with the huge hole he’s dug. She tells him to stop digging, and then orders him to fill in the hole. Charlie is horrified and amazed by this command, and he refuses to obey. His mother yells at him that life is like digging a hole and filling it in: a lot of work for nothing. Charlie tells his mother that that’s her life, not his. He curses her and tells her he’d like to bury her head in the hole. This infuriates his mother—she grabs the shovel and tells him to fill in the hole with his hands.

A few hours later, Charlie is almost finished refilling the hole. Wesley walks into the yard and tells Charlie that he can stop digging. Charlie continues to dig, which leads his father to ask him why he’s been acting so odd lately—he’s usually a smart and reasonable kid. Charlie counters that he’s almost fourteen, and thus not a kid anymore. His father tells him that he should have told them he was leaving the house, and adds that Charlie’s mother was right to be worried. Charlie likes that his father talks to him like an equal, not a child.

Wesley muses that the world is changing, and Laura’s disappearance proves as much. He tells Charlie that his mother will tell Charlie that he’s to go without dinner, but he advises Charlie to accept this information, and then eat food after Charlie’s mother goes out to play bridge. He tells Charlie that Charlie’s mother does a lot for him. Charlie replies that a maid could, too. Wesley reminds him that his mother wants him to respect her.

Wesley informs Charlie that he’s spent the afternoon at the Miner’s Hall, organizing a search party to look for Laura. Charlie is tempted to tell his father about Jasper and the river, but he remains silent. Wesley says that he’s taught Laura in school, and believes that Laura has a troubled, volatile quality to her personality. He also acknowledges that he doesn’t know anything about her home life. He guesses that Laura will turn up soon, having visited a friend or run off on her own. Charlie suggests that Laura is dead, but his father says that this is unlikely, though possible. He claps Charlie on the back and reminds him to accept the punishment his mother is about to give him.

A few hours later, Charlie’s mother has left for bridge, and Charlie and his father are carefully cutting food so that Charlie’s mother won’t notice that he’s eaten anything. As they do so, Charlie asks his father if he’s writing in his library. Wesley jerks his head and replies that he just does his schoolwork and reading there. He says that novel writing should be left to novelists. Charlie nods, but when he goes off to his room, he wonders why his father is lying to him.

Alone in his room, Charlie notes that Jasper Jones has not come to his window that night. He wonders where the search party will look first. He also notices that his father’s light is on in the study. This saddens Charlie, since it reminds him that his father lied to him about writing. Charlie contemplates writing a new novel, perhaps about Jasper Jones himself.

Charlie sees an unfamiliar car pull up. He thinks that the car might belong to the police, and that they’ve come to arrest him. But then the door opens, and he sees his mother walking out, laughing. He wonders if she might be drunk. As she walks to the house, her face goes blank.

Charlie reads Mark Twain and feels himself falling asleep. He imagines himself talking to Eliza, saying all the right, witty things.