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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Adoration of Jenna Fox, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Relationships
Biotechnology and Ethics
Humanity
Perfection and Purity
Idolatry and Religion
Summary
Analysis
California. The narrator has been told that she is Jenna Fox, but she feels she is somehow “more” than what she has been told or shown about herself. Jenna’s mother asks Jenna to come watch the inauguration of the first female Nigerian American president. Jenna smiles when her mother smiles, but she can’t yet mimic other expressions. When Jenna’s mother calls for her own mother, Lily, to join them, Jenna’s sure Lily won’t—she’s convinced Lily dislikes her. When Lily calls back that she’ll watch from the kitchen, Jenna tells “Lily” she’ll go away. Jenna’s mother says Jenna always called Lily “Nana.” Lily says that Jenna can call her Lily and joins them on the sofa.
Jenna’s feeling that she is “more” than what she’s been told about Jenna Fox hints at a mismatch between Jenna’s interiority and the identity that other people assign to her. In the same vein, when she calls her grandmother “Lily” and her mother says she used to call Lily “Nana,” the novel uses changes in Jenna’s relationships to hint at changes in Jenna’s identity. Finally, the inauguration of the first female Nigerian American president—which hasn’t yet occurred—makes clear that the novel is science-fictional and takes place in a near-future U.S.
Themes
Awareness. Jenna recalls a “dark place” where she has no body and no ability to scream. She wanted to die but was unable to. She’s sure the dark place isn’t a dream because she doesn’t have dreams.
The passage does not make clear what the “dark place” where Jenna had no body was. However, the idea that Jenna could exist without a body suggests that individual identity is not based on physical form—and may also hint at either some advanced biotechnology or some form of afterlife.
Themes
Waking. Jenna woke up two weeks ago. She has no memories of the year after her accident: she missed her birthday, the election of a second female president, and the death of the final wild polar bear. She cries every day when she wakes up, without any associated emotion.
That Jenna cries without feeling any emotion suggests some split in her personality or identity—perhaps she has repressed the reason for which she is grieving or upset and so can’t remember or understand why she is crying.
Themes
After Jenna woke up, her father input her symptoms into “the Netbook” to determine treatment, but no one seemed to treat her: she just got better, relearning how to walk and speak. She walked on the fifth day after waking. Her mother, crying, called it a “miracle,” but Lily pointed out that Jenna walked strangely. Her father went back to his job in Boston on the eighth day. Before he left, he called Jenna “angel” and promised her that she’d get her memory back. But Jenna still doesn’t remember her family or herself.
This passage makes clear that Jenna has amnesia after her accident and so poses a question: do a person’s memories constitute their identity, or does something else? Meanwhile, when Jenna’s mother calls Jenna “miracle” and her father calls her “angel,” it suggests that Jenna’s parents love her with an almost religious fervor.
Themes
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Time. Jenna has forgotten many words, basic ones like “apple” and “time.” She looks them up and predicts that she’ll “never forget them again.”
Again, the novel uses Jenna’s amnesia to pose questions about identity: is identity made up of knowledge? Are you the same person you were if you forget basic words and concepts like “apple” and “time”? Meanwhile, Jenna’s prediction that she will “never forget [these words] again” may hint that her memory has actually gotten better since her accident—a peculiar outcome that insinuates biotechnological intervention.
Themes
Order. Jenna looks up “curious,” which can mean both “inquisitive” and “odd, strange.” The first week after Jenna woke up, her mother kept asking whether she remembered things, and Jenna kept having to say no. On the seventh day, her mother gave her recordings of her life but told her there was no pressure to watch them.
Implicitly, when Jenna looks up the word “curious,” the definition helps her understand herself: she is both “inquisitive” and “strange.” Meanwhile, when Jenna’s mother gives her home videos of her life to watch, it suggests that Jenna’s mother does think memories constitute identity—she’s anxious for Jenna to regain her memories so that Jenna will be more “herself.”
Themes
Jenna watches herself in utero and learns that her parents had two miscarriages before they took “extra measures” to have her, making her their “miracle child.” She is watching her third birthday party when Lily walks up and says that Jenna doesn’t need to watch the recordings in order. Then she calls Jenna “curious.” Jenna—who looked up the word after her mother used it to describe their neighbor Mr. Bender—agrees that she is “strange” since she was comatose for a year. Lily tells Jenna to watch the last tapes first. Jenna decides not to.
The backstory that Jenna’s parents had two miscarriages before Jenna and took “extra measures”—presumably biotechnological interventions—to have Jenna helps explain their religiously inflected love of her: they adore her in part because of their previous grief and in part because they see her as a scientific “miracle.” Meanwhile, Jenna’s decision not to watch the last tapes first—just because Lily told her to—shows Jenna forming a new personality and preferences based on opposition to her hostile grandmother.
Themes
Widening. Jenna thinks there is something “curious” about her family and especially herself—she can remember historical facts but nothing about her own life.
Jenna thinks that both she and her family are “curious” as in “strange,” a judgment that shows her alienation from the people around her as well as from herself.
Themes
Day Sixteen. For the first time since Jenna woke up, her mother plans to leave the house. She asks whether Jenna will be fine. Jenna says she will: she has her “nutrients,” which she eats instead of ordinary food. (When she asked why she must ingest nutrients, her parents stumblingly claimed that after using a feeding tube for so long, she won’t be able to digest regular food for a while.)
Jenna’s parents’ stumbling explanation of Jenna’s special diet suggests that they are lying. That Jenna eats “nutrients” rather than food hints that her digestive tract was damaged in the accident and may have been supplemented by biotechnology that perhaps can’t handle regular food.
Themes
Jenna’s mother is going into town to find workmen to help restore their house. In Boston, she was a specialist in restoring brownstones. As California has no brownstones, she now has no job except to watch Jenna and fix the new house. As her mother is leaving, Jenna asks why they moved to California. Jenna’s mother claims that she can’t explain fully, or she’d miss her shuttle—but that mainly, the family wanted to give Jenna “a quiet place to recover.” Jenna thinks this story lacks sense: proximity to a hospital seems more important than quiet to her.
Jenna immediately recognizes that her mother’s story about “a quiet place to recover” doesn’t really make sense. This recognition shows Jenna’s intelligence. At the same time, Jenna’s suspicion that her parents are lying to her presumably alienates her from them at a time when she is dependent on them for knowledge of her own identity. Additionally, Jenna’s mother’s apparent lie indicates that despite Jenna’s parents’ quasi-religious love of her, they are willing to deceive her if they see fit.
Themes
My Room. Jenna’s mother tells her to go to her room and rest. Jenna goes, though she doesn’t want to go and isn’t tired. Her bedroom is empty of personality: just a bed, a desk with a Netbook, and a closet with a locked door at the back. The closet’s full of blue clothes. Through her window, she sees her neighbor Mr. Bender outside on his property, looking at something on the ground. She looks back at her empty room and wonders: “Is this all Jenna Fox adds up to?”
By noting that Jenna doesn’t want to go to her room and isn’t tired, the novel encourages the reader to view Jenna’s obedience to her mother’s command as peculiar. Meanwhile, when Jenna examines her room and wonders, “Is this all Jenna Fox adds up to?”, it shows Jenna trying to build her identity out of possessions, objects external to herself—and failing.
Themes
A Question I Will Never Ask Mother. Jenna wants to know whether she had friends before her accident. No one has contacted her. She wonders about her pre-accident personality if she had no friends.
Jenna worries what kind of person she was before the accident if she had no friends—a worry that implicitly suggests people’s identities are built out of their relationships, including and perhaps especially their friendships.
Themes
More. Lily’s in the kitchen cooking. She used to be a high-powered doctor, but she quit, and now her hobbies are cooking and gardening. Jenna sneaks past Lily and out of the house. She hasn’t exited the house except to see Lily’s greenhouse with her mother because her mother’s afraid she’ll get “lost”—something Jenna thinks she might already be. She creeps to the backyard, which is separated from Mr. Bender’s property by a pond, and she sees Mr. Bender squatting on the ground looking at something.
Jenna thinks she might already be “lost,” a side comment revealing that Jenna doesn’t know who she is and thinks she might have “lost” her pre-accident self forever.
Themes
Jenna walks around the pond and over a creek to approach Mr. Bender. He stands and asks whether she’s lost. She looks back at her house, looks at her hands, silently recites her name, and says no. When she explains she saw him from the window, he shows her what he’s been working on: an artwork called Pine Serpent, a snake composed of pine needles arranged sinuously on the ground. Mr. Bender explains that he’s an “environmental artist”—and that while his works are “temporal,” he does take photographs of them to preserve a copy.
Like Jenna’s mother, Mr. Bender worries that Jenna is physically lost—lost in space—while Jenna takes the question as an existential inquiry. Does she know who she is, or has she misplaced her identity? Her lack of surety about who she is contrasts with Mr. Bender’s confident definition of himself as an “environmental artist” who creates “temporal”—i.e. intentionally short-lived—pieces.
Themes
Mr. Bender asks whether Jenna has ever heard of him. When she says no, he reveals that one of his artworks is very famous and made him some money, which allowed him to buy his house on the cheap after an earthquake. Jenna abruptly recites details of the earthquake: 15 years ago, it killed 19,000 people, and it triggered another Great Depression in tandem with “the Aureus epidemic.” Then she goes silent, shocked that she knew all those facts. Mr. Bender says he was happy to see Jenna’s family moving in a few weeks ago. When Jenna protests that they’ve been living in the house longer, Mr. Bender unconvincingly says he must have made a mistake.
Jenna’s outburst about the earthquake and the Aureus epidemic emphasizes the peculiar fact that she remembers a lot about the world and nothing about herself. The outburst also provides helpful exposition for the reader, making clear that the medical and biotechnological landscape in the novel is influenced by a historically recent epidemic deadly enough to help trigger a massive economic recession.
