The Polygamous Dilemma

          As you all know (Or for those of you who don't know), I have recently switched my INS from the novel The Grapes of Wrath to The 19th Wife. Therefore, I'll just briefly introduce the main character in a condensed version of our first INS post.

          The main character, Jordan Scott, is a twenty years old young man who is a son of the nineteenth wife in a polygamous family. He was kicked out of the community of Mesadale at the age of fourteen for holding hands with a girl, and has lived on his own since. He is described to have "a face like a ****ing doll", and a "high kinda girlish voice [he] used to wish was lower but [he] doesn't bother worrying about anymore"(23-24). The color of his eyes was compared to blue sea glass and sapphire gems. Later in the book, it is assumed that he has blonde hair like everyone else in the community due to the small gene pool.
          In the beginning, we watch as he sees his mom on the title of an online newspaper, stating that she murdered his dad. He drives to the jail to visit, but when his mom begs him for help, he was torn because a part of him was angry at her because she "tossed [him] on the highway at two a.m. in [God's] name" (29).

          Since then, he has decided to help get her out of jail, because he believes that his mom was not the murder. In order to gather the evidence to set her free, he faces many man vs. man, man vs. environment, and man vs. society types of conflict. He tried returning to Mesadale to gather evidence, but many residents (his brothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, etc) tell him to leave.  His mother's lawyer, Mr. Herber, isn't exactly getting along very well with Jordan. Jordan can never tell whether "[Heber] wanted [his] mom out of jail or [him] out of his office" (165). So far, Jordan is travelling with another lost boy who was recently thrown out of the Mesadale community named Johnny. On top of finding evidence to get his  mom out of jail and taking care of Johnny, Jordan is running low on money because in order to help his mom, he had to leave his already low-paying job to travel from California to Utah.
        
          So far, the conflict hasn't been resolved yet, since I'm only halfway through this novel, and because this is such a unique situation, with the polygamy and whatnot, I have yet to think of a similar conflict from another piece of literature or any personal experiences. In fact, I'd be worried if I had an experience similar to Jordan's. Not counting the polygamy factor though, the novel does remind me of the television series "Prison Break" though, because of the whole he-didn't-do-it-so-I'm-going-to-get-him-out-of-prison thing. Then again, that's a whole different meaning to "getting someone out of jail" (laugh).