Looking for Jane

“When Evelyn Taylor arrives at St. Agnes’s Home for Unwed Mothers, her first thought is that she’ll be lucky to make it out alive.”

This quote foreshadows Evelyn’s death at St. Agnes’s. It also introduces Evelyn’s character, though the “Evelyn” readers will know for most of the novel is not this woman. Her initial impression of St. Agnes’s is stark and dramatic, emphasizing the cruel, unwelcoming environment in which she and Maggie experience their pregnancies.

“‘But I need to tell you something,’ Dr. Gladstone says quietly. Nancy leans in to hear her. ‘If you, or a friend, or any other girl close to you ends up pregnant when they don’t want to be, you need to call around to doctors’ offices and ask for Jane.’”

This emergency room doctor is the first character to mention the Jane Network. She is secretive because of the danger of exposure, but this information comes in handy when Nancy needs to seek an abortion for herself later. This is the first instance of the name Jane, a repeated motif that relates not only to Bodily Autonomy and Reproductive Rights but also (via Maggie’s daughter, Jane) to the theme of motherhood.

“Maggie is due two weeks after Evelyn, so they’re on this ride together. Evelyn takes each turn just slightly before Maggie does, twitching the wheel and leading the way for them both.”

This passage connects Evelyn and Maggie closely, foreshadowing the ways their futures will merge when Maggie assumes Evelyn’s name and channels her dream to become a doctor. The passage also reinforces the centrality of female relationships and the theme of motherhood as both a shared and personal experience.

“‘Dr. Evelyn Taylor,’ Maggie says slowly. ‘It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?’”

This passage foreshadows Maggie’s use of Evelyn’s name and decision to become a doctor. Evelyn has told Maggie of her dream to become a doctor; she desires to do something with her life the way men and boys are encouraged to do. Maggie takes this conversation to heart, and the memory of it motivates her after Evelyn’s death.

“With a crushing realization, Evelyn finally accepts in this moment that the home, this system, is just one big well-oiled machine. Every cog is carefully designed for a specific purpose: selling children to desperate couples. The girls don’t actually matter.”

Filled with fear and confusion—no one at St. Agnes’s has told her what to expect—Evelyn experiences a moment of clarity as she goes into labor. Evelyn’s realization develops the theme of Justice Under Unjust Systems, reinforcing the profound dehumanization of her and the other young mothers in the home.

“‘Hello, sweet baby,’ Evelyn whispers into her daughter’s ear. Like it’s a secret, just between the two of them. She kisses the wet silky top of her head. ‘I’ve been waiting for you.’”

This moment, when Evelyn holds her daughter for the first time, anticipates the scene when “Evelyn” (actually Maggie) finally reunites with Jane/Nancy and tells her, “I’ve been looking for you” (372). The parallel language paints the connection between mother and child, which is at the heart of the novel, as profound and universal. This is one of the few moments that Evelyn gets to spend with her daughter before they are separated.

“Nancy snatches up the note, holds it and the booties in her cupped hands like a bomb, steadying her balance. She can sense them heating up, growing heavy.”

The yellow baby booties are a symbol of motherly love. In this moment, they are pivotal in Nancy’s realization that she was adopted and that her birth mother gave her up unwillingly. She also learns in this scene that her birth name is Jane. This realization, and the secrets surrounding it, shapes the remainder of Nancy’s life, causing a rift between her and her family and motivating her to eventually meet her birth mother, Maggie.

“After all the trauma, after the crippling sense of helplessness, and lack of control over her own life, she vowed she would never again be in a position where she would have to rely on anyone else or feel as powerless as she had. She wasn’t interested in being a housewife, in starting over as if nothing had happened. She longed for a career that would ensure her independence.”

These thoughts belong to Maggie, who is now going by the name of Evelyn Taylor. She has begun her career as a doctor, pursuing the dream that her friend voiced long ago. This quite reinforces the connection between bodily autonomy and self-determination; Evelyn’s priority will now be finding and holding on to the independence and control that she was denied as a young woman.

“Evelyn is quiet for a moment. ‘Someone I knew a long time ago named her baby Jane,’ she mutters, running her index finger over a seam in the thigh of her scrubs. ‘Interesting that they’d use a code.’”

Evelyn encounters the concept of the Jane Network and its code word, “Jane.” The passage underscores the layered narrative meaning of the name Jane, as Evelyn remembers her daughter, also named Jane. Her comment about “someone she knew” foreshadows the twist that Evelyn is actually Maggie and that the real Evelyn is dead.

“She’s grounding, motherly, and Nancy half wishes her own mother could be here with her, but the thought of telling her about the pregnancy is unbearable.”

Nancy’s abortion procedure at Evelyn’s clinic stands in stark contrast to Clara’s abortion, which Nancy witnessed years ago. Here, Alice comforts Nancy in a room that is bright and clean. The moment emphasizes the thematic importance of motherhood, as in the midst of receiving an abortion, Nancy thinks about Alice’s motherly hands and demeanor. In retrospect, this is also an instance of dramatic irony; although Nancy does not know it, her mother is actually in the room, performing the abortion procedure.

“Evelyn understands now, for the first time, that she can choose what memories she takes with her from this place, and what to leave behind.”

The building that used to house St. Agnes’s Home for Unwed Mothers is now St. Sebastian’s Home for the Elderly, symbolizing change brought on by time. Evelyn is haunted by memories as she walks the familiar halls, but she has an autonomy that she didn’t have when she was young. The power to choose is a repeated refrain in the novel. Here, it foreshadows the novel’s twist, as one of the things Evelyn chose to “take with her” from St. Agnes’s was her friend’s memory while “leaving behind” her own identity.