Themes
Mr. Bender offers to show Jenna his birds. They walk to his garden, where Mr. Bender sits and holds out birdseed. Mr. Bender waits patiently, and birds come eat from his hand. He gives some birdseed to Jenna, but no birds come to her. When he tells her she can come back “anytime” to try again, Jenna examines his face—and decides he means it. As she’s leaving, Mr. Bender tells her to be careful: occasionally pets go missing, and while most of their neighbors are nice, with others “you never know.”
In popular culture, animal torture is associated with early psychopathy and budding serial killers. When Mr. Bender warns Jenna that pets go missing in the neighborhood and that “you never know” about some neighbors, he seems to be implying that one of their neighbors might be a morally monstrous psychopath.
Themes
Known. Jenna decides that Mr. Bender is her first post-accident friend, which makes her smile—she isn’t sure she’ll remember her old self like her parents want, but she’s glad to make “something new.” As she walks back over the creek toward her house, she has a sudden sensation of drowning and cries out. Lily runs and grabs her, lifting her up—and Jenna realizes her clothes are dry, though she has a tiny cut on her knee.
Jenna contrasts the loss of her pre-accident self with making “something new” through new friendships. This contrast suggests again that Jenna sees friendship as central to identity-building. Yet despite Jenna’s worry that she’ll never recover her memories, her sensation of drowning while dry seems to suggest some kind of trauma flashback.
Themes
Remembering. After Jenna’s mother talks to Jenna’s father on the Net, she walks over to Jenna and says that the cut should be fine, “like any other cut.” When Lily mutters that it isn’t “exactly” like other cuts, Jenna’s mother starts yelling at Jenna for leaving the house. Jenna reveals that she had a memory of drowning. Lily says that Jenna almost drowned around age two, and Jenna insists that she remembers it. Lily tells the story of young Jenna falling into the bay “like she is talking about someone” other than the Jenna in the room. Jenna’s mother, crying, embraces Jenna, overjoyed that Jenna is remembering. Jenna thinks that she is “ready to move on,” but the old Jenna is coming back.
Lily’s claim that Jenna’s cut isn’t “exactly” like other cuts again hints at something biotechnological and perhaps science-fictional about Jenna’s post-accident body. Additionally, when she talks about two-year-old Jenna’s accident “like she is talking about someone” other than post-accident Jenna, the novel hints that Lily is as dubious about current Jenna’s identity as Jenna herself is. When Jenna thinks—with some dismay—that the old Jenna is coming back even though current Jenna is “ready to move on,” it suggests that Jenna believes in this moment that memory is central to identity.
Themes
Visitors. That night, Jenna remembers the faces—but nothing else—of her old friends Kara and Locke. She longs for them to reveal her identity to her.
Jenna longs for her friends to show her her identity—a longing that again emphasizes the importance of interpersonal relationships, especially friendships, to individual identity.
Themes
Timing. Lily takes Jenna on errands with her, even though Jenna’s mother wouldn’t like it, because Lily doesn’t want to risk leaving Jenna alone. As they drive through the fancy neighborhood, Jenna asks Lily whether her parents are rich. Lily, after hesitating, explains that Jenna’s father founded a biotech company that invented Bio Gel, a substance that allows indefinite preservation of transplant organs and that made him a huge amount of money.
The introduction of the fictional substance Bio Gel makes clear that biotechnological innovation will be central to the novel’s science-fictional elements. Lily’s explanation suggests that Bio Gel is a largely beneficial innovation, one that prevents organs from going to waste and thus helps save more lives of people who need transplants.
Themes
When Jenna asks whether Lily knows the neighbors, Lily says they’ve only been in the neighborhood for two and a half weeks. Jenna, who had been assuming they moved right after her accident, wonders about the odds of her waking up right after they moved—and realizes her parents must have been able to decide when she woke up. She wonders why they would have chosen to keep her in a coma for so long.
If Jenna’s parents chose when Jenna woke from her coma, that again indicates a higher level of biotechnological intervention in Jenna’s body post-accident that Jenna has been informed of up to this point. Meanwhile, when Jenna wonders why her parents would consign her to a coma for too long, it suggests that despite Jenna’s parents’ quasi-religious love of her, they are somewhat controlling and heavy-handed in the way they treat her.
Themes
Agreement. Jenna has never questioned her parents about the accident, as if she had a tacit agreement with them not to speak about it.
Jenna and her parents’ inability to talk about her accident hints that secrecy surrounding Jenna’s coma and recovery is leading to estrangement in their family. It is perhaps hindering Jenna from either recovering her old identity or building a new one through improved relationships with her parents.
Themes
Inside. When Lily parks, Jenna asks why Lily hates her. In a gentle voice, Lily says she doesn’t: “I simply don’t have room for you.” They walk from the parking lot into the church of the San Luis Rey mission, where Lily explains she’s going to meet a priest, Father Rico, whom she’s known from a distance for a long time. Inside the church, Lily crosses herself. Suddenly Jenna remembers Lily and a man leaning over her at her own baptism. She asks whether her grandfather had black hair and how he died. Lily explains that the Aureus epidemic killed him at a time when many antibiotics had become useless. She scoffs that “sometimes we just don’t know when we’ve gone too far.”
