The Adoration of Jenna Fox

The Adoration of Jenna Fox Plot Summary: Jenna Fox wakes from a coma after an accident, not in her hometown Boston but in a quiet isolated neighborhood in California. She doesn’t remember her friends or her previous life before the accident. She doesn’t remember the accident either and to try to refresh her memory, she watches recorded videos taken by her parent through her childhood. On a walk in her backyard she trips over a rock and she starts having flashbacks of when she almost drowned when was 18 months old and immediately after realises that she had 2 best friends Kara and Locke. Even though against her parents wishes, she insists on starting school in hope to regain some normality. Her parents reluctantly send her to a small school for students who have been scientifically altered or otherwise different. She starts to become friends with a girl named Ally s who has amputated limbs. Ethan has a violent history. She finds a key under her mum’s mattress and unlocks a mysterious room that has 3 computers with her name on one of them and her friends Kara and Locke’s names on the other two. In an attempt to open the computer, she injures her arm and is left with a big gash. Instead of bleeding and feeling pain, she sees blue Gel coming out of the wound. After confronting her parents, she learns that she is made from from Bio Gel, a substance that her father developed for doctors to use to replace organs and limbs when they are damaged or failing. She also finds out that she was severely injured in a car accident and was certainly going to die. But her parents were able to save 10% of her brain and they illegally used Bio Gel to create a whole new body for her which is more than what is legally allowed. Bio Gel can be used for nearly everything in the body, but to control the modifications of humans, the Federal Science Ethics Board limits each person to a point system, where each is only allocated one hundred points. She is obviously way over the limit. She also finds out that that the computers contain a backup of her brain, in case something goes wrong, and finds out that her friends minds are actually trapped in the computer. Jenna is torn apart and starts to question what and who she really is. She starts to question if the 10% that her parents saved are actually what makes her human or if being “human” has another meaning beyond physical structure. She comes to the understanding that percentages are only numbers that don’t matter and they don’t define her. After her dad decides that the backups must be moved to a safer place, Jenna feels responsible for her friends that are trapped in the computer (in limbo) and decides to get rid of the backups once and for all. With help from her grandmother, Lily, she is able to trick her parents and ends up throwing all of the backups including hers in the pond. Jenna’s parents are confronted by Ally's parents begging them to save Ally the way they saved Jenna. Many years later, Ally and Jenna live together with Jenna’s and Ethan’s daughter, Kelly, who was born through a surrogate. Jenna thinks about moving back to Boston as the climate there will allow her to die as she didn’t want to outlive her child. Setting: The novel was based in the outskirts of California in the country. The family had moved from Boston to live in California as it had steady warmer temperatures for Jenna to thrive in. the book is based in future times where a substance called BioGel is invented but illegal. After the accident Jenna was in she was moved to Boston as 90 % of her was made up of Bio Gel which had to be kept at a consistently warm temperature or else would freeze. The house that they live in is in the countryside of California, it is a very big house that is run down due to a large earthquake. The houses down her street are very big and spread far apart. The community is very isolated from large numbers of human contact. Within the house Jenna’s room is very empty plain and simple, she comments that her wardrobe is only made up of a few simple blue tops and pants stating “ it is the largest room on the upper level, which makes the lone bed, desk, and chair seem small and awkward...it is a cold room. Not in temperature but in temperament” by this is she is showing the readers that her room is very simple displaying very little to no personality. Her house is known as a Cotswold cottage. Jenna's room is on the second floor and is one of ten rooms she states “ my room is on the second floor-one of ten rooms on the upper level , along with assortments of closets, bathrooms, nooks and other small windowless rooms that seem to have no purpose.” The backyard slopes slightly own to a large pond separating the house from the neighbours. From the description in the novel the area of which the book is set in is isolated. This is been done purposely to really emphasise that the process they went through to help Jenna was illegal and that there would be consequences if they discovered what Jenna’s parents did to help her. Themes Ethically correct: - Jenna’s parents illegally used Bio Gel to ‘save’ her, a substance which is used to replace organs and limbs when they are damaged or failing. Her parents felt as though they had no choice. They weren’t going to let Jenna go, so they went to the extreme. Many people in the novel had different viewpoints on Jenna being only 10% of her