Jimmy Corrigan: The Saddest Kid on Earth

A page whose contents encompass a major theme of Jimmy Corrigan:  The Smartest Kid on Earth is the page on which Jimmy, while at the Medlife clinic with a bloody nose, sees a bright red bird outside the window.  He imagines being the bird and flying away freely . . . until the bird crashes into the window of the clinic (this occurs shortly after Jimmy’s father identifies him as one of his many “mistakes”). This sequence of events emphasizes the fact that, while Jimmy longs for a better life, he is trapped, both within the confines of his relationships and the confines of himself.

            In a sense, this book tells the stories of people who, wish and try as they might, cannot escape their miserable, unhappy circumstances.  The most obvious example is Jimmy, who cannot escape a forced, shallow relationship with his estranged father.  Nor can he escape a tortured (yet needed) relationship with his mother.  Perhaps most importantly, however, Jimmy is imprisoned by a devastating lack of confidence and purpose; this undermines his ability to foster relationships with others, especially with women.  As a result, Jimmy is left utterly lonely and hopeless.

            However, Jimmy is not the only person in the book who is trapped.  William Corrigan, Jimmy’s great-grandfather, cannot escape the grief that he feels upon the loss of his mother.  Moreover, he cannot escape the loneliness he feels due to his lack of a spouse (though he distracts himself with prostitutes and employment in “The White City”).  Additionally, William’s son, James, cannot escape the absence of his mother or the abuse and derision he suffers at the hands of his temperamental father.

           The red bird also appears several pages before the scene that I selected; it travels through time, carrying a flowering branch in its beak as it flies over an old war camp and past an old hospital before depositing the branch in a nest outside the Medlife clinic.  To me, this seems to signify that forms of one generation’s plights and struggles can afflict the next generation.

            A final observation that I made concerning this page is the bright red color of the bird; this vibrancy provides a sharp contrast to the book’s generally dull color scheme.   The creature’s color reminds me of the shade of Superman’s mask, boots, and gloves.  Superman is another recurring character in the book; he serves as an additional symbol of Jimmy’s unfulfilled hope for a hero, a savior from his discontent.  This desperation, exhibited by Jimmy and by his predecessors, permeates the entire book, giving it a rather melancholy sense.