Things We Didn’t See Coming

by

Steven Amsterdam

Jenna Character Analysis

Jenna is Liz’s daughter and one of the two women that the narrator encounters during a bad flood. Though Jenna understands that her mother is a liability, she does not want to leave her, still haunted by the memory of her father’s abandonment. And even as she gets more and more starved for food and warmth, Jenna refuses to engage in either her mother’s alcoholism or the narrator’s scrappy survivalism; instead, the narrator reflects that “she’s exactly the kind of romantic who’s got no instinct to make it.”

Jenna Quotes in Things We Didn’t See Coming

The Things We Didn’t See Coming quotes below are all either spoken by Jenna or refer to Jenna. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Morality and Survival Theme Icon
).
Dry Land Quotes

“I write it all down, everything that's gone on with the farms too. Families being scattered, friends making enemies just so as to stay alive. I've kept dry paper and each night I write down what happened during the day. I'll write about you tonight, what you taught me but also what you are, making money on other people's losses. People won't take notice of it now, but I'm keeping the pages safe till that time they become ready for the truth. There's no way I'd ever burn my writing or allow it to get wet, regardless of what comes.”

[Jenna]’s exactly the kind of romantic that's got no instinct to make it. She's fighting the tree, fighting the rain, fighting me, and her whole purpose in life is to record every indignity.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Jenna (speaker)
Related Symbols: Fire
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:
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Jenna Quotes in Things We Didn’t See Coming

The Things We Didn’t See Coming quotes below are all either spoken by Jenna or refer to Jenna. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Morality and Survival Theme Icon
).
Dry Land Quotes

“I write it all down, everything that's gone on with the farms too. Families being scattered, friends making enemies just so as to stay alive. I've kept dry paper and each night I write down what happened during the day. I'll write about you tonight, what you taught me but also what you are, making money on other people's losses. People won't take notice of it now, but I'm keeping the pages safe till that time they become ready for the truth. There's no way I'd ever burn my writing or allow it to get wet, regardless of what comes.”

[Jenna]’s exactly the kind of romantic that's got no instinct to make it. She's fighting the tree, fighting the rain, fighting me, and her whole purpose in life is to record every indignity.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Jenna (speaker)
Related Symbols: Fire
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis: