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geeklosrwhatver · 8 days ago

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Jared Kleinmen DEH Analysis

Jared Kleinman is a character that is very frequently treated like a villain or even treated far too innocently. Sometimes, he is treated as if he only functions as comic relief. Jared Kleinman, like every character in this show, is multifaceted and complex. Jared's character draws a lot from Will Roland's experiences in middle school and showcases a real person who can often make mistakes and go overboard.

As an overview, Jared is a character who is insecure and lacking in friends. Because of this, he displays himself as overconfident and jokes about others to avoid jokes being made about him.

This ties into Will Rolands experiences as he has discussed in many interviews. In middle school, he got picked on and at one point even shoved into a locker. Will Roland had a good support group and friends, unlike Jared, although he still ended up acting in a similar fashion. He said he ended up becoming a bully to avoid being bullied himself. He said he often felt like he had to prove he was worthy of being liked to people who already liked him. He has also discussed that around this time, he became incredibly mean without even realizing it. He'd think he was just being funny and clever and didn't really process how it'd affect the victim of his joke. Will did end up getting an intervention and reflected and learned, and today is obviously a very nice guy. But even now, he's admitted he sometimes struggles with knowing when people are upset with him, and he can go too far with his jokes still because of that. And even now, he says he really needs to be directly told if he said something wrong because he doesn't always realize. I bring all of this up because you can very clearly see the connections between Will Roland and Jared. Will Roland was a major player in developing Jared, and by drawing upon his own life experiences, he made Jared much more human.

Jared Kleinman is a teenager who makes fun of other people to protect himself and also comes off as a massive dick without even realizing it. These two things can and do coexist. Sometimes, it is what feels like self-defense, and sometimes he is just being a dick because he's a teenager who hasn't fully realized that his words can hurt others. But that doesn't mean he's not an asshole for saying them!

Now, let's walk through Jared's actions in the show.

First scene with him and Evan. We see examples of him just being a dick. Such as him making jokes about Evan masturbating to Zoe or making fun of him falling out of a tree. These things aren't necessarily him being a horrible person, and more him just not considering how rude his words are.

The "family friends" situation. I'd like to preface this by saying that Evan, for sure, knew this entire time that Jared didn't have friends beside him. Jared wants to keep up this facade that he's cool and untouchable. Think playing hard to get. Also connects back to the "proving" he's worth liking thing. Jared also cares about what Evan thinks of him. A lot. So, he doesn't want Evan to see him as a friendless loser. Same reason he doesn't sign his cast. He doesn't want to show he cares.

I have always been under the impression that the thing with his camp friends is half true. Like, I doubt he slept with this girl, but I believe he has people from camp in his contact. But I think it's more in the sense he has them as Facebook friends more than they're hanging out all the time. I'll get back to this.

Next, Jared makes the "school shooter chic" comment. When talking about this, the book writer explained that it's always been a controversial line, but it's stayed in there because a lot of people, especially youth, have now become decently desensitized to this stuff and will joke about it. Especially when we consider someone like Jared who isn't really thinking about the moral implications of his jokes.

Now, when I see this scene, I also think of Jared's opinions on Connor. Jared obviously thinks of Connor as somewhat crazy. Although, I've never really seen it in the way that he actually despises him or anything. I think the main reason Jared picks on Connor is because it helps him feel better about himself. When people like Jared bully other kids, they try to find people that they are "obviously" above and then prove it. Connor is pretty hated by everyone. So, Jared has to make it known that he is better than Connor. Therefore, he makes comments about him. That joke itself does read more in the way of Jared actually thinking he's being funny. Especially afterward when he says he's kidding. Then, when Connor actually looks upset by the joke, it scares Jared. Now, I don't see this as him being scared OF Connor. I see at as him realizing "shit, that wasn't great of me to say." But, he doesn't want to apologize or embarrass himself, so he calls Connor a freak and runs off.

The next notable thing is when Jared sort of encourages Evan to lie to the Murphys. Obviously, Jared didn't expect it to get that out of hand. He played it like Evan would just have that one dinner where he didn't have to make them miserable and he didn't have to get in trouble but then they wouldn't talk anymore because they got what they needed. But, Evan contradicted and added to the story and that made them more interested. The emails gave him a reason to go back.

When Jared agrees to do the emails with Evan, I see it as an opportunity for him. We know that before this, the two grew up together. Despite this, their relationship before the musical was more of them occasionally talking at school or seeing each other. Heidi even comments about how they were getting a lot closer and making it seem like they were becoming friends for the first time ever. Because Evan NEEDS Jared, he's going to do this for him. It's a rare moment where Jared specifically is actually needed, and Evan has nobody else to turn to. So, he does it. This action is selfish, and he should have told Evan to come clean, and he should not have helped. But Jared wanted to feel needed by Evan, so he wrote the emails.

Also, I got to say. Jared speaks exactly like a closeted gay man. In Sincerely Me most of all. No straight man talks about gay relationships like he does..

