It is no doubt that Neil Gaiman is a talent at the fantastic literature field. He is adept at using odd, terrified, and humorous words to create a fantastic world which is attractive for readers. In “Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions”, the collection of his short stories, “Don’t Ask Jack” is the shortest one. However, although the story is so short and makes it hard to build a particular fantasy literature, Neil Gaiman still creates a well-rounded portrayal of Jack, and builds an integrated story through describing Jack as a symbol which represents the kids’ childhood and their rich imagination in the story.

In the first paragraph, Gaiman gives Jack a mysterious image. According to the story, “Nobody knew where the toy had come from” (71), Gaiman uses the word “toy” instead of its name Jack because nobody can remember its origin. It is antique, with the attractive mystery. But Jack was given to the nursery. Why did his old owner abandon it? Is he inauspicious? Just the first short paragraph gives the readers a lot of fantastic feelings and makes them curious about Jack, gives readers freedom to imaging, and longing for more details of Jack.

Then Gaiman moves to the description of Jack’s box. That box is so special, it is heavy, well-made, and locked by a rusty latch (71). Because the box is valuable, these children cannot not open it without the key, they do not want to break this beautiful box, even though it is inviting. So as Gaiman states, “Jack could not be released from his box” (71). Gaiman uses a terrifying word “released”. This word gives Jack life and thought, and emotion. The word makes reader feel Jack’s emotion. Gaiman’s use of the term ‘released’ implies that Jack does not want to stay in the box. what does he want to do when he releases from the box? By using these terrifying word “released”, Gaiman builds a horrible atmosphere and make readers nervous.

In the next paragraph, Gaiman gives more details of Jack’s box. Jack was buried by many broken toys. Clowns, conjuring tricks, and marionettes. They are all toys which bring joy to kids at ordinary time, but when they are broken, and locked in an old, heavy box, stay with the mysterious Jack. They are not that funny things. They stay with dark, they are obsolete, and eccentric... They used to be children’s partners, but now they were abandoned and locked in a box. Lonely, and dark, these toys and Jack creates desolate atmosphere which makes readers scared. All these factors make Jack in the box unusual. In the fourth paragraph, Gaiman states that the children do not play with the box (72). Even though the box is attractive to them, it makes them scared at the same time. They have many stories about Jack even they did not see him before. Jack plays different roles in their stories. According to the text, Jack is the evil wizard, and the guardian for Pandora’s box (72). Jack’s identifies differ as children’s imaginations changed. Children’s imagination is infinite, there are always new things in their minds. They will have outlandish thoughts which the adults never know and understand. At that point, Gaiman shows us that the terrifying things about Jack might be these children’s imagination, because children can create anything based on an unknown box. Jack is just a normal toy in the box and these children give him a life, make him live in the world, and give him different identities.

In the fifth paragraph, when the children grow up, they leave the house and do not play in the nursery anymore. Jack was forgotten too. But as the next three paragraphs state, each kid still has some memory about Jack. They remember they went to find Jack at night, and “he told them each things they could never quite remember, things they were never able to entirely to forget” (72). These three paragraphs are important because they finally start to unveil Jack’s mystery. Connecting the analysis above with the prior paragraphs, we can find that Jack is not exist in real world, but kids’ imaginations make he the guardian, the evil wizard, or anything else. Jack actually represents the children’s childhood. Their childhood is funny, interesting, and fantastic. But after a long time, they gradually forget it, and just have few memories about the mysterious Jack in the old heavy treasure chests.

Then Gaiman starts to describe the children’s life after they grow up from the paragraph nine to eleven. Gaiman gives the readers many details about the children’s adult life. As Gaiman states, “The oldest boy died in the Great War. The youngest …inherited the house……was found in the cellar one night with cloths and paraffin and matches, trying to burn the great house to the ground.” (73). These sentences show the bleakness of adult’s life. Their life is not as fun as their childhood, they struggle with the death and disease, and the vapidity of life. Compare to the prior paragraphs, the distinction between childhood and adult life is obvious. And in the ten and eleven paragraphs, Gaiman talks about the other girls’ conditions. They become women and always visit the old house and brother’s grave. But as years passed, the house becomes more and more shabby. The age takes over their vitality, and their memory of childhood. They used to be creative, insouciant, and childish, and finally they were destroyed by life. Gaiman provides a picture of the old house: “owls and bats have made their home in the old attic nursery, rats build their nests among the forgotten toys…” (73). This picture show readers the cruel reality: time passed relentlessly, finally eliminate all pleasure, leave the people stay with their tenuous memory of past.

In the last paragraph, Gaiman declares that Jack still stay in the box and waits for somebody else to open the box again (73). In my opinion, Jack is not only a toy here. Jack becomes a symbol and represents the innocent childhood, it could be anything evil, or wonderful, or mysterious. These children’s memories are stock in the box and stay with Jack forever, but there are more children who will meets Jack, Rose, or whosever, and spend their funny childhood with them.

To sum up, as a symbol in the text, Jack represents the imagination and creativity of kids’ childhood. Everybody may have a toy similar to Jack, and it can recall the distant memory of the past. Life is sterile, but we used to be delighted. Such a funny time is a treasure of our whole life. We all yearn to be innocent, but finally we will realize that time waits for no man, once we forgot Jack, we will never back to past again.
