Jar of Hearts

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Themes

The Enduring Trauma of Violent Crimes

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, physical abuse, emotional abuse, child abuse, and rape.

Nearly every character in Jar of Hearts is still affected by Angela Wong’s murder 14 years later. Angela’s parents divorced after her disappearance. Kaiser is emotionally stuck, feeling incapable of love after years of wondering why one of his best friends disappeared and why the other abandoned him. It is Geo’s experiences, though, that epitomize the text’s message on violence, revealing how traumatic and lasting such events can be for survivors and perpetrators alike.

As Calvin’s accomplice in disposing of Angela’s body, Geo struggles not only with guilt but also with the social and legal ramifications of her actions. Logically, Geo recognizes that after her five-year prison sentence ends, she’ll still “have plenty of time to start over” and to “get married, have children, have a life” (5). Yet she qualifies this by saying, “In theory, anyway” (5), because she knows her criminal record and notorious connection to the Sweetbay Strangler’s first murder will make life after prison extremely difficult. Her conflict with a society that doesn’t feel she’s suffered enough plays out through loan and job refusals, hateful graffiti, and verbal attacks, all of which—coupled with her enduring sense that she deserves it all—suggest that even people who genuinely regret their past crimes may struggle to move on from them, both emotionally and practically.

Geo’s experiences as a survivor of abuse and rape further complicate her efforts to heal. The rape in particular caused lasting trauma: Memories of the assault are connected to everyday things for Geo. The moment she enters her childhood bedroom, for instance, “it all comes back” (134). The empty Mason jar reminds her of Calvin’s abuse, the window reminds her of him climbing through it, and her floral bedspread reminds her of Calvin forcing himself on her. She can’t escape these reminders that make her relive her trauma and experience the painful feelings associated with it over and over. Geo says that rape is “about taking the best parts of a person and leaving the empty shell behind” (296). The metaphor helps demonstrate the profound emotional damage that Geo has endured because of violent crimes.

Though Geo’s memories of Calvin’s physical and emotional abuse are less intrusive, the book implies that the effect was no less dramatic. Indeed, Geo would not have helped Calvin conceal Angela’s murder if he had not manipulated her into doing so—and that manipulation was successful in large part because the abuse that preceded it primed Geo to agree. The novel thus suggests that violence’s long legacy reflects its tendency to compound on itself. This idea finds its ultimate expression in Dominic, who embodies the “sins” of his parents. Dominic’s childhood was marred by neglect and abuse because Geo couldn’t bear to keep the child of Angela’s murderer and her rapist. Whether because of that trauma, a hereditary predisposition toward violence, or a combination of the two, Dominic ultimately becomes a murderer himself, revealing how the trauma of crime can ripple across generations.

The Psychological Weight of Guilt and Secrets

One of the primary conflicts in Jar of Hearts pits Geo against her own guilt surrounding the secret she’s kept about Angela’s murder for 14 years. This debilitating guilt is her primary source of internal conflict and defines her character arc. As Geo navigates this journey, her character arc reveals the book’s thematic message that secrets must be revealed and guilt must be processed (through acceptance, atonement, and forgiveness) to make way for peace and happiness.

From the time she’s 16 to the time of her imprisonment, Geo works hard to keep her knowledge about Angela’s death, and her involvement in it, a secret while redefining herself as a good person through ambition and success. It doesn’t work, however; her past refuses to leave her alone. She compares the secret to an “unbearably heavy two-ton block of cement” that she’s had to carry around the entire time (20). Even more than the stress of keeping the truth hidden and the fear of how its exposure will destroy the life she’s built, Geo is burdened with guilt. She knows that her silence allowed Calvin to kill at least three more women, and she’s had nightmares with the vision of Angela’s face, dead and covered in dirt, every night. Ironically, her efforts to atone by building a worthwhile life only exacerbate the problem, as the fact that she got to enjoy freedom, career success, wealth, and romance without any consequences for her crimes makes her feel even worse: “I built a successful life on top of the shitty, horrific thing I did. Without owning up to it. Without paying for it first” (185).

