Emotions In Jacob Have I Loved

Have you ever had so many emotions held up inside of you, you just want to explode? If you said yes, then Louise would definitely have to agree with you on that one. I think one theme in the book Jacob Have I Loved is that you shouldn’t hold all your emotions inside of you because it is not healthy, it will drive you insane, and it will make you depressed.

Holding in your emotions is not healthy. Experts say that holding in your emotions can lead to a weakened immune system, and more temptation to use drugs and alcohol. Tabby Biddle gives us a list of more common illnesses from bottling up emotions such as “headaches, constipation, stomach aches, low back pain, neck pain, fatigue, and worst of all cancers.” Louise may have never shown these illnesses or symptoms, but she was definitely on the verge of it. Louise was tired of herself not being the favorite, Caroline getting everything she wanted, Grandma hating her, Call marrying her sister, and all the other crazies in her life. She never told anyone, so eventually she will become ill from it. Grandma also finally revealing that she liked the captain. She was holding in her emotions and it was not healthy for her.

For example, Louise was holding in all her emotions and then finally at one point she became crazy and threw the lotion bottle at the wal. l (Ch. 12, Pg. 148-149) Another example is in Chapter 11, where Louise gets so angry over the littlest thing, being asked if she wanted coffee. Of course right before that Grandma was being mean to Captain. There are many other instances in the book where Louise gets mad out of nowhere. Her emotions are slowly starting to drive her insane. Grandma too is going insane because she liked Captain and never shared her feelings about it. Tons of people also go through the same thing as Louise. They start to go slightly insane after holding in their emotions for a