Lily claims that she “doesn’t have room for” post-accident Jenna. Given what an odd thing this is for a grandmother to say to her grandchild, this dialogue strongly supports the possibility that Lily doesn’t believe post-accident Jenna is the same person as pre-accident Jenna. Lily’s gesture of overt religious faith (crossing herself) contrasts with Jenna’s parents’ quasi-worship of Jenna, hinting that—for whatever reason—religion may be at the root of Lily’s and Jenna’s parents’ differing attitudes toward post-accident Jenna. Finally, when Lily suggests that her husband died in the Aureus epidemic after most antibiotics became useless, it indicates that the Aureus epidemic was some kind of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strain. As many antibiotic-resistant bacteria have evolved as a result of the human misuse or overuse of antibiotics, this backstory gestures toward the destructive potential of scientific advancements when people misuse or abuse them.
Themes
Jenna asks whether Lily quit medicine because she couldn’t save her husband. When Lily refuses to answer, Jenna points out that there are more regulations now. Lily says that the laws were too late to save some species—or to stop the bacteria that killed Jenna’s grandfather “and a quarter of the world’s population.” Jenna asks whether Lily ever felt she was “above the law” as a doctor, and Lily says she did—it’s something she has to live with. Abruptly, Jenna asks whether she was baptized, and Lily replies, “When she was two weeks old.”
When Lily says that increased regulations were too late to save some species or “a quarter of the world’s population,” the novel links environmental destruction like species extinction with antibiotic overuse (which seems to have caused the Aureus epidemic). This suggests that both are effects of humans misusing their technological and scientific power. Meanwhile, Lily once again refers to pre- and post-accident Jenna as if they were two different people: when Jenna asks if she, Jenna, was baptized, Lily replies “when she was two weeks old,” not “when “you were two weeks old.” Lily’s skepticism about post-accident Jenna’s identity hints at secrets around the accident and Jenna’s recovery that the novel has yet to reveal.
Themes
Later, when Lily and Father Rico talk, Jenna learns that they both belong to the “World Seed Preservation Organization” to protect “pure” species from cross-pollinating with bioengineered species. While Jenna waits for them, she sees a “pleasant looking” boy. When it seems like the boy will come talk to Jenna, Jenna sees Lily get tense and so looks away to discourage him. Immediately she’s angry with herself for kowtowing to Lily and her mother’s preferences.
The World Seed Preservation Organization sees itself as trying to protect “pure” species—rather than, for example, simply trying to protect species diversity. This choice of words suggests that some people resist biotechnological enhancements and genetic engineering simply because they idolize an idea of pre-scientific species “purity.”
Themes
Go to Your Room. At breakfast, Jenna asks whether she was interested in history. Her mother smiles and says no: history and math were “tutorworthy” subjects for her. Jenna tells her mother that she wants to go to school. There are two charter schools located within walking distance, and an academy is an easy drive away. Jenna’s mother snaps that Jenna can’t drive—and then she says that Jenna can’t go to school because she’s still getting better. When Jenna stands her ground, insisting on going to school, Jenna’s mother tells her to go to her room and rest. Though totally furious, Jenna finds herself going to her room against her will.
Post-accident Jenna can recall a huge number of historical facts, yet her mother claims history was a “tutorworthy” subject for Jenna, another detail hinting at major differences between pre-accident Jenna and post-accident Jenna. Meanwhile, this passage contains another incident when Jenna goes to her room as if against her will merely because her mother orders her to. Through the repetition of this type of incident, the novel again signposts that Jenna’s obedience is strange and noteworthy.
Themes
On the stairs, Jenna overhears Lily saying that Jenna’s mother made “a mistake.” Jenna’s mother retorts that she herself was born with in vitro fertilization. When Lily says, “it’s not natural,” Jenna’s mother points out that IVF isn’t either and then starts crying. Lily, calling Jenna’s mother “Claire,” says that Jenna should be allowed to have a life. When Claire suggests it might be dangerous for “others,” Lily says that she herself “said goodbye eighteen months ago,” but Claire made a choice. Jenna, shocked that Lily is arguing on her behalf, suddenly remembers that she used to call her mother Claire. She enters her room, thinking that she hates Claire.
In vitro fertilization is a biotechnology that uses sperm to fertilize an egg in lab conditions as an alternative to ordinary sexual reproduction. When Claire points out that she was born with IVF, she is implicitly calling Lily a hypocrite for claiming that whatever Claire did was a “mistake” and “not natural.” Though the passage doesn’t make clear what “it” Lily and Claire are referring to, context strongly suggests that they are talking about whatever Jenna’s parents did to help Jenna recover from her accident. Lily’s argument that what Claire did was bad because it isn’t “natural” emphasizes her investment in “purity,” also exemplified by her advocacy on behalf of non-genetically modified seeds. Meanwhile, her claim that she “said goodbye eighteen months ago”—the date of Jenna’s accident—hints that Lily thinks Jenna died in her accident and post-accident Jenna is actually someone else.
