Jacob Have I Loved: Chapters 14–20

by Katherine Paterson
Growing up on a remote fishing island in the 1940s, Sara Louise attempts to escape the shadow of her talented and favored twin sister.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Rass Island–Chapter 2, Chapters 3–5, Chapters 6–9, Chapters 10–13, Chapters 14–20

Here are links to our lists for other works by Katherine Paterson: Bridge to Terabithia, Lyddie, The Great Gilly Hopkins
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. culminate
    end, especially to reach a final or climactic stage
    With difficulty, the Captain persuaded his friend to let him drive and then began their hair-raising trip from Le Havre to Paris, culminating in a cross-city ride at the busiest time of the afternoon.
  2. exuberant
    joyously unrestrained
    I propped my forehead on my elbowed hand and steeled myself for the cackle from Auntie Braxton and the laugh, which reminded me of an exuberant tuba, that would come from the Captain.
  3. unperturbed
    free from emotional agitation or nervous tension
    Grandma continued unperturbed. “Ever see how she looks at him?”
  4. destitute
    poor enough to need help from others
    In February, Call dropped out of school. His mother and grandmother were destitute, and my father offered to take him aboard the Portia Sue as an oyster culler.
  5. commute
    travel back and forth regularly, as between work and home
    From Monday well before dawn to Saturday night, they would be gone, sleeping all week on cramped bunks in the Portia Sue’s tiny cabin, for the best oyster beds were up the Eastern Shore rivers, too far away for daily commuting when gas was so strictly rationed.
  6. perfunctorily
    in a set manner without serious attention
    The Captain did not come to our house. He was invited perfunctorily every Sunday, but he seemed to know that he oughtn’t to come and always managed an excuse.
  7. legacy
    a gift of personal property by will
    “I have Sara Louise to thank for the idea. You see, Trudy left a little legacy. I didn’t know what to do with it, because I swore to myself I would never touch her money. There isn’t a great deal, but there is enough for a good boarding school.”
  8. conniving
    acting together in secret toward a fraudulent or illegal end
    It was her conniving that helped Jacob steal the blessing from his brother.
  9. elusive
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    I suppose if I were to try to stick a pin through that most elusive spot “the happiest days of my life,” that strange winter on the Portia Sue with my father would have to be indicated.
  10. unassuming
    not arrogant
    My quiet, unassuming father, whose voice could hardly be heard in church, stood there in his oilskins, his rubber-gloved hands on his tongs, and sang to the oysters.
  11. fleeting
    lasting for a markedly brief time
    My sister was gone, my grandmother a fleeting Sunday apparition, and God, if not dead, far removed from my concern.
  12. apparition
    a ghostly appearing figure
    My sister was gone, my grandmother a fleeting Sunday apparition, and God, if not dead, far removed from my concern.
  13. dredge
    a power shovel to remove material from a channel or riverbed
    We did not compare ourselves to the skipjacks, the large sailboats with five or six crew members, that raked dredges across the bottom to harvest a heavy load of muck and trash and bottom spat along with oysters each time the mechanical winch cranked up a dredge.
  14. censorship
    banning or deleting any information of value to the enemy
    Censorship kept Call from revealing very much about where he was or what was going on, but in what he didn’t say there was enough to make my flesh crawl.
  15. hibernation
    the act of retiring into inactivity
    I had not despised my life of the past two years, but I began to realize that it had been a time of hibernation, for I felt stirrings I had almost forgotten.
  16. sweltering
    excessively hot and humid; marked by sweating and faintness
    I say trying, because it was a sweltering August day, which was hard enough to fight on the island, but as Momma worked, her face shining with sweat, her hair plastered against her head, Grandma was reading aloud to her, in a voice that could be heard from the street, the section in Proverbs chapter six...
  17. wry
    humorously sarcastic or mocking
    He whispered something into her ear. She gave a wry grin.
  18. admonish
    counsel in terms of someone's behavior
    We were all admonished to fight the whore of Babylon, who was somehow identified in Grandma’s mind with the pope of the Roman Catholic Church, and repeatedly warned to prepare to meet our God.
  19. staccato
    marked by or composed of disconnected parts or sounds
    Below I could hear Call’s new deep voice rumbling in reply to my mother’s soft alto. Every now and then a staccato interjection from my grandmother.
  20. interjection
    an action or remark that interrupts something