“With Jane, it’s like you’ve taken it into your own hands somehow. It’s women helping women, allowing us to be at the steering wheel of our own lives for once, right?”

As Nancy tells Evelyn that she wants to join the Jane Network, she articulates her gratitude for the way the Network is helping women find justice and autonomy. Her emphasis on women helping women underscores the prominence of female relationships in the novel.

“She is taken aback by the candidness of Dr. Taylor’s memoir. Her experience sounds as horrific as she imagines Margaret Roberts’s was, and the detail induces Angela to wrap one arm around her stomach. She can’t imagine being forced to give up her baby like these girls were.”

That Angela almost takes her reproductive rights for granted contrasts with the other characters’ struggles. The author underscores this contrast through the empathy and sadness that Angela feels in this passage. Given that Dr. Taylor actually is Margaret Roberts, there is heavy irony to Angela’s reflections on the two women’s experiences.

“Evelyn knows it’s not the individual patients the authorities want, it’s the Janes and their ringleaders. The ones who provide options when no one else will. The women who dare to say yes.”

As the collective form of “the Janes” illustrates, the Jane motif underscores the way the women are connected to each other through their work and beliefs, their need to seek their own justice, and their roles as mothers and daughters. As Evelyn reflects, law enforcement’s focus on the Janes also demonstrates that the restriction of abortion rights is fundamentally an attack on women’s autonomy.

“By the time the van slows to a final stop, all three of them have swallowed their pieces of paper. The last bit of evidence is destroyed.”

The scene of Evelyn, Alice, and Nancy eating the patient roster in the back of the police van is a fictionalized account of actual events in Chicago, where the Jane Network was active in the 1960s and 1970s. This moment symbolizes the way the women put their bodies and lives on the line to provide abortion services.

“The moment suspends itself in time, drawn out and shimmering with a pale golden light. A precious and rare moment of pure, unadulterated joy.”

Angela and Tina hear the heartbeats of their twin babies for the first time and are filled with the powerful emotions that accompany the novel’s depiction of motherhood. The metaphor of light emphasizes the beauty and pervasiveness of those emotions. The following page mirrors this moment as Nancy and Michael discover that they are having a child, although Nancy’s joy is tinged with guilt. This parallel compares and contrasts the characters’ experiences of motherhood, which both overlap and diverge.

“‘Women’s lives change quickly,’ she says. ‘I think you make the best decision you can for yourself at the time you need to make it. I made a choice six years ago that I wouldn’t make today because my life has changed drastically since then. I’m making a choice to stay pregnant, just like you’re making a choice not to.’”

Nancy emphasizes the importance of reproductive rights as a form of self-determination. Through this dialogue, the author reinforces the personal nature of reproductive rights, giving voice to the idea that one individual’s choice is not the right choice for everyone.

“Nancy swallows hard and lifts out the pair of yellow baby booties. Margaret’s booties. She doesn’t even hear the cooing from her mother’s friends. ‘They were handmade with lots of love,’ Frances says, her eyes bright.”

The yellow baby booties, symbolizing motherly love, make a dramatic reappearance at Nancy’s baby shower. The complexity of emotion surrounding motherhood and adoption is clear here; Frances recognizes the love that Nancy’s birth mother had for her, even though she has not been able to bring herself to tell Nancy the truth about her birth.

“Nancy understands now why her parents haven’t told her about the adoption. You can control the internal damage caused by keeping secrets far easier than the external damage. The consequences, as Michael has just shown Nancy, are unpredictable. Lethal. Because once a secret is out there, there’s no reeling it back in.”

The motif of secrets emphasizes the characters’ need for control over their own fates and the sacrifices that they must make to seize that control. In Nancy’s case, she regrets revealing the secret of her abortion in the moment that she tells Michael, but she later realizes that her secrets were creating a boundary between her and her loved ones.

“Everything is just the same as always, except on this day, everything has changed. On this day, the Supreme Court of Canada granted women the rights to their own bodies in a groundbreaking court case against Henry Morgentaler. Abortion is now legal.”

This plot point is true to history, as the Supreme Court of Canada did indeed legalize abortion in January of 1988. This is the climax of the subplot surrounding the efforts to legalize abortion and represents a turning point in Evelyn’s and Nancy’s lives, as their clandestine work for the Jane Network is no longer necessary.

“She would give everything she owns for the opportunity to tell her mother that she does forgive her. That as a mother now herself, she understands the overwhelming power of a parent’s desire to protect their child from harm and heartache.”

Nancy experiences strong empathy for her adoptive mother, Frances—empathy fed by Nancy’s own experience as a mother. This develops the theme of motherhood as both universal and personal. This passage also calls attention to the passage of time, as Nancy longs for the chance to speak with her dead mother. The passage of time is a central device in the novel; the narrative structure of the novel allows the reader access to different moments in time and thus emphasizes how the passage of years can create opportunities by allowing people to make connections while also removing opportunities as circumstances change or people pass away.

“She holds his gaze and forces herself to not let go. ‘I need to tell you about Jane.’”

In this passage, the multiple narrative meanings of the name Jane converge. Nancy means both that she needs to tell Michael about the Jane Network and that she needs to tell him the truth about her birth: that her birth name is Jane and that she was adopted.

“Ha! Well, you’re welcome. We did it for our daughters, our granddaughters, and their granddaughters. We did it for all of us. All of you.”

In responding to Angela’s gratitude, Evelyn expresses the big-picture motivation that she and her peers felt when they worked to further women’s reproductive rights. This collective perspective on women echoes the centrality of female relationships in the novel and the way those relationships deepen due to shared experiences.