Character Analysis: I 'Ll Give You The Sun'

Have you ever felt guilty, or regretted doing something? Most people have. In the end, the best thing you can do is forgive yourself. This book beautifully illustrates the importance of accepting the situation without assigning blame, and how forgiveness ultimately benefits everyone involved. I’ll Give You The Sun, by Jandy Nelson, is the story of two twins, Noah and Jude, who were once completely inseparable, “not only one age, but one complete and whole person” (Nelson 18). At the time of Jude’s narration of their story, however, their mother has been dead for two years, and this has changed the twins’ lives dramatically. They hardly ever speak to each other now, both full of secrets, lies and guilt. The old Noah drew constantly and wanted …show more content…
The story follows the changes that happen to Jude’s character, and how she learns to cope with the grief of her mother’s death, and the guilt over the horrible things she did to her brother out of jealousy. In the exposition of the book, Jude is trapped inside her own feelings of guilt, but at the climax, she learns to accept the fact that her mother’s death was nobody’s fault, and that if she can only connect with Noah, things can go back to the way they used to be between them. Jude’s character arc is represented clearly by three key elements of the story. Firstly, Jude is on a “boy boycott”, dressing in baggy black clothes and paying no attention to boys, as she believes them to be bad luck. The second element is that Jude believes that her mother’s ghost has come back to haunt her by breaking her pottery at CSA out of anger, which is representative of her guilty feelings regarding her and Noah’s relationship. Finally, Jude is burdened with the awful secret of what she did to Noah, and this has distanced the twins in ways she could never have imagined. In the climax of the story, these things are all resolved in their respective ways, and Jude once again becomes the girl she used to …show more content…
It is at this point, when she makes the decision to tell Noah the truth, that Jude’s character undergoes the most significant change. She has accepted the blame for what she has done, and is ready to face the consequences, as long as she can make her brother happy again. Jude approaches Noah and confesses everything. “I am my brother’s keeper, I tell myself, and then I just say it. ‘You didn’t not get into CSA. What I mean is you didn’t apply. That day?’ I take a big breath and blow out the words from the darkest place in me: ‘I never mailed your application.’” (Nelson 350). Jude is nervous, but Noah’s reaction is not what she was expecting. “all of a sudden he throws up his arms and jumps into the air and his face is awash in rip-roaring joy-- no, ecstasy: This is ecstasy. ‘Did you hear me right?’ ‘Yes!’ he cries. Now he’s laughing wildly and I’m sure he’s lost all his buttons until out of his mouth flies, ‘I thought I sucked! I thought I sucked! For so long. I thought it was only Mom seeing them that made them any good.’” (Nelson 350). Jude is overjoyed to see her brother back to his old self again, but even more so when he leads her to an abandoned construction site, where he shows her a wall covered in spray paint. “On it, in a range of colours, is… everything. There’s NoahandJude spray-painted from behind,