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Jesse
Selfless, sincere Jacob is arguably the bus driver who most influences Rachel during her year of visits to Beth. He preaches the importance of trust, empathy, and gratitude. His saintly personality is rooted in his own experience: he nearly died after a long period of serious alcoholism but ultimately survived due to a liver transplant from an anonymous donor. After his recovery, he turned his life around and found religion. His calming presence helps Beth and Rachel reconnect and work through their own individual anxieties, and he serves as something of a moral compass for both of them. For instance, he tries to convince Beth to respond to conflict through mercy (or the Golden Rule) rather than revenge (or “an eye for an eye”). Nevertheless, he’s still one of Beth’s most loyal defenders, and he goes out of his way to help her and Rachel—for instance, he invites them to the Jersey Shore with his family, and he spends nearly a whole day off accompanying Beth to her eye surgery. Thus, in addition to communicating many critical lessons, Jacob represents how bus drivers can be true friends and sources of moral support to their passengers.
Jacob Quotes in Riding the Bus with My Sister
The Riding the Bus with My Sister quotes below are all either spoken by Jacob or refer to Jacob. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
18. July: The Optimist
Quotes
Beth has sought out mentors in places where others might not look, and, moreover, taken the time, and endured the pain, to weed out those drivers who are decent and kind and reflective from those who are indifferent or hostile. The ones I’m meeting are, I realize as I quickly do the math, only about a sixth of the whole bus company. That took Beth a huge amount of trial and error—and, yes, determination. I shake my head, amazed at how much I’d somehow missed, and then, with a surge of optimism, wonder if one out of six people in any profession or community would also be exceptionally thoughtful. How could I really know? Have I ever spent this much time exploring the worldviews of my colleagues at school or the bookstore? Do I have a clue about whether my neighbors feel committed to the Golden Rule?
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26. September: Surgery
Quotes
There, in this quiet corner of the hospital, stroking her skin, I look into her eyes. They are so scratched and foggy, so hard to see inside. Yet in this moment, they are also stripped of all her defiance and foxiness and mischief. She looks at me with a fullness of trust that I seldom see.
And something happens: the ice in my heart starts to melt, and I feel a rush of love pour in. The sensation warms and surprises me, and I wonder if she sees astonishment in my eyes. She can’t see much anyway and, besides, she’s drifting off to sleep. But somehow I’m sure she knows.
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Jacob Quotes in Riding the Bus with My Sister
The Riding the Bus with My Sister quotes below are all either spoken by Jacob or refer to Jacob. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
18. July: The Optimist
Quotes
Beth has sought out mentors in places where others might not look, and, moreover, taken the time, and endured the pain, to weed out those drivers who are decent and kind and reflective from those who are indifferent or hostile. The ones I’m meeting are, I realize as I quickly do the math, only about a sixth of the whole bus company. That took Beth a huge amount of trial and error—and, yes, determination. I shake my head, amazed at how much I’d somehow missed, and then, with a surge of optimism, wonder if one out of six people in any profession or community would also be exceptionally thoughtful. How could I really know? Have I ever spent this much time exploring the worldviews of my colleagues at school or the bookstore? Do I have a clue about whether my neighbors feel committed to the Golden Rule?
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26. September: Surgery
Quotes
There, in this quiet corner of the hospital, stroking her skin, I look into her eyes. They are so scratched and foggy, so hard to see inside. Yet in this moment, they are also stripped of all her defiance and foxiness and mischief. She looks at me with a fullness of trust that I seldom see.
And something happens: the ice in my heart starts to melt, and I feel a rush of love pour in. The sensation warms and surprises me, and I wonder if she sees astonishment in my eyes. She can’t see much anyway and, besides, she’s drifting off to sleep. But somehow I’m sure she knows.
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