The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Section 1

Reading Check

1. She has just awoken from a coma. (Section 1)

2. She provides her with home videos to watch. (Section 1)

3. Boston (Section 1)

Short Answer

1. Jenna’s grandmother calls her gait unusual, even though Jenna has made great gains in her ability to walk. It seems odd that a grandmother would criticize a grandchild who has just awoken from a coma. (Section 1)

2. Jenna speaks in a stilted voice. She addresses her parents formally and calls her grandmother by her given name. She also speaks in the past tense in the first chapter, because her identity is based on her family’s memories rather than her own experience. (Section 1)

Sections 2-3

Reading Check

1. She is surprised that she can recount a large amount of historical data, even though she has memory loss. (Section 2)

2. She falls into a creek and remembers that she almost drowned when she was three. (Section 2)

3. It is no longer there. (Section 3)

4. Her body forces her to go, even though she doesn’t want to. (Section 3)

Short Answer

1. Lily tells Jenna she does not have room for the “new” Jenna, but she says it in a way that seems gentle and not angry. (Section 3)

2. Jenna wants to go to school, but her mother has difficulty relinquishing control and does not want Jenna to go. (Section 3)

Sections 4-6

Reading Check

1. She was in a serious car accident and was not expected to live. (Section 4)

2. They warn her to stay away from Dane. (Section 5)

3. She cannot dance like she once did, and she cannot interlace her fingers. (Section 6)

Short Answer

1. The book is Walden by Henry David Thoreau ; it is about humans’ relationship to nature. (Section 5)

2. He tells her that she is completely normal. Jenna has a sneaking suspicion that she is not normal. She cannot disobey her mother’s directions and cannot dance or interlace her fingers. However, she can recall facts and memories that a normal person would not be able to recall. (Section 6)

Sections 7-9

Reading Check

1. It is an organization that monitors and regulates medical treatments. (Section 7)

2. Only ten percent of Jenna’s brain is original. (Section 8)

3. Bio Gel has a shelf life and can be compromised by the cold. (Section 9)

Short Answer

1. Lily wanted better things for Jenna. Lily believes that there is an afterlife and that Jenna would have been better off had she died, rather than living as barely human. Lily may also be concerned for Jenna’s soul. (Various sections)

2. Ethan has given Jenna a reason to avoid him: He confessed to Jenna that he has severely beaten a man and spent time in juvenile hall. Although Dane has only exhibited sarcastic and unfriendly behavior, Jenna has been repeatedly warned to stay away from him. (Various sections)

Sections 10-12

Reading Check

1. She has been programmed to obey subliminal messages to protect herself. (Section 10)

2. She discovers that she killed her friends in an accident when she was driving without a license. (Section 11)

3. Jenna reacted poorly when she was in a coma and her parents tried to bring up the accident. (Section 12)

Short Answer

1. Answers may vary. Jenna has the Boston school curriculum uploaded into her brain, she only has 10 percent of her original brain, and she has been programmed to obey certain directives. Aside from how she is programmed, Jenna also must learn how to interact with people and decide whether to trust or distrust them. She is recreating her identity, but her identity is based on many different factors she didn’t have in her previous life. (Section 10)

2. The subliminal directives her parents uploaded into Jenna’s consciousness are “for your own good” instructions. Because of their illegal activities, her parents need her to obey certain rules to protect her. She has also been directed not to speak of the accident because it upsets her, and she has been blocked from searching for it on the computer. Earlier in the novel, Jenna’s mother refuses to allow her to go to school for her own protection. (Various sections)

Sections 13-15

Reading Check

1. Her friends’ consciousness is locked in a closet in her house. (Section 13)

2. He is Jenna’s escape plan and a trusted friend. (Section 14)

3. Dane (Section 14)

4. Kara (Section 15)

Short Answer

1. After she decides she is glad to be alive, Jenna realizes that her friends are still trapped in the horrible place she was when she was in her coma. However, Jenna will need Locke and Kara to testify if someone tries to press charges against her for driving without a license. Jenna likely feels conflicted between protecting herself and saving her friends from a terrible fate, although her parents feel less conflicted because of their overwhelming desire to protect their child. This relates to the novel’s theme of Choices because Jenna must decide what she should do rather than what she can do. (Various sections)

2. Jenna is concerned that Allys will turn her parents in for their illegal recreation of a person using Bio Gel. Allys has a bias toward Bio Gel because she lost her limbs due to the overuse of antibiotics that left her body unable to fight infection. (Various sections)

Sections 16-18

Reading Check

1. She is dying. (Section 16)

2. Allys has asked her parents to report Jenna. (Section 16)

3. To beg Jenna’s father to do illegal work to save Allys’s life (Section 17)

4. It is the amount of brain matter needed to recreate a person using Bio Gel: 10 percent, like Jenna. (Section 18)

Short Answer

1. Allys is unable to live after her second infection because the FSEB point system will not permit her to have anything else to keep her body alive. She supports the FSEB, but it could be the very organization that will cause her death. (Section 16)

2. After having her own child, Jenna finally understands the desperation a parent would feel to keep their child alive. Parent-Child Relationships are a special bond that children often cannot fully understand until they are parents themselves. (Various sections)