The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Early on, there is a clear conflict present in this section: Jenna’s desire for freedom versus Mother’s need for control. So far, Jenna has been no farther than Lily’s nearby greenhouse, as Mother is afraid she will get “lost” (18). But Jenna, yearning to meet someone “outside our own curious circle” (21) approaches their neighbor, Mr. Bender. Jenna’s lack of understanding of the world around her is shown clearly as she describes Mr. Bender “sitting on his haunches, like I have seen three-year-old Jenna do in the video discs” (21). Jenna has no way to describe another human except in terms of herself and her family. She hesitates before approaching him: “I should be afraid,” she says. “Mother would want me to be afraid” (20). Her use of “should” and “would” show that she, Jenna, is not afraid. Just like a young toddler, she must learn to distinguish between her parents and herself, their feelings and her feelings. By becoming friends with Mr. Bender, she asserts herself as an individual for the first time.

Mr. Bender’s occupation as an environmental artist sets up one of the book’s major themes: the natural world and humankind’s relationship to it. When Jenna notes that Mr. Bender’s latest art work will be destroyed by the wind, he is undisturbed: “‘That’s the beauty of it and what makes it even more wondrous’” (21), he tells her. “‘It’s delicate, temporal, but eternal, too. It will go back into the environment to be used again and again, in nature’s canvas” (21). This is a clear allusion to the natural cycle of human life. Though a person’s life span is fleeting, that is what makes it meaningful. This is the natural cycle that Jenna’s father has broken in creating her, and the one Jenna will ultimately choose to return to.

This section marks a clear growth in Jenna’s ability to see and understand human emotion, something she connects directly to the eyes. She quickly goes from simply recognizing emotions such as the “pain” on Lily’s face, to being able to replicate expressions herself. “I smile and I don’t have to think about lifting the corners of my mouth. It just happens” (25). Whereas before, Jenna was concerned about learning all the details of her pre-coma life, she now begins to make a distinction between “old” and “new” Jenna. Though remembering old Jenna is something “Mother desperately wants” (25), Jenna finds happiness in “letting go of something old and building something new” (25).

Jenna makes her final stand for a new life and new independence by announcing her desire to go to school. Mother declares that “‘school is out of the question’” (40) and, for the first time since her awakening, Jenna contradicts her. A fight ensues, and Jenna is distressed to find that her body obeys Mother, not her, when she is sent to her room. “Why am I compelled to do as Mother says even when I have a desperate need to do something else?” (41), she wonders. Mother’s physical control over Jenna is reminiscent of a parent’s control over a much smaller child, and Jenna is quickly growing up and challenging Mother’s authority in the pursuit of freedom and space. Jenna wonders whether the “old” Jenna would have given in, and in a clear and decisive moment, she declares that “If Jenna Fox was a weak-willed coward, I don’t want to be her at all” (41). This declaration will set the stage for Jenna’s personal growth over the course of the novel, from a girl overwhelmed by parental expectation and control to an independent woman.