Themes
Jenna Fox/Year Ten. Jenna looks up “hate” and decides a better word for Claire is “aggravating.” She becomes more convinced that Lily does hate her, though: Lily has been avoiding her constantly. Jenna, in her room watching tapes of herself at age 10, suddenly sees a scar on her younger self’s chin. She searches for it in the mirror but can’t find it.
Given the novel’s repeated suggestions that individual identity derives in part from relationships, this passage suggests that post-accident Jenna is at least a different person from pre-accident Jenna in that her relationship with Lily has dramatically deteriorated. In a different register, Jenna’s discovery that pre-accident Jenna had a scar that vanished hints that Jenna is physically different from her old self—and perhaps that, however her parents intervened to save her life during her accident, they also chose to make “improvements” to her physical form.
Themes
A Glimpse. For three days, it rains. Jenna, bored and alone in the house, counts raindrops—it turns out she’s actually good at math. On the Net, she searches Mr. Bender and discovers no photos—he’s notoriously reclusive. When she searches “Jenna Fox,” she gets thousands of hits but doesn’t know which one is herself. The previous night, she dreamed Kara and Locke were calling for her to “hurry.” She suddenly remembers cutting class with them, thrilled to be breaking rules for once.
Though Claire previously mentioned that math was a “tutorworthy” subject for pre-accident Jenna, post-accident Jenna is good at math—another rupture in her identity. Meanwhile, Jenna’s memory of cutting class with Kara and Locke despite being a rule-follower illustrates one way that friendships can help identities to grow and change: friends can encourage or even pressure people to alter their usual behaviors.
Themes
A Curve. Jenna walks into the kitchen and finds Claire talking to her father on the Netbook. He briefly says hello to Jenna, calling her “Angel,” and logs off. Claire orders Jenna to sit; when Jenna sits, Claire tells her that she’ll start attending the closest local charter school the next day. Jenna, shocked, is wondering why Claire changed her mind when she sees that Claire is crying. Claire asks whether Jenna is happy; when Jenna says yes, Claire hugs her hard and suggests she go for a walk. As Jenna leaves, she sees Lily at the kitchen sink, crossing herself.
When Jenna’s father again calls her “Angel,” it reminds readers of the oddly religious, devotional language Jenna’s parents use to describe their love for her despite—as far as readers know—not practicing a religion the way Lily explicitly does.
Themes
Plea. Jenna remembers Lily praying over her body.
When Jenna remembers Lily praying over her body, it not only emphasizes Lily’s traditional religious beliefs but also underscores that Lily loved pre-accident Jenna and wanted her to recover. Implicitly, then, Lily’s hostility to post-accident Jenna has to do with whatever Jenna’s parents did to save Jenna’s life—and Lily’s corresponding doubt that post-accident Jenna actually is her granddaughter.
Themes
A Walk. Walking quickly away from her house, Jenna wonders why Claire was worried about the other students at Jenna’s school. Did Jenna harm Kara, Locke, or someone else? She decides to go visit her new friend Mr. Bender, via the sidewalk rather than around the rain-swollen pond. As she passes a white house with pillars, a “pleasant-looking,” shirtless blond boy steps out to get the paper, says hello, and introduces himself as Dane. As Jenna continues walking to Mr. Bender’s, she puzzles over the encounter, telling herself there was nothing “frightening” about it except how she felt paralyzed.
When Jenna wonders whether she hurt someone, perhaps one of her friends, she wrestles with the first time with the worry that her identity is morally bad in some way, rather than simply lost or damaged. The proximity of this worry to new character Dane, together with Jenna’s disturbed response to him despite there being nothing “frightening” about their encounter, hints that his character may help develop the novel’s exploration of morality and humanity.
Themes
Persona. Mr. Bender invites Jenna into his house and offers her food. When she refuses, saying she has a special diet, he reacts as if he already knew. She wonders what he’s found out about her on the Net. Then she asks to see the birds. She and Mr. Bender go outside to the garden. When the birds will still only land on his hand, not hers, he tries to comfort her by saying that “some things take time.”
Mr. Bender seems to know a lot about Jenna, while Jenna knows relatively little about herself. This contrast underscores Jenna’s self-alienation and identity loss. Yet Mr. Bender’s soothing claim that “some things take time” may hint that Jenna will regain a sense of self with time, just as the birds will come to trust her in time.
Themes
Jenna confronts Mr. Bender about searching her on the Net, and he calmly tells her that he did. She admits that she searched him as well—and learned that the artist Clayton Bender was born 84 years ago, whereas Mr. Bender looks 45 or 50. After a pause, Mr. Bender admits he took on the other Clayton Bender’s identity 30 years ago, after the original Bender died of natural causes. After getting into trouble as a 16-year-old, Mr. Bender got some money and a car from a friend and drove all the way to Clayton Bender’s house, offering to work for him. He worked for the old Clayton Bender until he died and then decided to become him. When Jenna asks whether Mr. Bender misses his old life, he says he regrets not seeing his parents again.