    Below I could hear Call’s new deep voice rumbling in reply to my mother’s soft alto. Every now and then a staccato interjection from my grandmother.
  21. extricate
    release from entanglement or difficulty
    As it was, I extricated myself as quickly as I could from them and made my way, not home, but back to the crab house where I proceeded to ruin my only decent dress fishing the floats.
  22. stark
    severely simple
    My parents went up for the ceremony in the Juilliard chapel, which, I gathered, was stark in word and dress, but rich in Bach and Mozart, thanks to Caroline’s school friends.
  23. gnarled
    old and twisted and covered in lines
    “I would’ve growed,” she said like a stubborn child. “He run off and left before I had a chance.” Then she put her head down on her gnarled hands and began to cry.
  24. gaudy
    tastelessly showy
    I wonder if I shall ever feel as old again as I did that Christmas. My grandmother with her charm, gaudy and perishable as dime-store jewelry—whoever had a more exasperating child to contend with?
  25. contend
    be engaged in a fight
    My grandmother with her charm, gaudy and perishable as dime-store jewelry—whoever had a more exasperating child to contend with?
  26. antic
    a playful, attention-getting act done for fun and amusement
    The Captain responded with the dignity of a young teen who is being pestered by a child whose parents he is determined to impress. While I was the aged parent, weary of the tiresome antics of the one and the studied patience of the other.
  27. saucy
    improperly forward or bold
    “You got some good years to go yet, Miss Louise.”
    She grinned at him saucily. “Longer than you anyway. I guess you wish now you was young as me, eh, Hiram Wallace?”
  28. periscope
    an instrument providing a view of an obstructed field
    “Pish. Rubbish. You can do anything you want to. I’ve known that from the first day I met you—at the other end of my periscope.”
  29. contentious
    showing an inclination to disagree
    “‘It is better,’” I recited piously, “‘to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house with a contentious woman.’”
  30. rancor
    a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will
    Every waking moment was poisoned by Grandma’s hatred, but my mother, head slightly bent as though heading into the wind, kept her silent course around the house with only a murmured word or two when a reply seemed necessary and could be given without risking further rancor.
  31. renunciation
    the act of sacrificing or giving up or surrendering
    “It’s not as grand as it sounds. I promise you. Anyhow, my father wouldn’t consider Paris. I didn’t have the heart to defy him. My mother had just died.” She added the last as though it explained her renunciation of Paris.
  32. notion
    a vague idea in which some confidence is placed
    “I had some notion that I would find myself here, as a poet, of course, but it wasn’t just that.”
  33. iota
    a tiny or scarcely detectable amount
    All my dreams of leaving, but beneath them I was afraid to go. I had clung to them, to Rass, yes, even to my grandmother, afraid that if I loosened my fingers an iota, I would find myself once more cold and clean in a forgotten basket.
  34. desolate
    crushed by grief
    For a few days I was desolate, but then I decided that if you can’t catch crabs where you are, you move your pots.
  35. denomination
    a group of religious congregations with its own organization
    The truth, of course, is that the ailment crosses denominational lines. Perhaps it is the fault of the mountains, glowering above us, delaying sunrise and hastening the night.
  36. glower
    look angry or sullen as if to signal disapproval
    The truth, of course, is that the ailment crosses denominational lines. Perhaps it is the fault of the mountains, glowering above us, delaying sunrise and hastening the night.
  37. subsistence
    a means of surviving
    Most of them only see the ungiving soil from which a man must wrestle his subsistence and the barriers that shut him out from the world. These men struggle against their mountains.
  38. commend
    present as worthy of regard, kindness, or confidence
    The county had sent me an assortment of drugs including a little penicillin, so I was able to give the child a shot. Then an alcohol rubdown to bring the fever down a bit until the drug had time to do its work, a little warm oil to soothe the ear, a word or two to commend bravery, and I was ready to go.
  39. bay
    bark with prolonged noises, of dogs
    Now as I described the marsh as it was when I was a child, I could almost feel the wind on my arms, and hear the geese baying like a pack of hounds as they flew over.
  40. swathe
    wrap in or as if in strips of cloth
    I swathed the child tightly and held her against my body.
Created on Mon Jun 10 22:29:53 EDT 2019 (updated Mon Jul 01 16:41:15 EDT 2019)

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