The Icarus Girl

One point of tension in the novel is the different parenting methods used by Jess’s mother and father. While her father usually chooses to talk to and reason with Jess, her mother sometimes yells, hits Jess, or uses other physical forms of punishment. At one point, Jess’s mother explains, “Nigerian parents […] could actually kill a child over disrespect. It had been known to happen” (120). Later, when Jess shouts at her father, Jess’s mother exclaims, “If that had been my father ‘handling that,’ she would’ve been flat on the floor with a few teeth missing!” (206). For Jess’s mother, it is very important that children respect their parents, because that is how she was raised. When Jess’s mother is talking to her own father, Jess’s grandfather, she chooses her words carefully in order to be respectful. Jess’s father disagrees with her mother’s parenting methods: “I don’t get you, Sarah—one minute you want to hire a psychologist and the next you want me to beat her senseless” (206). Both parents have different parenting methods, which are influenced by the ways in which they themselves were raised. The question of how to discipline causes tension throughout the text and makes it difficult for Jess to connect with either of her parents. 

When Jess returns to England after her family’s trip to Nigeria and begins school, she has trouble fitting in with her classmates. She doesn’t have any friends at school, which is why TillyTilly is so important to her. When TillyTilly finally shows up in England, Jess imagines TillyTilly coming to her school, where “they could eat lunch together and maybe even play clapping games in the playground like the other girls did” (95). This passage shows how much Jess longs to have a friend her age to play with. However, the longer Jess and TillyTilly play together in England, the more difficult it becomes for Jess to decide between TillyTilly—who can be mean and mischievous—and real friends her age. When Jess runs into some classmates in the park, she thinks, “even if TillyTilly wasn’t real, if it was a choice between there being just her and Tilly or her and real people, she’d much, much rather have Tilly” (164).

Eventually, Jess becomes friends with Siobhan McKenzie, the daughter of Dr. McKenzie. However, TillyTilly quickly accuses Jess of liking Siobhan better than she like her and tries to convince Jess that Siobhan is not a good friend. Jess assures TillyTilly, “Me and you are twins, and Shivs is just my friend” (225), but Jess starts to question TillyTilly: “TillyTilly was much cleverer than her and knew nearly everything—so if she said that Shivs was a bad friend, then she must be right. But Shivs was funny, and always thought of fun things to do, and she didn’t think Jess was weird. So TillyTilly might have got it wrong this time. Maybe” (225). As Jess becomes closer to Siobhan, she feels pressured to choose between Siobhan and TillyTilly.

Jess also feels conflicted throughout the novel about whether to try to get along better with her classmates or remain close to TillyTilly, her only friend for much of the novel. As a young girl who has trouble fitting in with her peers, friendship is a complicated and difficult theme for Jess to navigate.