The revelation that Mr. Bender assumed a new identity after getting into trouble—much as Jenna is trying to rebuild an identity after a traumatic accident—underscores the novel’s belief that identity is mutable, often-changing. When Jenna asks whether Mr. Bender misses his old life and his old identity, he admits he misses his parents, a detail that highlights the way individual identities are intertwined with relationships.
Themes
Mr. Bender asks whether Jenna will keep his secret. When she says yes, he asks whether she’ll tell him her secrets. Jenna’s hands suddenly start shaking; she tries to weave her fingers together, but they feel strange. Thrusting her hands under her legs, she asks what else Mr. Bender was able to find out about her on the Net. He says that he read she was in a car accident and that she wasn’t expected to survive—but that the article was mostly about Jenna’s famous father, not underage Jenna, so he can’t say much more. Jenna thinks that he’s lying about something. She asks whether she passed the “Bender Neighbor Investigation,” and he says she did—he likes her “attitude.”
Jenna’s sense that her body is “strange” underscores her self-alienation and may hint that her post-accident recovery involved serious, traumatic changes to her body. Meanwhile, Mr. Bender and Jenna share some secrets, which solidifies their friendship, and yet Jenna senses that Mr. Bender is lying or deceiving her about something. This indicates that there are limits to their friendship—and perhaps that Mr. Bender has divided loyalties.
Themes
Jenna Fox/Year Twelve. Jenna, watching a video of herself at 12, notes the greediness of the camera, how it seems to eat up Jenna Fox, who represents “the hopes of Matthew and Claire Fox.” 12-year-old Jenna begs her mother to turn the camera off. As the next scene starts, Jenna pauses it, realizing she remembers it: she was drinking hot chocolate. She remembers that she adores hot chocolate. She goes running to the kitchen, calling for Claire and Lily, but they’re outside. Quickly, Jenna makes herself hot chocolate. As Jenna is about to take a sip, Lily and Claire reenter the house—and Claire yells “No!” at Jenna.
When Jenna watches home videos of pre-accident Jenna, she sees her younger self first and foremost not as a person but as a symbol of “the hopes and dreams of Matthew and Claire Fox.” This perspective suggests that Jenna’s parents are in a sense overinvested in their daughter: by seeing her as their perfect miracle child, they objectify her and fail to see her as her own person. Meanwhile, in Jenna’s haste to reclaim an element of her pre-accident identity—a love of hot chocolate—she forgets that she can’t digest regular food, a fact that emphasizes the physical discontinuity between pre- and post-accident Jenna.
Themes
Taste. When Jenna drops the mug in surprise, Lily catches it. Jenna wonders whether she didn’t like hot chocolate at all—whether the memories she regained were false. The bit of hot chocolate she tried tasted like nothing.
That the hot chocolate tasted like nothing to Jenna may suggest that the accident damaged her taste buds—or that whatever biotechnological process saved her life did. In either case, the disconnect between Jenna’s memory of loving hot chocolate and its current “nothing” taste to her indexes the changes that the accident has wrought on her.
Themes
School. Jenna locks herself in her bathroom and stares at her tongue. Later, she snipes at Claire and starts walking to her new school, a village charter whose curriculum focuses on “ecosystems.” The school building is a run-down former real estate office. Recalling that her old school was a huge, fancy academy, she wonders what the other students at the charter will be like.
When Jenna stares at her tongue in the bathroom, it shows her searching for a physical correlate to her change in taste post-accident—but she doesn’t seem to find an answer in the mirror. Meanwhile, the focus of the village charter school on “ecosystems” reminds readers that species extinction and antibiotic-resistant disease are both major elements of the novel’s science-fictional near future, emphasizing the destructive possibilities posed by technology and science.
Themes
Dane. Inside the school, Jenna meets a large, orange-haired woman who introduces herself as Mitch, the school facilitator, who gives Jenna a survey to fill out about her perceived “strengths and weaknesses.” Jenna can’t remember hers, but she claims that history’s her strength. Then Mitch takes Jenna into another room to meet her teacher, Dr. Rae, and the other students. Though it turns out Rae is currently in a conference, Jenna meets Ethan, the boy she saw at the mission; Allys, a girl who walks with braces; and Gabriel, a skinny, awkward boy.
Jenna can’t remember her strengths and weaknesses but claims that she’s good at history—an ironic claim highlighting the gap between Jenna’s objective knowledge of external historical events and her internal confusion about her identity.
Themes
When Jenna asks where the other students are, a voice from behind her tells her that’s everyone: “Welcome to Freaks Unlimited.” When she turns, she recognizes Dane, who mentions approvingly that he doesn’t see anything “freakish” about Jenna—until he sees her walk, at which point he makes fun of her gait. Ethan tells Dane to “eat it,” while Allys advises Jenna to ignore Dane. Then Dr. Rae walks into the room.
When Dane mocks Jenna’s gait, it indicates that the accident has changed her movements in some noticeable way. Meanwhile, his cruel claim that the other students are “freaks” and the other students’ obvious negative appraisal of him reminds readers of Jenna’s odd fear after encountering him the first time—and may hint that there is something morally wrong with him.
