Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children Essay

The cover of this novel is somewhat deceiving in that it depicts a young girl dressed as if she is from the early 1940’s, however the main character is actually a teenage boy from the 21st century. “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” by Randsom Riggs is an adolescence novel based on the male character Jacob Portman. Jacob comes of age throughout the book in several ways. There are several “rites of passage” in the United States that our main character goes through (Mathei, Week Three). The novel begins with his grandfather’s passing and how this young man deals with this death. The author reflects on Jacob’s awkwardness to fit in at his school as well as at home with his family, except with his grandfather. Later in the story Jacob will also experience a first love and finally fitting in with a group of very peculiar children whom he discovers is just as peculiar as he, himself is.
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The parents feel that after the death of his grandfather Jacob needs some professional assistance from Dr. Golan, a psychiatrist. Jacob’s depression to that of Holden from “Catcher in the Rye” they both must see a doctor. They both have an obsession Holden’s with Jane, same as perhaps similar to Jacob’s feelings for Emma. (Manthei, Week Eleven) Jacob reveals this obsession at the end of chapter seven (P. 142). About his parents, Jacob’s mother’s family are the ones who own the drug store chain. Much like that of Jim’s outlook of his father from “Rebel”, we see Jacob describe his father as “an amateur, wannabe nature writer”. In chapter two of the novel, Jacob is telling us about the time after his grandfather’s death. He gives details in how his parents treated him like a “breakable heirloom” (P. 28). With grief comes blame and Jacob blames himself for not getting to his grandfather’s house faster, or preventing his