41 pages • 1 hour read
J.D. and the Great Barber Battle
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Themes
Taking Pride in Personal Accomplishments
Because many of the characters of J.D. and the Great Barber Battle take pride and pleasure in their own innate skills, they collectively demonstrate the importance of celebrating individual talents and maintaining a strong sense of self-esteem. For J.D., he begins the book expressing his pride in his art skills, and he finds new pride when he realizes that he is also talented at creating unique and stylish haircuts. When Henry Jr. threatens to close down J.D.’s barbershop, J.D. is angry because he knows that his rival is unfairly trying to suppress his talent for the trade. He proudly asserts that cutting hair makes him “feel special” and declares, “No one else at school could do what I did” (74). J.D.’s pride in his own skill helps him to feel like an important member of his school community, and he believes that he is doing something to help the people around him. When he sees his friends’ own self-esteem bolstered as they sport their new, stylish haircuts, J.D. feels confident that his new ambition is positive, and this thought gives him the encouragement he needs to fight for his right to pursue his ambition to keep cutting hair.
While J.D.’s character arc shows that his pride in his accomplishments helps both himself and others, Jessyka’s accomplishments in sports highlight the importance of not letting others dictate how she thinks about herself. Jessyka plays on J.D.’s peewee football team, and she also runs track with kids in a higher age group, making her one of the most athletically accomplished people at her school. Despite this, she endures endless pressure from the boys, who don’t want to her to infiltrate their hangouts, such as J.D.’s makeshift barbershop, simply because she is a girl. Rather than let their resistance bother her, however, Jessyka remains steadfastly confident in what she can do. As a result, she can easily put the boys in their place. In addition, when she helps J.D.’s sister to start a business in direct competition with J.D., Jessyka makes it clear that her pride in herself keeps her from succumbing to peer pressure.
J.D. and Jessyka’s actions model all the opportunities that become possible when young people believe in themselves and are proud of their talents, and through J.D.’s mom, the novel also emphasizes the fact that it is equally important for adults to take pride in themselves as well. Throughout the book, J.D.’s mom works toward obtaining her MBA after becoming disillusioned by her short career in nursing. She makes the brave choice to abandon a career she loves because she sees the disparities in the treatment of patients, and this decision shows the quality of her ethics; she believes that it is important to be proud of what she does, and she refuses to waste her time feeling miserable when her talents can be put to use elsewhere. When she finally completes her coursework at the end of the book, J.D.’s granddad takes the family out for a special dinner, showing the importance of celebrating accomplishments. These lessons, coupled with those offered by J.D. and Jessyka, make J.D. and the Great Barber Battle a tale about pushing through disappointment and strife and committing to goals that celebrate individual talents.
The Tension between Confidence and Arrogance
As the novel’s primary conflicts unfold, the narrative suggests that confidence and arrogance exist on the same spectrum, and as the characters pursue their own interests and ambitions, they inevitably explore the link between these emotions, learning how the more positive emotion of confidence can sometimes spill over into arrogance. J.D.’s character arc shows that although confidence can become arrogance, it is also possible to reverse this internal shift when important lessons are learned. Before Henry Jr. threatens J.D.’s barbershop, J.D. is purely confident in his abilities, choosing to cut hair because he is good at it and because he wants to help his friends. However, once Henry Jr. makes good on his threats, J.D. starts becoming arrogant. His anger at Henry Jr. prevents him from remembering why he started cutting hair in the first place. Instead, he can only concentrate on destroying Henry Jr. in the barber battle, and his kind thoughts about helping people give way to more vengeful ambitions. He even thinks to himself, “By the end of the day, all of Henry Jr.’s remaining clients would be mine” (92). J.D.’s arrogance is further inflated when he wins the competition, and it is only when he sees Henry Jr.’s sad family that he finally realizes an important lesson: that winning isn’t everything. Faced with the fact that his victory has so clearly upset others, he abandons his arrogance. Instead of continuing to work against Henry Jr., J.D. chooses to find a more honest, simple pride in his own talents. As a result, he and Henry Jr. are able to form a mutually beneficial partnership, and this development shows that confidence is a much more useful emotion than arrogance.