Anyway. Jared calls Evan out on his actions beginning here. He says Evan was wrong for kissing Zoe. But then he says that he just needs to stop. This was an opportunity to pull out of the lie and he wanted Evan to take it. If I really push hard I can say that he'd hoped Evan would start actually hanging out with him then. I want to note that every single time we have seen Evan come to Jared first, it has been for a favor.. The way Jared talks about this is lacking in sympathy. Selling the buttons is a dick move. But, in the end, he's right. When tragedies happen people use then to get whatever they can out of it and then move on to the next thing to use. This concept of people wanting to insert themselves into a person's life after their death is exactly what this musical was built on. Jared is just aware of it and blatantly calls it out. In a way, he's even saying that if everyone else, including Evan, is getting something out of Connors death. Why can't he?

Jared joins the Connor Project. Why??? He could easily sit on the sidelines and choose to do nothing. Why does he join? It can fall into the category of him wanting to do more with Evan. It doesn't have to do with money as the buttons he's selling now go to the orchard. I think it's also that, similar to Alana, he's felt those ways before. He's felt completely hopeless. He's felt like nobody would notice if he disappeared. So, he joins and participates.

This next thing I'm bringing up is such a small fucking detail and I'm insane about it. When telling the Murphy family about the Connor Project, Jared is there to help. He has his little line "a massive fundraiser-" but then Evan cuts him off and if you're watching it. HE LIKE PUSHES HIM BACK A LITTLE... I don't even have a massive analysis bit on this, I just needed to bring it up. It's just part of Jared getting sidelined by Evan. No wonder he does anything Evan asks of him. Even when he's doing what Evan asks, he doesn't acknowledge him 😭 okay Evan lovers don't get mad at me for this one. I'm being angsty, not hating. This is written by an angst fic writer trying to understand him better.

He also subtly calls Evan out again for his motivation that isn't just "helping the Murphys!"

Small detail that I'm unsure if it's even intentional. In You Will Be Found, when Jared is reading off the view count, he's interrupted by Cynthia reading it off. Then he turns around with the spotlight still on him. It signifies, to me, that Evan is listening to anyone else over Jared and kind of putting him to the side.

Jared and Alana mirror each other at times, and you can see that in this song too with, "Across the silence, your voice is heard." They both have a desire to be heard and are participating in this project because they know what it feels like to be in Connor's shoes.

Sincerely, Me Reprise has Jared inserting himself into the story. I think this can show how he wants to be friends with Evan. He wants to be a part of everything. When talking about Connor, in a lot of ways, Evan incorporates parts of his friendship with Jared into him. Now, we see Jared doing a similar thing. He wants a friend, and he wants to be a part of something, so he hopes to make it a reality like Evan did. He also then calls Evan out on his bullshit again. Evan made stuff up. Why can't he? I think in the musical, this is more meant to represent Jared feeling like this over it being cut and dry that in the scene.

Jared bringing up his camp friends here is entirely a fake scenario in my head. He brings it up only after Evan is rejecting him. It's his way of showing that he doesn't need Evan because he's so busy anyway! Then he directly after says he's willing to do more stuff for The Connor Project, which implies he isn't actually that busy. It also shows that he genuinely cares about it.

I also like the line, "Guess I shouldn't tell anyone about that either." In reference to Evan loving trees and Connor not. Because it's showing his annoyance peaking through. Evans relying on him to do all this stuff for him and keep all these secrets. What does Evan do in return? Nothing that we see.

In fact, now we see Evan rejecting Jared's offer to hang out. Again, every time they have talked, it has either been Jared initiating it or Evan needing a favor. Then Evan proceeded to place blame on Jared for not being active enough with the Connor Project even though he told Jared he didn't need to do anything. Jared then points out that Connors' death is the best thing to ever happen to Evan. This is also Jared getting close to his breaking point. He's pissed off that Evan is using him and playing everyone for what entirely seems like selfish gain to him.

My favorite scene is completely when Jared finally reaches his breaking point. Evan, again, comes to him for a favor, and that is laughable to Jared. Evan calls Jared out for having no friends. And there are better, more in-depth posts about just Evans line here. What is notable is that Evan phrases it in a way where he knows that Jared considers him to be a friend, and he considers Jared a friend. It's not "no friends." It's "other friends." And then Evan points out that Jared played a part in everything. And Jared can do nothing else but flee.

Jared's part in Good For You really highlights that he felt played. Evan only started really talking to him when he became useful and then ditched him for Zoe when he didn't need him anymore.

I saw someone point out that when the letter is leaked you can see Jared get mad at Alana for leaking it which proves he still cares about all of this even with his anger.

I really wish we got Jared's reaction to the letter. Especially because he knew Evan wrote it. Sadly, we don't get that. Because Jared would have reacted differently if he had known. That I'm confident in. I'm also clarifying here that the way I talk about Evan is more from Jared's point of view and not my own.

In the end, Jared is still a selfish dick at times. But that is not all he is. There's no excusing all his actions and words just because of his insecurities. He should not have said and done a lot of what he did. He's not irredeemable, and he is not perfect. This is true for all the characters in Dear Evan Hansen.

This is a lot of me ranting and probably making no sense. However, I hope that if you made it to the end, you now have a better understanding of Jared Kleinman.

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