The Jumping People Metaphor

I think that one of the most important metaphors in ‘You Shall Know Our Velocity” is seen on pages 323- 328 in Hand’s story about the jumping people. This story has many hidden ties to themselves and their adventure in general, for this reason the book was even named after part of this story. Right from the beginning of the story we see themes to which Will and Hand can relate “they were mountains, and so heavy. They knew this. So this was their primary problem... How to fly with this weight?” this weight they speak of relates to the weight of Jack’s death and the point of this trip was ‘to fly’ to conquer and overcome or at least learn to live with that weight. “they’re jumping like crazy. They’re jumping, and they’re running, and it becomes just part of their daily routine, leaping around and darting from place to place.” This description of the lifestyle lived by the jumping people sounds a lot like how Will and Jack are living on this trip. They’re running and darting around from place to place, it almost seems like by this point in the trip they’ve come accustomed to it, like there’s nothing out of the ordinary about jumping on a plane every day and never staying too long in one place. “ they started realizing, deep down.... that maybe it’s not going to happen after all. But that doesn’t mean that the lessons aren’t valuable.” I think just like the jumping people Will is realizing that his life is never going to be the same; that the freedom he hoped to accomplished with this trip wasn’t going to happen that easily but at the same time he has still learned a lot. “ it all looked a little crazy to the spaniards... so these people were always considered a little flaky” This is like all the people who thought Will and Hand were crazy for doing what they were doing, flying around the world in a week giving away money, it wasn’t normal. The last and possibly most important part of the metaphor was that when the spaniards came after their land they just gave it to them because they felt like it didn’t belong to them in the first place and ran away leaving only the message “ You shall know our velocity” carved in a cliff. Will felt like the money he was given was not his own in the first place that he had no right to it so his plan was to give it to random people and then run away. Each time he gave these generous offerings the people knew the tremendous gift they were given they knew will and hand’s mission of love without any exchange of words, they knew their velocity.