Gilmore Girls: Jess Mariano, The Misunderstood
Date Written: April 15, 2024
Class: English Composition I
Paper Topic: Argumentative with Research
Grade: 100%
Gilmore Girls is a show that works as escapism for many people, Millennials who were watching the television show in the early 2000's that are wanting to relive the feeling that it brought, and Gen Z who were too young to remember the show and are chasing nostalgia. The show is set in a small, cozy, fictional town named Stars Hollow. Stars Hollow is known by Gilmore Girls fans as the ideal place to live; it's beautiful, walkable, has a variety of small shops, has consistent town events, and everyone knows everyone. Though Stars Hollow may seem like the perfect place to dwell, from the vibes and small-town ambiance, filled with autumn and coffee, it has its fair share of flaws and controversy. It's important to understand that this show was aired from October 5, 2000, through May 15, 2007, meaning that many of the topics that are considered controversial now may have not been considered controversial by the masses back then.
Nevertheless, being that this show is still available on streaming services, such as Netflix, and the Gilmore Girls fanbase is still very present in 2024, I believe it's important to discuss the facts of the matter aside from fantasy. It's safe to say this show is a cult classic or as Diffrient and Lavery describe, "the extradiegetic world of Gilmore Girls, a kinder, gentler kind of cult TV series whose most devoted fans form an interpretative community, one that has been sustained by the Internet as well as new media forms and digital technologies that facilitate communication and the sharing of knowledge across a variety of platforms." One of the topics the fans like to debate over is the life of Jess Mariano, who is a character that plays one of the love interests of Rory Gilmore. Jess Mariano is a character that you either love or hate and is also one of the most criticized characters on the show. When I sat back to analyze the matter and the reasons people have for tearing him to shreds, I realized it is a matter of classism and privilege. Jess Mariano has such a complex background which we cannot ignore when we are talking about his character, I believe it's much deeper than him being "mean" or the "bad boy."
To understand why Jess Mariano is the way he is, we must first understand his upbringing, why he moved to Stars Hollow and the people of Star Hollow. Jess Mariano is the nephew of Luke Danes, a diner owner in Stars Hollows. Jess grew up in New York and was raised by a single mother in poverty who not only suffered from substance abuse, but she brought numerous men in and out of Jess' life during the absence of his father. Jess Mariano was forced to move to Stars Hollow by his mother, as a teenager, to live with his Uncle Luke because she could not handle raising him. Let's compare that to Rory Gilmore who was also raised by a single mother, Lorelai Gilmore, but her mom maintained a pretty stable life and has always had a financial safety net via her parents, Richard and Emily Gilmore. I would also like to add to this comparison with Dean Foster and Logan Huntzberger, which are the other two of the three main love interests Rory Gilmore had on the show. Dean is from Chicago and moves to Stars Hollow with his two parents, a middle-class household. Logan Huntzberger is from a two-parent household but not just any two-parent household. The Huntzberger family happens to be extremely wealthy, money is not an issue for them as they dwell in the Huntzberger Mansion, and attend the same upper-league gatherings as The Gilmores. Though the show doesn't give us an exact number of how much the Huntzbergers and Gilmores make, when we see the maids, mansions, and them paying for Yale out of pocket it is implied that both families are possibly millionaires. Jess Mariano was a financially disadvantaged child, according to an academic journal on low-income households, "Growing up in poverty has broad and enduring effects on children's development that include poor physical health, high rates of behavioral problems, and low school achievement, yet the mechanisms causing these effects are not well understood" (Hair et al.). Everyone seems to understand that to survive in this world you need money, it is a defense, but for some reason when we are looking at the children from families in poverty, it's hard to understand why they are acting the way they are. When speaking of Jess Mariano we are not only speaking of financial woes but child neglect, his father left when he was a newborn leaving Jess having a missing piece of his identity. A report published by the Public Library of Science states, "Single-parent households headed by mothers are more likely to experience poor mental health than two-parent households; and the most significant contributors to such mental health issues are economic hardship and a lack of social support," this speaks to the psychological trauma Jess faced growing up without a father. The report goes on to say, "Furthermore, Cairney et al. [5] reported that single-parent families are more likely to suffer from depression than two-parent families, and that single-parent families have an elevated level of chronic stress, experience weak social support, and have infrequent contact with friends and families," which goes to show where Jess' behavioral issues, such as anger, poor communication, and detachment, developed from.