Geo’s arrest brings the truth to light and forces her to confront the past and her part in it, and her relief at being arrested proves how painful her internal conflicts with grief and guilt have been. If arrest eases her sense of being a fraud, however, it doesn’t alleviate her guilt. Spending time in prison doesn’t bring Angela back or undo the suffering Geo caused for everyone who loved Angela. Until Geo can find a way to atone that actually makes a positive difference for those she’s hurt, her guilt will remain in control of her life, “stinking like an invisible piece of rotting garbage underneath [her] bed that won’t go away” (197). To Geo, her guilt smells like “rotting flesh” because it stems from her “rotting soul,” corrupted by her own actions. Even efforts to help others, like Cat, do not shake Geo’s perception of herself as a fundamentally bad person.

Geo doesn’t know how to redeem herself until Kaiser shows her. He tells her that she can push the reset button and reinvent herself over and over but that ultimately this will not matter unless she forgives herself. By extending his own forgiveness, Kaiser shows Geo that she’s worthy of this. In time, Geo comes to see the roles that youthful naivety and Calvin’s abusive manipulation played in her choices, which allows her to accept them as mistakes, not inherent character traits. She makes her final atonements by stopping Calvin and Dominic from ever murdering again and by giving Dominic the love and peace he never experienced in life. The final line of the book depicts Geo “stepping out of the shade, and into the sun” (304), symbolizing her triumph over the guilt and secrets that weighed her down for so long.

Manipulation and Control in Abusive Relationships

Geo’s teenage romance with Calvin offers an intimate portrayal of an abusive relationship that demonstrates how manipulation and control accompany violence, acknowledges nuance within accountability and power dynamics, and elucidates some of the reasons why people stay with abusive partners.

Calvin’s manipulation begins before the relationship itself, revealing abuse’s deep roots. When Geo first meets Calvin, he flirts with her instead of Angela, to both girls’ surprise. Angela is “the hot one, the one the guys want[]” (117), while Geo is the one they have to be nice to because she’s Angela’s friend. Calvin senses this dynamic and chooses Geo because he recognizes that she’ll be easier to charm and control. He makes her feel special from that first moment and keeps up the intensity with passionate professions of his feelings. By pairing ideas of romance with descriptors of chaos and pain—“This is crazy. I’m so into you, it hurts” (120)—Calvin grooms Geo to associate these qualities with love.

As the relationship progresses, Calvin instinctively navigates the space between what Geo will accept and what she won’t: “It was all about lines with Calvin, very fine lines, and she never knew exactly where they were until he told her. And he didn’t tell her with words. He told her with punches, slaps, and shoves, all designed to make her feel small and unimportant and humiliated” (137). Because Geo doesn’t know where these fine lines are, she can’t predict when Calvin will shower her with affection and when he’ll lash out with violence. This keeps her in a state of heightened stress, which takes an enormous physical and emotional toll over time.

Telling the story from Geo’s perspective allows the author to acknowledge the tendencies that made Geo susceptible to this dynamic without seeming to blame the survivor. In a flashback, Geo mentions how easy it was to mistake Calvin’s jealousy for love, which is why part of her enjoyed the drama: “Sometimes she liked pushing those boundaries, seeing how far she could go before he snapped, seeing how crazy she could make him. It was her way of controlling him, too, because yes, it went both ways” (138). Saying that “it went both ways” is not a claim that their power dynamic is balanced (138). Rather, it suggests that Geo responded to an unhealthy relationship by attempting to seize power where she could. It also hints at how abuse can lead survivors to blame themselves for their abusers’ actions; indeed, Geo’s transformation in the dramatic present revolves around recognizing what fault truly lies with her and what doesn’t.

Central to this theme as well is a message about why people may stay in abusive relationships, and protect their abusers, even when they recognize the abuse. It’s not because of ignorance or a lack of education, Geo notes. Rather, that education fails to address “the real issues behind abusive relationships” (138). Such issues include manipulation that makes survivors believe that they deserve the abuse or that experiencing love requires tolerating abuse. Geo’s adamant denial when Angela asks Geo if Calvin hits her is an example. She convinces Angela of her lie by saying, “I know that shit’s not okay” (168), privately adding, “The sad part was, she did, too” (168). Even though she knows that Calvin’s treatment of her is abusive and wrong, Geo sees it as “the price she [has] to pay to be with him” (138)—a trade-off for being loved. Geo’s experience also suggests that education about abuse often fails to acknowledge that the relationship can still feel fulfilling in some respects after it turns violent, making it harder to abandon. This balance of abuse and affection is an intentional form of manipulation and control on Calvin’s part that causes Geo harm long after the relationship ends.