real self. What Jenna’s parents did is thrown back and forth on whether they went too far to save their daughter. It really makes you wonder how far is too far when it comes to bioethics. Search for self/ identity/What makes one “human”: - From the very start of the book Jenna searches for her identity. Day by day new memories slowly creeping back. What comes to Jenna’s attention is that her parents already had loaded memories of the Jenna before the accident into a computer. She is given hours and hours of videos from Jenna at a young age to her late teens, in a way to trigger past memories to come back. Jenna tries so hard to be the Jenna they remember until she realises that she shouldn’t be trying to relive the past but to be who she wants to be now. Jenna is always struggling to understand what/ who she is. She thinks that having artificial organs denies her humanity. She struggles to understand that being human goes beyond physical appearances and sometimes “Someone named me Jenna Fox. That’s what they tell me. But I am more than a name. More than they tell me. More than the facts and statistics they fill me with. More than the video clips they make me watch. More. But I’m not sure what” Style: 1st person narrative - Helps the reader sympathises with Jenna’s situation. The reader feels the same emotions that Jenna experiences. In a way the story is bias, we don’t feel very connected or any relationship with her parents Symbols: Butterfly used to symbolise the working brain Motifs: The book that the are studying in the school Techniques: Foreshadowing Imagery Characters: Jenna fox Jenna, the protagonist of the novel, is a 17 year old girl who was born in Boston but moved to California after her “accident” as she needed the climate to preserve the Bio-Gel her body is made out of. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, a slender ballet figure. Her height is 5’9 but now 5’7. Her favourite colour is blue and has a wardrobe of blue clothing. She is curious and observant but also very hot tempered. After her accident, she starts to watch a series of videotapes of her life to try to remember what happened before the accident. At the beginning she is very cold towards her parents but as the story progresses, she starts to comprehend her parents’ perspective and the reasoning behind their actions; even though she was angry and upset with what they had done so she took her own measures to correct what she thought was a mistake. Jenna’s relationship with her parents was strained at the beginning as her parents weren’t honest with her. She discovers secrets that her parents refused to tell under the excuse of “protecting her”. Jenna and her relationship with her parents suffer the consequences of her parents’ lies and secrets. However, when Jenna has her own child, she realises that what her parents had done was as a result of their parental instincts, they had to do everything in their power to help their child. She understands that no parent would want to outlive their child. Jenna’s relationship with Lily, her grandmother, seem cold at the beginning,where they both seem to dislike each other. This is shown at the start of the book through the way Jenna addresses Lily, as “Lily” not “Nana”, and the way Lily interacts with Jenna, avoiding Jenna by watching TV with her. After Ethan teaches Jenna the word “dickhead”, Jenna uses that word to addresses Lily, “Don’t be a dickhead!”. Eventually relationship strengthens as they grow closer, Lily explains why she “dislikes” Jenna. Lily’s confrontation with Jenna is very honest with her, unlike her parents. Jenna has a great deal of trust in Lily which is shown when Jenna requests Lily’s help in destroying the backup copies. In the end Lily starts to like Jenna and Jenna confides in Lily and when she wanted to escape because everything was too overwhelming for her; Lily was one of the reasons she stayed "And staying because maybe Lily does love the new Jenna as much as the old one, after all.” When Jenna realises that she’s only made up of 10%, she starts to question her identity and whether she is really human. At the end, she accepts who she is and reaches the conclusion that society will become more accepting of people like her. She decides she will eventually move back to Boston as she doesn’t want to live longer than her daughter. Throughout the book, she has many internal and external conflicts regarding her identity and status. The authour’s purpose allows the audience to question what makes someone human and the ethics of scientific development. Lily (Grandmother) Lily is Claire's mother and Jenna's Grandmother. Lily was a specialist in medicine, she had been a doctor and a chief of internal science at Boston University, however stopped when the plague hit killing her husband. Lily sacrificed her life back in Boston to move to California. The house that they moved into was under Lily’s name in order to protect Jenna and her family from being tracked.She quit her job as a scientist when he husband died as a result of the plague that it was partly due to the overuse of antiBiotics and scientific “advancements”. After quitting medicine she went on to enjoy gardening. She gardened native plants to protect them from being genetically modified and becoming lost species. Through this Lily began her new passion for all things pure and as they are. Before the accident Jenna