How does Captain Baker change throughout the story?

Jack’s father is a naval captain who is assigned to Portsmouth, Maine. He left for a tour of duty when his son, Jack was nine and was gone most of the next four years. Jack feels an emotional distance from his father who he sees as cold and remote and militaristic. His father even signs letters to Jack as “Captain Baker.” When Jack’s mother dies when Jack is 13, his father is at a loss over what to do with his only child. He decides to take him from his Kansas home and enroll him in a boys’ boarding school in Maine so that he’s geographically close to him.

Jack becomes friends with Early Auden, a fellow student at the boarding school. Jack and Early go on a quest to find Early’s older brother, Fisher, who has been declared “dead” by the U.S. Army. Early believes that his brother is alive and that he can find him. The boys go on a perilous journey that involves many dangers that even includes “pirates.” When they finally return to school, Jack figures his father will be mad at him and discipline him. Instead, his father cries and grabs and hugs his son, so relieved that Jack’s alive. It’s a father who Jack had never seen. Jack comes to understand his father, and his father opens up emotionally to Jack, and the two finally are headed for a close father and son relationship.