Analysis Of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

In Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, written by Ransom Riggs, the main character is a teenage boy named Jacob. He feels that his life is uneventful and that he will never have an extraordinary life, but this is quick to change when he finds that his grandfather’s stories were true. As the plot progresses, he starts to realize that everything he thought he knew was wrong, and that there was a clear limitation of knowledge in his life. The experiences that change Jacob as he learns about the peculiar children reflect Riggs’ theme that a limitation of knowledge is present throughout Miss Peregrine 's Home for Peculiar Children. Before the event that changed his life occurred, Jacob thought he was an average boy with no extraordinary

All the things that were being said to him about what he saw, what he heard, and what he had seen were all lies. That night that changed everything was all caused because of one thing he saw, the creature. Jacob recounted that “It stared back with eyes that swam in dark liquid, furrowed trenches of carbon-black flesh loose on its hunched frame, its mouth hinged open grotesquely so that a mass of long eel-like tongues would wriggle out” (Riggs, 37). The lack of knowledge is clearly seen, although in the form of a monster that Jacob had no idea what was staring back at him. He was confused, scared, and wanting answers, so he decided he had to do something about this. The decision he made was to begin his quest to where the heart of the lack of knowledge was, the house that the peculiar children lived in on the island near Britain, where he could find some answers. While at the house, he has a conversation with the headmistress, Miss Peregrine. At the end of her side of the conversation, she said, “‘I think you have been adequately interrogated. You must have questions of your own’” (Riggs 152). Miss Peregrine knows that Jacob lacks the knowledge of what he has become involved in, and is willing to help. She wishes to help him fill the lack of knowledge with everything he needs to know about being on the island and what he faces. After the event that changed his life and

By this point in the book, most of the limitation of knowledge has been cleared up, revealing the truth of all the things that were happening around him. However, not all of the conflicts that were present were resolved, which is where the second book, Hollow City, continues the story. Riggs makes a comment during an interview saying that he placed some easter eggs throughout the story in case he wanted to come back to them (“Ransom Riggs,” 6-1). Even in stating that he inserted easter eggs creates a lack of knowledge that becomes clear to how much that might not be known. When describing what his options were, Jacob said, “In one direction lay home and everything I knew, unmysterious and ordinary and safe” (Riggs 342). He called his ‘normal’ life everything he knew, implying that his other choice was to go with the peculiar children and have no idea what they would face next. He knew that he would have a limitation of knowledge of what is to come, but still chose to go with the children. As the peculiar children and Jacob sailed on to the water, he commented, “I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to see how extraordinary it was” (Riggs 351). Jacob was saying that he didn’t think his life was peculiar, but he simply had a limitation of knowledge and couldn’t see