House Rules 2

I started "House Rules" by Jodi Picoult a while ago and over time I have been most interested in how the main character's little brother "Theo" has developed throughout the story. Theo is the little brother of Jacob. Jacob has Aspergers disease and it makes Theo's life really difficult. But until the middle of the story Theo was really able to hold himself together, more or less. Then when his brother is arrested for murder Theo kind of loses it and runs away. You hear parts of the story from Theo's perspective so you see how he feels while things are happening to his family. I pitied Theo more and more throughout the story. There was a scene I just read where Theo goes to meet his birth father and breaks down and starts crying and explains how he wanted to show his dad that he was the man of the house who was holding everything together but he was just so stressed out and tired and upset that he cracked.

I think that when things go wrong in this family the one who can't get rid of the guilt or the pain is Theo because Jacob doesn't mind what other people think because he doesn't interpret their social ques as being harsh or mean. Theo on the other hand does notice these kinds of ques and is hurt by them. Before Jacob was wanted for murder Theo was just a mostly normal teenage boy on the outside. From what I heard it seemed like Theo tried pretty hard to keep Jacob out of his life and it sounded like he had been successful. When the trial started Theo had to leave his high school and be home schooled instead, he had to be the one to go shopping, he had to take money out from the bank account. He had to do everything that needed to be done outside of the house because Jacob was under strict house arrest and his mother needed to stay with him 24/7 in order to keep him out of jail. I think that this made Theo grow up very fast because it was putting a lot of responsibility on his shoulders and I don't think he was ready for it.

Theo started off as teenager with a life that was harder than most and has developed into the man of the house who has everything on his shoulders. The change happened quite suddenly and I don't think that he is ready for it. But he doesn't have much of a choice. He is now the only person in his family who can get things done since his brother is disabled, his mother is always busy with his brother, and his dad left when he was really little. I can only hope that as the book goes on Theo's back doesn't break with the weight of so much responsibility all piled up on him.