Summary
The narrative shifts to the voice of Harold. He is addressing Willem, reminiscing about the time when Jude, Willem, and the others came to his house on Cape Cod. During the visit, Harold observed the tender way Willem treated Jude and was moved by it. Harold then reflects on his own past. He grew up with a loving father and stepmother, and he married a woman named Liesl, who was a physician. After Harold and Liesl had been married for a few years, she unexpectedly got pregnant; although they were both ambivalent, they ended up continuing with the pregnancy. Liesl gave birth to a son named Jacob, who died in childhood. Harold reflects on how he was immediately impressed with Jude's intellect and how he sometimes regrets the way he molded Jude's mind during his legal education.
The narrative shifts back to an omniscient narrator, describing Jude receiving a painting and a note of apology from JB. About six months earlier, shortly after Jude had turned thirty, JB had debuted his first solo art show. JB's show focused on paintings of the group of friends, and he had shown Jude all the photos he wanted to use as the basis for paintings. Jude did not really want there to be any paintings of him, but he agreed to let JB paint some of the images. He did, however, refuse a few of the images, which led to a fight between him and JB. Only at the gallery opening did Jude realize that JB had gone ahead and painted two images of him for which he had never given him permission. This action made both Jude and Willem angry, and when Jude confronted JB, the latter refused to apologize. As a result, the two go months without speaking. Eventually, Jude and JB take tentative steps towards reconciliation, but this incident permanently damages Jude's ability to trust people.
That same year, after Thanksgiving, Harold and Julia tell Jude that they would like to adopt him. This news delights everyone around Jude, including Willem and Andy, although it makes Jude anxious about whether he will somehow disappoint Harold and Julia. The court date to legalize the adoption is set for February, and as the date draws closer, Jude becomes more and more anxious. He remembers being 13 and in foster care in Montana; a local family expressed interest in potentially adopting him. At the time, Jude was desperate to be part of a family, and he did his best part to win over the family during a trial visit. However, in the end, they did not move ahead with the adoption, and this incident increased Jude's sense of shame and unworthiness. Haunted by these memories and anxiety, and with Willem away filming, Jude begins to self-harm more regularly and severely. Andy tries to reassure Jude that Harold and Julia will never abandon him, and he does everything he can to get Jude to stop his dangerous behavior. Jude finally goes and visits Harold; although he isn't able to fully disclose the truth about his past, Harold promises he will always forgive Jude for anything that has happened. On the day of Jude's adoption ceremony, Jude is surrounded by friends who celebrate that he has finally found a family. Jude feels a newfound sense of stability and hopefulness, and he attributes this new life to the luck he has had with finding wonderful friends.
Analysis
The depth of the bond between Harold and Jude is somewhat unusual for a relationship that begins as one between a student and a teacher. Over time, Harold will become Jude's closest relationship. Harold's special role in the narrative is signaled by him narrating sections of the novel in the second person. Although other characters such as Willem and JB get occasional sections told from their point of view, these are still narrated in the third person by an omniscient narrator. Harold is significantly older than the four friends and serves as a parental figure for them. Sections focusing on him in the third person allow for the voice of someone who can objectively observe the young men and notice the dynamics of the group. Although this does not become clear until the end of the novel, Harold also ends up outliving most of the other characters, including all of the friends except for JB. Harold narrates parts of the novel in the second person because he ends up being the only survivor who can look back and keep these memories alive. Harold also speaks directly to Willem, even though readers will later realize that Willem is dead by the time Harold is looking back and reflecting on these memories. Essentially, no one is alive who knew Jude well and loved him, so Harold turns to his memories of Willem.
Information about Harold's past reveals part of why he bonds so deeply with Jude. After he loses his son, Harold never has another biological child, and it is implied that he sees in Jude an image of who Jacob could have grown up to be. Harold has suffered deep loss and pain, paralleling Jude: Harold lost his family through death and divorce, whereas Jude never knew who his family was. However, Harold has processed his pain, and it helps him to build bonds with others. Because of the loss Harold has experienced, he cherishes the relationships he has and looks for opportunities to build new ones. He enjoys surrounding himself with Jude and his friends because he likes their youthful energy and optimism. Harold is not afraid of being hurt by loving others; he happily accepts Jude into his heart and offers him unconditional love and forgiveness. As tragic as Harold's loss was, it was not malicious. Harold knows that we can always lose those we love, but he does not find it hard to trust people, nor to believe that they are basically good. Because Jude's painful past is rooted in deliberate abuse and cruelty, it has shaped him in more damaging ways.
Jude's trust issues and fear of betrayal manifest in his relationships with JB and Harold. Jude has always been sensitive to fears that he will be perceived as grotesque or ugly. It is a significant gesture of trust that he allows JB to paint him at all, but Jude cannot forgive him for violating his trust. Jude feels that JB exploited his trust, and JB handles the situation badly because he is also insecure and arrogant. JB genuinely cares about Jude, but he is also immature and preoccupied with proving himself. JB has always felt extremely secure in who he is; therefore, he finds it hard to understand why Jude is so sensitive about how he is perceived. Harold, by contrast, goes out of his way to always be calming and reassuring towards Jude. Without knowing the details of Jude's past, Harold does his best to make Jude feel safe and loved.
Despite all of Harold's efforts, Jude finds the prospect of formally being accepted into Harold and Julia's family to be anxiety-inducing. Jude should be delighted that he is finally gaining a family, but he fixates on the fear that Harold and Julia will eventually reject him. Jude is so used to experiencing pain and betrayal that it seems unbelievable to him that he could finally be receiving unconditional love. Rather than making him feel better, his impending adoption leads to Jude engaging in more and more dangerous behavior. This behavior shows how much Jude's trauma has damaged him. Now, other people showing their love for him actually makes him more likely to reenact his traumatic and painful losses. Although the day of Jude's adoption ends up being a joyful one, the painful leadup foreshadows how no amount of love or acceptance is ever going to be sufficient for Jude to leave his past traumas behind him. Throughout the novel, the tragedy portrayed is less about what has happened to Jude in the past, and more about how those past events keep haunting his present. Writing about the outcome of trauma, Cathy Caruth explains that stories of trauma are "thus a kind of double telling, the oscillation between a crisis of death and the correlative crisis of life: between the story of the unbearable nature of an event and the story of the unbearable nature of its survival” (Caruth 7). Jude's entire life becomes about the impossibility of surviving and living with what has happened to him.