and Lily were very close and Lily always used to go Lily for advice and she felt that with Lily she didn’t have to live up to expectations, unlike the way she felt with her parents. However when Jenna parents broke the news about using the BioGel in Jenna she instantly opposed with the decision. Lily did not accept Jenna at the beginning of the novel, she had know intention of accepting her as a family relation rather than a creature. Lily’s main possessions would be her greenhouse and her native plants. Lily had quite distant relationships with the family. She had always been very close with Jenna but once she found out what happened she created a distance between them. She was only living in the house to help her daughter. With Jenna she didn’t know how to feel, she had a strong opinion that all things should be natural, however toward the end she began to change a realise what makes a person who they are. Lily in the end accepts Jenna and the actions that were taken. She even goes as far as helping Jenna to destroy the backups “Ten percent. Ten percent of your brain. That’s all they could save. They should have let you die.” “I’m not like your parents. I think there are worse things than dying” “Eighteen months ago, I let go of my Granddaughter…..I said good-bye. I grieved. Then a few hours later your parents told me what they had done .” Parents Jenna parents idolize her, where they would literally do anything for her and after having 2 miscarriages, Jenna is her parents’ miracle and they would do anything to protect her .And therefore they place pressure on her to be “perfect” but they aren’t aware of it. Her father had invented BioGel, he made the decision with Jenna’s mother to use illegal amounts of BioGel to save Jenna’s life. They saved Jenna’s life but the method they used was illegal so they left their lives in Boston and moved to a remote Californian area to give Jenna a higher chance of surviving and living. In order to keep a low profile, they do not have many relationships with others. Claire, Jenna’s mother quit her job to look after Jenna full time. They are close to Lily and Edward, both of them know Jenna’s secret and have helped in one way or another to keep it. They believe in the science as Jenna’s father and her grandmother (Lily) are both scientists and had used science to save Jenna’s life. They love their daughter, Jenna, which is clearly shown as they illegally used science to save her life; they have strong parental morals as they did everything they could to keep Jenna alive as they loved her and did not want to outlive their daughter. However, because the parents used science to save Jenna. Jenna is in conflict with herself and her parents as she feels a loss of identity and she holds her parents responsible. Lily, Jenna’s grandmother, had been reluctant of the science procedure but had still bought the house under her name to keep Jenna and her parents safe. Ethan. Ethan is Jenna’s love interest in the novel. As a student at the charter school, Ethan is intelligent, but is considered a danger, as he nearly beat a man to death in the past. Jenna learns as she gets closer to him, however, that Ethan’s reasons for beating the man were not as simple as just anger. A dealer gave his thirteen year old brother HCP, a drug, and his brother was immediately hooked. Furious, Ethan went to find the dealer and beat him beyond unconsciousness with a bat. Ethan knows he is not a monster, but he is certainly a danger. Ethan helps Jenna to see that although she is certainly different, she is not a freak, and she is still human, regardless of what others think. Ethan also helps Jenna accept herself. At the end of the novel, readers learn that Ethan and Jenna were married for his entire life. Allys Jenna meets Allys at the charter school and is her only female friend. Allys suffered from a mayor bacterial infection that antibiotics couldn’t cure,she lost all her limbs and some of her internal organs. Resulting in prosthetic limbs and the use of bio gel to help her internal organs. Allys has a kind and respectful personality however she is very highly educated in ethics and she is strongly against a massive use of biogel. She supports the Federal Science Ethics Board as their main goal is to ensure that humans do not get too overly modified. Once Allys realises who Jenna is, Jenna and Ethan (Jenna's boyfriend) fear Jenna may be exposed. However Allys begins to get dangerously ill, she tells her parents about Jenna and when Allys gets to ill to object the idea her parents go to Jenna’s Father to consult. Allys is rebuilt and lives with Jenna for over 200 years. Allys displays ethical standards and also how when the world changes, opinions and ethics may change as well. Clayton Bender (Edward) Jenna first mets Clayton Bender over the fence as he is Jenna’s neighbour. They bond over nature art and bird feeding. He helps Jenna understand and accept her new identity. Jenna later finds out that he is Edward, her father’s friend, who will help hide her from the authorities and take her to safety if the situation occurs. However, Jenna still considers him her friend. Kara and Locke Kara and Locke were Jenna’s best friend. Unfortunately Jenna wasn’t the only one impacted from the car accident as Kara and Locke were with her. Kara drove the car off the cliff taking her and Locke’s life, leaving Jenna as the only ‘survivor’