“I stare at these faces without features- these blank ovals with hair- looking from one to the next with increasing desperation. I’m aware of a heavy, wet noise, and realize it’s me. I’m gasping for breath… I blink, unable to focus. A second later I cross the room and toss the exam booklet on the proctor’s desk. ‘Finished already?’ He says, reaching for it, I hear paper rustling as I head for the door. ‘Wait!’ he calls after me. ‘You haven’t even started! You can’t leave. If you leave I can’t let you-.’ The door cuts off his final words.”

(23) This is the scene directly after Jacob returns to Cornell after his parents have died. He realizes that even though he knows some people in the room, he doesn’t know the rest. They become blank faces, with no features to tell them apart. This was scary for Jacob, because he suddenly realizes that he is alone, and he doesn’t have anyone that is close to him now that his family is gone.

This passage also marks the end of an important period in his life. Jacob had spent 8 years in college to become a veterinarian, but left right before he graduated. He found that because he didn’t have anywhere to go, he didn’t have the drive any longer. Also, it marks the end of his youth; he left childhood behind, first when his parents died, and secondly when he leaves behind the place that has been his home for 8 years.

Although it marks the end to a part of his life, it also opens up a new path for his future. The old saying “When one door closes, another window will open,” is very true for Jacob. Even though he left his original life plan of opening a clinic, the opportunity to join the circus opens up when he jumps a train the night he leaves Cornell. This decision will lead to the rest of the plot line of the book, and the major events throughout his life.