The Adoration of Jenna Fox
How the author creates mystery, tension, and surprise
In the story The Adoration of Jenna Fox, the author, Mary E. Pearson writes a rather interesting plot. Jenna fox, 17, has been in a car accident and woke up after a year long coma without remembering a thing. When she wakes up, she is given very little information, just home videos. Her parents are acting very ominous towards Jenna, and both her, and the readers, do not know why. In the story, Her parents keep her very sheltered, and will not let her leave the house, nor go to school, or have friends. The way that the author shows how her parents are acting, tells the readers that they are doing this for a certain reason. Jenna begins to figure out by them doing this, that she is different. The plot events that happen in the story lead the readers into thinking new ideas, and figuring out who the real Jenna Fox is.
Home videos
In the book, Jenna is given home videos to watch to help repossess her memory. What Jenna finds is disconcerting. She notices that in the home videos, that she has a big scar underneath her chin. Jenna then looks in the mirror, observing that her scar is no longer there. Also, Jenna sees herself as a ballerina in multiple of the home videos. This helps her recall a few memories, such as one of her mom telling her that she was too tall to be a ballerina at 5'9". Jenna remembers being despondent. She later comes to find out that her height now is 5'7". This leads the readers into thinking that maybe Jenna Fox isn't who her parents have told her that she is. It is questioned as to why Jenna lost 2 inches, and why her scar is now gone, after being in her year long coma. The audience begins to wonder that maybe Jenna went through a few changes, but they aren't sure as to what. Not yet, anyway.
Clayton Bender
In the beginning of this book, Jenna meets her first friend, which is a grown man who goes by the name of Clayton Bender. When Jenna is conversing with Mr. Bender, he brings up the amount of time that the Fox's have lived in the house that they are in now. The way that he is talking, makes it sound like they have lived there for longer than Jenna thinks that they have. Jenna informs Mr. Bender that they have only lived there for two weeks, and he responds almost as if he has made a mistake even bringing it up. He was very quick to get off of the subject. Readers then are led into the conclusion that Jenna's parents had been very stand-offish, and the way that Mr. Bender was acting, leads the audience to begin to think that maybe Jenna's parents aren't telling her everything. They begin to wonder why Clayton knew so much about Jenna, and why would he mistake them living there for a while, when according to Jenna's parents, they had only lived there for 2 weeks? This is where part of the secrets and tension starts, and begins to grow.