‘Aggressively insecure’ describes Jennifer. For her entire life she has been terrified of being ‘wrong’; the converse of which, she always has to be right, and will go to just about any lengths to uphold her version of reality against all comers.
This isn’t a trait that she has learned. She was born that way. Stubborn.
A professor of philosophy at Vancouver Island University, she is used to imposing her ideas on others, applying reasoned routines as blunt force instruments, and feigned interest in others’ points of view, as opportunities to gather arguments that will eventually shut them down, even crush them.
Staunchly feminist, she holds a grudge against men and has cultivated her biographical perspective of having had to battle her way through patriarchal barriers in order to achieve success as an academic in a male dominated field; and a single mother, who shucked the bondage matrimony.
Although there is plausible truth to her all her arguments, she is aware of the existentialist gap between plausibility and certainty. She twists that round, though, operating on the assumption that carefully reasoned plausibility amounts to certainty, and makes alternative truths less likely than her own. She won’t allow any evidence that suggests a less polarized version of personal and social history. To her any consideration of alternative interpretations would undermine the foundations of her intellectual and emotional fortress.
She is deeply insecure, and hence dangerous to anyone – man or woman, stranger or parent – who challenges her points of view.
This insecurity also shows up in her jealousy toward Buddy. Although she would never admit it – and is not actually conscious of it – her hatred of him stems from her fear that he will replace her in Harry and Bernice’s esteem. This instinctive reaction is intensified by her vague regret at not having ‘been there’ for her parents in their declining years.
Buddy is perceived by her as an interloper, who will show her up as having been an ungrateful daughter. Why, after all, do her parents have to resort to offering room and board to a stranger to fulfil the duties that should have been taken on by Bernice and Harry’s children?