What Ultimately Caused Jemmy’s Persona Flip?  Elias Curran-Moore 8th Grade

All people go through change over the course of their lives, some fast, some slow, for better or for worse. Often events in one’s youth can be traced to be the origin of such change in direction. In many cases teenage years are the catalyst for the beliefs brought into adulthood. Such appears to certainly be the case in Jemmy. In Jon Hassler's novel, the protagonist, seventeen year old Gemstone Opal Stott or ‘Jemmy,’ goes through a major transition between two personalities. The central question in this narrative is why does she change, and how should we interpret that change? What does this transformation signify?

In the beginning of the novel, Jemmy is providentially rescued by a couple, Otis and Ann Chapman during a massive snowstorm and is chosen by Otis, an artist, to be painted as the basis for The Maiden, a public mural in downtown Minneapolis. According to local legend The Maiden was a young Indian girl who killed herself by jumping off a cliff known as Eagle Rock because she fell in love with someone from a rival tribe, and could not face the burden of living a life without her lover or suffering the shame of her family.

At first, Jemmy happily appears to embrace the persona of The Maiden. This can be attributed to her...