In chapter 2, Paterson writes that Jess feels lonely in the house because he is surrounded by females. Indeed, Jess has four sisters (Ellie, Brenda, May Belle, Joyce) and no brothers.

In chapter 2, he hears his sisters arriving home, and he imagines their mother "fix(ing) them supper" and all of them "laughing and chattering" together. Jess feels left out. Paterson jokes that "even the one rooster had died." A rooster is a male chicken, and the fact that even he has died emphasizes just how dominant the females are and how lonely Jess is, for much of the time, as the only male in the house.

Jess doesn't see his father very much because he, the father, is away "from sunup until well past dark." Jess feels that, with his father away, there is nobody in the house "to know how he (feels)." When his father is at home, he is "so tired from the wear and tear of the week" that he spends most of his time "sleeping in front of the TV."