Now that we've addressed Jess' behaviors, backgrounds, and environments I want to take a look at some of his experiences with the people of Stars Hollow. The first episode Jess appears in on Gilmore Girls is, "Nick & Nora/Sid & Nancy" from Season 2, episode 5. Luke's stress and worry from getting short notice of his "misbehaving" nephew getting shipped off to him showed, and Lorelai being one of those witnesses was not for it from the start. Lorelai tries to play nice with Jess when she meets him but her true colors soon show. Later in Jess' first appearance on the show, at a dinner, Lorelai feels like she can relate to Jess by framing him as the kid who just doesn't like his parents when in reality, his situation is much more complex than she could even imagine. Lorelai grew up not liking her parents but it was more due to the common reasons rich kids don't like their parents, and I don't want to negate her traumas, though she came from a two-parent household she did suffer from a form of parental absence, as did Rory. According to an article by CNBC on "Why Rich Kids Hate Their Parents," the common reasons for the loathing of rich kids are, the rich parents not saying no enough, parents being absent, and society's outlook on rich children. Though rich kid problems deserve to be addressed as well, it's very out of touch to compare a rich kid's struggles to a child in poverty. While one child is worried if they got accepted into Yale, the other is wondering if they will eat a hot meal, these are two completely different struggles. Furthermore, I would like to address the fact that almost the entire town hates him, so much so that they had a town meeting about him. In season 2 and episode 8, after the town has a meeting about how Jess is a disruption to the town, Lorelai walks out saying "A little disturbing. The whole town needs a field trip," this speaks to how out of touch Stars Hollow is as a community, shut out from the reality and experiences of marginalized groups. Jess didn't need a group of adults discussing why he should be kicked out of the town, he needed support.
The biggest indicator that Jess is good at heart but just needed support is that once he grew up into adulthood, he completely changed. Jess' attitude changed, he became more caring, and mature, and could properly regulate and communicate his emotions. One of the highlights of Jess is that he also became an author after having a very hard time at school as a teenager. According to the National Library of Science, "It is well established that the brain undergoes a "rewiring" process that is not complete until approximately 25 years of age. This discovery has enhanced our basic understanding regarding adolescent brain maturation and it has provided support for behaviors experienced in late adolescence and early adulthood," showing us that maturity does have a lot to do with age. So, what would Jess Mariano’s teenage years have looked like in Stars Hollow if he was met with proper support, guidance, compassion, acceptance, and understanding from the adults surrounding him? When an adult treats a child who cannot control their upbringing, poorly the child remembers that. I relate to Jess Mariano’s story not only from experiences of my own but also from kids I grew up with in my childhood neighborhood. As kids, we couldn't control our environment or upbringing and I think the adults in our lives such as community members, teachers, mentors, and educators, knew that. I could not imagine the pain of not having that support because, although as a kid I didn't have control over much, those seeds of wisdom were planted years ago by the adults surrounding me. Now I can see the seeds sprout and flourish into something I would never have imagined as a child. There were many times I gave adults trouble, didn't listen, and so on but the wisdom from them stuck with me and made sense, not at that moment, but over time. On the topic of children's rights, the UN Global Compact states, "Children are among the most marginalized and vulnerable members of society and are rarely consulted about how communities make decisions affecting them directly." Jess Mariano’s story shows us that as adults, we have two options in children's lives, be their hero or be their villain. Jess' story also shows us that meeting a child, as a child is not the finished product, we can not be so quick to count children out, especially those from difficult backgrounds. As fully developed, functioning adults we should be able to show self-control, and kindness, be full of support, and be ready to work as mentors to the youth.
Written by nanelia samuela
Works Cited
“Children: UN Global Compact.” Children | UN Global Compact, unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/our-work/social/childrens-rights#:~:text=Children%20under%2018%20years%20old%20account%20for%20almost,about%20how%20communities%20make%20decisions%20affecting%20them%20directly. Accessed 1 May 2024.
Diffrient, D. S., & Lavery, D. (2017). Screwball television: Critical perspectives on gilmore girls. Syracuse University Press. Accessed 15 Apr. 2024.
Hair, Nicole L., et al. "Low household income and neurodevelopment from infancy through adolescence." PLoS ONE, vol. 17, no. 1, 26 Jan. 2022, p. e0262607. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A690547668/OVIC?u=lftla_pultch&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=082a4186. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
Kim, Ga Eun, et al. "Impact of economic problems on depression in single mothers: A comparative study with married women." PLoS ONE, vol. 13, no. 8, 24 Aug. 2018, p. e0203004. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A551614310/OVIC?u=lftla_pultch&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=f28d16d9. Accessed 22 Apr. 2024.
Palladino, Daniel. “The Ins and Outs of Inns.” Gilmore Girls, season 2, episode 8, 2001.
Robtfrank. “Why Rich Kids Hate Their Parents.” CNBC, CNBC, 28 June 2012, www.cnbc.com/2012/06/28/why-rich-kids-hate-their-parents.html. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
Sherman-Palladino, Amy. “Nick & Nora/Sid & Nancy.” Gilmore Girls, season 2, episode 5, 2001.