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Ethan. Jenna has a conference with Dr. Rae, a youthful-looking 48-year-old. When Dr. Rae asks whether the move from New York was hard for Jenna, Jenna remembers that Claire told her not to mention Boston due to her father’s fame. Jenna says she “slept right through” the move, and Dr. Rae praises Jenna’s adaptability and sense of humor. She tells Jenna that each student leads discussions on different subjects—for example, Ethan is leading a discussion on Walden at the moment—and asks whether Jenna would like to lead the discussion on Easter Island. Jenna blurts out a bunch of facts about Easter Island and then admits she could help with Walden too, realizing suddenly that she has it memorized. Then Dr. Rae asks about Jenna not writing down any weaknesses. For something to say, Jenna claims she “walks funny.”
Yet again, Jenna’s historical and academic knowledge—in this case, her Easter Island facts and memorization of Walden—ironically contrast with her confusion over her personal past and identity. When she calls “walk[ing] funny” her weakness, it may indicate that Dane has made her self-conscious about her post-accident body—or may simply remind readers that Jenna is unsure of her identity and so takes cues from other people to define herself.
Themes
When Jenna rejoins the discussion of Walden, she repeatedly “correct[s]” Ethan’s interpretation of the book, thinking that she’s helping him and hoping to befriend him. However, her interruptions annoy Ethan, while the other students are shocked by her ability to quote the book verbatim. Nevertheless, at the students’ 11 a.m. break, Ethan invites Jenna to come with him, Allys, and Gabriel to the market across the street for food.
It seems unlikely that pre-accident Jenna needed tutors for math and history yet memorized Walden with ease; as such, the novel may be hinting that Jenna’s academic skills derive from whatever procedures her parents used to save her life. Although Jenna manages to annoy Ethan while trying to befriend him, he still invites her to lunch with the others, showing his generosity and perhaps foreshadowing new relationships for Jenna.
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Allys. At the market, Allys takes off her prosthetic leg and massages her stump. Jenna, who hadn’t realized Allys had a prosthetic leg, asks about it. Allys explains that she had a bacterial infection, and by the time her case merited a “Restricted Antibiotic Waiver,” amputation was already necessary. All her limbs are prosthetic, and she takes lots of medication to deal with the organ damage she suffered. When Jenna comments on the realism of Allys’s prostheses, Allys says that they look great, but she has “phantom pains” anyway.
Like the Aureus epidemic, Allys’s dangerous bacterial infection—untreatable by unrestricted antibiotics—reminds readers that human misuse of antibiotics can lead to potentially fatal antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. Yet the detail that Allys’s case required amputation because her “Restricted Antibiotic Waiver” took too long to come through suggests that extreme regulation of science isn’t always the answer to the misuse of scientific innovations.
Themes
All the students eat except Jenna. Jenna asks why Dane didn’t come with them. When Gabriel says that Dane doesn’t eat with the others, Jenna asks whether it’s because “we’re freaks.” Ethan snaps at her, “Speak for yourself!” Jenna, who was just quoting Dane, not insulting the others, comments sarcastically on Ethan’s winning charm. Everyone starts laughing, and Ethan apologizes for being a “dickhead.” Jenna, who doesn’t know the word, assumes it means “annoying.” Then the other students explain that Dane intentionally annoys the others, keyed Ethan’s truck recently, and just seems to be “missing something.”
Jenna has worried that she is “missing” parts of her old identity due to her spotty memories, her newly fractious relationship with her grandmother, and so on. When the other students tell Jenna that Dane is “missing something” in the context of detailing his destructive and antisocial behavior, the novel implicitly sets up a contrast between Jenna and Dane: she is missing memories, but he is missing some moral sense that is key to humanity.
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Ethan speculates that Dane goes to the village charter because he got expelled from all the other available schools. Allys explains that she attends the charter because the fluid schedule makes it easier for her to attend doctor’s appointments—and besides, Dr. Rae lets her pursue her interest in bioethics. Then she asks why Jenna chose to attend the school. Jenna, forcing herself to speak, says she didn’t choose it: her mother chose it for her because she had an accident, she’s still recovering, and she can’t remember anything that matters. Ethan, giving her a gentle, friendly look, tells her that that’s a “load of crap” and then begins a Walden quotation, which Jenna is able to finish. Jenna decides that Ethan is “not a dickhead at all.”
Jenna’s abrupt honesty with her new classmates suggests that she wants to build trusting relationships with them—perhaps in reaction to her parents’ caginess and implied dishonesty with her. In response, Ethan is kind to her by bolstering her confidence in her memory, suggesting that he is a good candidate for a new friend (and, per Jenna, “not a dickhead at all”).
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Pieces. Jenna holds fast to her memories of Allys, Gabriel, and Ethan at lunch, thinking that they “nearly are” her “life itself.”
In one sense, when Jenna thinks that her memories of her new classmates “nearly are” her “life itself,” she means that she has very few memories, so these ones constitute a large part of her remembered personal history. In another sense, she seems to mean that “life itself” is built out of relationships with other people—and that she is clinging for dear life to any connections with others she can forge.
