#its about the inherent struggle of the pulley protagonist

[thenatashapulleyuniverse]

Jem Castlereagh and Being the "Other"

The other night, I got into a discussion about Joe's racial and queer identity, and how these two things must have brought on a sense of guilt when he used to be Jem. It was such a fascinating topic to discuss that I want to share it here.

Joe is a white-passing biracial man. His mother is white, his father is Chinese. I want to specifically talk about Jem, since in that life, Jem was able to rise up to a high position with substantial power: The House of Lords.

On the topic of racial identity, Jem chose to be like other racialized white men, which in turn might have caused him to develop identity issues and guilt along the way. It's only speculation on our part whether or not he was gently persuaded/pushed/forced into this role, but this type of action brings about a sense of betrayal. He felt like he was betraying everything his family stood for.

Let's say his mother really did choose to go ahead and elope with a Chinese man. Jem's family history in of itself is already a betrayal to the fundamental order of things. His parents being a mixed race couple in the 19th century raising two sons, it couldn't have been easy for them. Toby (I don't think Jem mentioned an older brother but let's say Toby is also consistent with every Joe in every timeline) isn't white passing, so we can assume he's had his hardship of discrimination. So Jem knowing that he's "other" and that his family is "other", chooses to masquerade as a person who looks and sounds and fits right in with the group of people who would hurt his mother and father and brother for less than nothing just because they're a family. His family must be proud of him for being able to get opportunites they never would, but Jem carries that guilt because he knows he has to abandon his culture, his race, and inevitably his family just so that he can keep them all safe (him included). Jem choosing to use his mother's maiden name too is fact of this. Throwing away your true family name to fit in/to become somebody new is a reoccuring theme within the Kingdoms---Kite does it to appease to the English Navy, Agatha does it because she doesn't want to be connected to Lawrence anymore.

On top of that, he's a queer man. It's evident that he has a fondness for Madeline, but at the core of it, it wasn't a satisfying marriage because he's still playing the role of a heterosexual man to fit in. His queer identity basically ties in with what I'm saying about him betraying his family. I can't really imagine them being, you know, acceptable of gay people given they are a product of their time. At least with Jem's racial identity, he isn't alone. He has his brother. He has his father. He has a support system when it comes to being a racial minority. But being queer goes even deeper than that, because he's alone with all of that. You don't go to the asylum for being half-Chinese, but you can for being gay. Can you imagine how deep he must have suppressed that when he marries Madeline? How utterly alone? That is, until he meets Kite, another deeply repressed gay man. In his head, Jem must have had his reservations. His guilt, this time, is not only directed towards his mother and father and brother, but as well as to his wife and son. On paper, he's the ideal Englishman and they have given him everything to hold up that ideal. Yet the minute he finds somebody who understands what it means to be "other", he throws away everything his family had given him and goes with Kite to be "other" with him. My explanation here makes Jem wanting to go back home and be with his son even more symbolic and even sadder, because once he has thrown away everything to be the "other" there was never a world where he could have gone back unscathed, where he could have had his son and Kite too. So he loses everything when the timeline shifts. I think he knew that too, somewhere deep, deep inside, and so we can't even begin to fathom how deep his guilt goes regarding his racial and queer identity.

Of course, all of this is still speculation and we know nothing about Jem, Jem's family, and Madeline except from Kite's POV and the letters. However, all of this places even more importance on just how essential Kite is to Joe/Jem's person. He was willing to share his real name with Kite, willing to reveal his biracial heritage to him (I can't imagine that he shared that information with Madeline or his son Edward in his rise to power). At the intersection of Joe's character, between his race and his queerness, is just a man who wants to keep everybody he loves safe---whether that means having to hide who he really is, or joining the side of the "other" despite everything.