Jake, Reinvented

Rick is the narrator of Jake, Reinvented and the events of the novel unfold from Rick’s first-person perspective. He is a senior at F. Scott Fitzgerald High and the kicker on the school’s football team. Due to his participation on the football team, Rick is allowed to hang out with the popular group at school, including Todd Buckley, though Rick feels that he is always second best to Todd. The fact that Rick doesn’t drink alcohol creates a sense of separation between him and Jake’s parties, allowing him to remain a detached observer, capable of reporting everything that happens. This lays the foundation for his narrative function as observing narrator.

Rick is a dynamic character, whose relationship to the people around him shifts over the course of the narrative. He is at first drawn to the magnetism of Todd and Didi—jealous of Todd and in awe of Didi’s beauty—but he sours on them after witnessing their careless, selfish, and destructive behavior. Rick has a complex relationship with Jennifer, for whom he’s had romantic feelings for years. He dislikes Jennifer’s selfish exterior but changes his mind when he sees that she, unlike Todd and Didi, has a conscience.