Just as J.D.’s side of the barber conflict shows the progression of confidence to arrogance, Henry Jr.’s arc similarly reveals that long-held arrogance incites him to take rash and hurtful actions. For years, Hart and Son has been the only barbershop in town. As a result, Henry Jr. has convinced himself that he holds a monopoly on haircuts in town, and this misguided notion has made him both confident and arrogant. When he starts to lose business to J.D., Henry Jr. allows his own arrogance to govern his actions. Feeling threatened by J.D.’s competition, he becomes willing to do whatever it takes to ruin J.D.’s business, and his actions demonstrate the destructive power of arrogance for both individuals and communities. After losing the barber battle, Henry Jr. is forced to admit that he isn’t the only barber—or even the best barber—in the town. His choice to offer J.D. a job shows that he has let go of his arrogance for the good of his business. As a result, J.D. continues to give his peers stylish haircuts at Hart and Son, which stays open and becomes even more successful. This resolution suggests that by abandoning his arrogance, Henry Jr. helps both his business and his customers.
Facing New Challenges as They Come
While the characters of J.D. and the Great Barber Battle overcome several notable obstacles throughout the story, they always find a new challenge to face, and this pattern shows that dealing with adversity is never truly finished. J.D.’s character arc is an example of how new challenges often appear to replace the problems that have been solved. At first, J.D. must find a way to fix his bad haircut, which he does after a few false starts. This experience inspires him to launch his own barber business, but just as he is enjoying the success of this endeavor, he must now face the threats of the jealous Henry Jr., and this interaction leads to the barber battle. Similarly, although winning the barber battle should be the end of J.D.’s problems, even this solution creates new challenges, as when his business begins to inconvenience his family. Even the novel’s conclusion implies that the protagonist’s challenges will continue, for after J.D. accepts Henry Jr.’s offer to work at Hart and Son, J.D.’s sister presents him with yet another issue. This storytelling pattern shows that even resolutions come with their own set of problems to be faced.
Specifically, J.D.’s decision of whether to work at Hart and Son delivers an important lesson, for he must set aside his own arrogance and avoid letting his past problems obstruct the solution to his current issue. Though J.D. and Henry Jr. have had their differences, J.D. also realizes that Henry Jr.’s offer is a great opportunity. Rather than letting the strife of the past dictate how he moves forward, J.D. makes the best choice for himself and his family. Similarly, Henry Jr. relinquishes his own anger and arrogance and realizes that holding onto negative emotions toward J.D. will only put his own business in jeopardy. In addition, Henry Jr. realizes that he doesn’t know what hairstyles his younger customers want, and after the competition, everybody in town is aware of his shortcomings. J.D. and Henry Jr. therefore acknowledge their weaknesses and resolve to work together, and this development shows they both recognize the importance of adapting in order to succeed.
While J.D. and Henry Jr.’s decision to work together shows the importance of making smart changes to solve problems, the novel’s other events emphasize the value in remaining open-minded about future challenges. Beginning with the first problem that J.D. faces (his bad haircut), the protagonist encounters two types of challenges—those that he anticipates (as when his classmates tease him about his hair) and those he that he could never predict (as when Henry Jr. threatens his business). When J.D. sees a challenge coming, he can prepare himself for it and start considering possible solutions even before the challenge affects him. However, for the unexpected challenges, J.D. is caught off-guard, which slows his response time and lets matters escalate quickly. This pattern is shown when he ignores Henry Jr.’s threats, and the health inspector then comes to his house. Because J.D. has no framework to even expect Henry Jr.’s threats, he cannot prepare for them ahead of time, which forces him to scramble for a solution and highlights the importance of quick thinking. Once he understands how to react to unexpected changes, J.D. is able to meet them head-on, as when his sister decides to launch her own business in Chapter 24. Although J.D. doesn’t know what to expect from this, he does know that new challenges are coming, and his readiness to face them reveals how much his problem-solving skills have grown.
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