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Fine Tuning. At home, Jenna walks up and down the hallway in front of a mirror, trying to attain a normal gait. She yells down to Claire that Ethan’s driving her home, so she won’t need to be picked up. Claire calls teasingly to Lily that it sounds “almost like a date” for Jenna. Jenna goes downstairs and tells Claire that she’s just working with Ethan at the mission because she hasn’t picked her own community service project yet. When Lily angrily adds that Claire shouldn’t “encourage” Jenna to date, Jenna tells Lily not to be a “dickhead.” To Jenna’s bafflement, Lily bursts out laughing.
When Claire teases Jenna that her work project with Ethan sounds “almost like a date,” the novel foreshadows a romantic relationship between Jenna and Ethan. As Jenna seems to remember no previous romantic relationships, this development would constitute a new kind of relationship for Jenna and thus growth and change in her identity. Meanwhile, Lily’s angry admonition that Claire shouldn’t “encourage” Jenna to date reminds readers of Lily’s intermittent hostility to Jenna—yet her amused reaction to Jenna calling her a “dickhead” shows her likable sense of humor.
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Jenna Fox/Year Fourteen. Jenna decides to watch the videos of pre-accident Jenna for tips on walking. Though her video-self is graceful, Jenna can’t muster the same grace, and her hands still feel awkward and strange.
The physical differences between pre- and post-accident Jenna may hint that some extreme, surprising biotechnological intervention saved Jenna’s life—though they could of course simply be a normal effect of an extremely traumatic accident.
Themes
The New Lily and Jenna. Later, Lily drives Jenna to the mission. Jenna, observing Lily in silence, concludes that anything Lily does for Jenna is really for Claire, to whom Lily is devoted. Though Jenna is sure Lily no longer loves her, she wants Lily to like her—maybe just out of a desire “to be the old Jenna.”
Jenna associates Lily loving her with being “the old Jenna,” another detail suggesting that a person’s identity is built in large part out of their interpersonal relationships—who loves them, among other things.
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When the car passes a ruined building, Jenna asks Lily whether she’s afraid of earthquakes. Lily says she isn’t afraid of death. Jenna wonders whether Lily thinks she’s going to heaven—and how Lily can believe in a place like heaven. She finds Lily mysterious. At the mission, just before she and Lily part ways, Jenna abruptly says that when she was in her coma, she heard Lily calling to Jesus for help. She asks whether Lily knew Jenna could hear. Lily, looking shocked, says she didn’t know. Lily leaves.
Jenna’s skepticism about heaven, in contrast with Lily’s religious devotion, may suggest that Claire is not religious and did not attempt to instill religious beliefs in Jenna. Jenna, however, is curious about religion anyway—a genuine curiosity that shows her beginning to develop her own identity, separate from that of her parents.
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When Jenna finds Ethan, she says he got her in trouble—she called her grandmother a “dickhead” not knowing what it meant. As they work on removing mudslide dirt from old, fragile stones in the mission’s laundry, Ethan asks why Jenna called Lily a dickhead. Jenna says it’s because Lily claimed Jenna and Ethan shouldn’t be dating. When Ethan replies, “We’re dating?”, Jenna awkwardly explains that her mother thought they were. Ethan asks why Jenna’s grandmother wouldn’t want them dating, and Jenna says it’s because Lily doesn’t like Jenna, not because she doesn’t like Ethan. When Ethan says that grandmothers have to like their grandchildren, Jenna says, “I’m just special.” Ethan grins and tells her she isn’t. For a moment, Jenna feels intensely emotional.
Ethan’s comment that grandmothers have to like their grandchildren emphasizes the oddity of Lily’s hostility toward Jenna—and further hints that Lily doesn’t believe post-accident Jenna is really her grandchild. Meanwhile, Ethan’s denial that Jenna is “special” implicitly affirms that she’s like other people in important ways. He essentially affirms her humanity, something that brings Jenna to tears and in turn, highlights ow much Jenna wants to feel “normal.”
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As Jenna works with Ethan, she realizes that she’s enjoying the task. She repeats to herself that she’s “fitting in,” “loved,” and “normal”—and almost accepts the affirmations as true. Then Ethan points out a short, stout man taking a picture of them and asks whether Jenna knows him. The man walks off, and Jenna says she doesn’t know him. Ethan speculates that he’s a tourist.
Jenna tries to define herself as “fitting in,” “loved,” and “normal”—that is, she tries to assume an identity based on her new, positive relationships with peers at school, on her parents’ love for her, and on Ethan’s claim that she’s not special in any negative way.
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Trigger. As Jenna gets into Ethan’s truck, she suddenly remembers that she didn’t have a driver’s license—but she was in a car with Kara and Locke.
Jenna’s memory of being in a car with Kara and Locke—despite not having a license—hints that she might have been driving the car during her accident, or, in other words, that some reckless error of hers may have led her to endanger herself and possibly her friends.
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