55 pages • 1 hour read
Tae KellerJennifer Chan Is Not Alone
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Importance of Facing the Truth
Jennifer Chan is Not Alone explores the importance of facing the truth in two significant ways: First, Mal learns that the truth is the opposite of rumor and can combat ignorance or ill-intent; she also discovers that truth is about self-awareness and acknowledging her motives and faults. Through the course of the novel, Mal faces these truths and strives for self-improvement.
The novel shows that rumors are harmful because they violate privacy and self-representation, whereas truth can combat rumors because it relies on evidence over assumption. The town and the school’s culture of gossip is toxic, as people are more interested in their reputations—in how they seem to the town and others—rather than in authentic character. People use rumors to slander others while validating their sense of worth. Mal comments that in Nowhereville, “the truth doesn’t always matter” (14). Her friend Tess engages in the most sordid types of rumor-spreading to heighten her own sense of righteousness: For instance, she gossips about Jennifer being a bank robber or a murderer. Tess operates under the assumption that the worse other people are, the better she herself appears in comparison. Initially, Mal enjoys the sordid gossip, and her eagerness to meet Jennifer is rooted in exploiting the rumors about Jennifer to increase Mal’s own popularity. However, when she meets Jennifer for the first time, Mal realizes that the rumors aren’t true, and Jennifer’s unapologetic forthrightness makes Mal uncomfortable about her own intentions to participate in rumor mongering. So, Mal resists spreading new gossip about Jennifer’s fascination with aliens. When Jennifer goes missing, Mal asserts, “I’m not interested in rumors” (51), and she develops a genuine concern for Jennifer’s welfare. Mal changes from a girl who relishes rumors and sees them as a path to popularity to someone who prioritizes the truth over false information.
Mal also discovers that facing the truth about herself is necessary for self-awareness; however, this can be hard to do, especially when it’s about her own pain, faults, and mistakes. The novel addresses the various ways its young characters repress and project their insecurities to avoid facing truths about themselves that are difficult and scary. For instance, Reagan spreads lies about her mother being killed by lightning to repress her hurt of abandonment, and when Mal finally admits to the Incident to Ingrid and Kath, she claims, “I didn’t lie. I just didn’t tell the whole truth” (224). Even though Mal eventually confesses to her actions, she does not fully face the truth of her cruelty in that moment. In her last ditch effort to keep Ingrid and Kath in the room with her, she defensively asks, “So I’m just the bad guy now?” (225). Her actions demonstrate that she struggles to face the truth about her flaws. Two other characters in the novel who bully others, Reagan and Pete, are also unwilling to admit the cruelty of their actions. At the radio station, Pete tells the girls, “I’m not the bad guy here” (170). Later, Reagan refuses to accept blame and disbelievingly asks “So that’s it, then? We’re just the bad guys now?” (200). Unlike Pete and Reagan, who not only lack self-awareness but also are unwilling to change, Mal takes the steps to ask herself if she truly is a “bad person” and how she can right her wrongs improve herself.
By the end of the novel, Mal learns that running from the truth only makes her inauthentic to herself, and she chooses to take responsibility for her actions. She finally confronts the pain she has caused when she looks at the torn pages of Jennifer’s notebook. Mal recalls her mother’s statement, “We learn the truth when we face our mistakes” (230), and this is what Mal does.
The Complexities of Loyalty and Friendship
The novel addresses the ways that loyalty can be a double-edged concept: While loyalty can involve trust, support, and integrity, it can also mean obedience, complaisance, and exclusivity. Kath and Ingrid’s friendship functions as a foil to Mal’s friendship with Tess and Reagan. Mal learns from Ingrid and Kath that friendships are not defined by power and obedience, but by support, respect, and honesty.
Mal comes to see that her relationship with her best friends, Reagan and Tess, is toxic and disrespectful. Tess takes pleasure in hurting her friends; Mal observes how Tess would often “push one of Reagan’s weak spots. It’s like Tess was testing her for cracks” (79). This is why Tess enjoys mentioning potentially upsetting topics to Reagan, like her mother. Tess also believes that non-Christians can’t be trusted—an insult that she only partially apologizes for when she tells Reagan and Mal that they are an exception. In retaliation, Reagan harshly calls Tess “stupid,” and when Kath says that Tess is awful, Mal is happy to chime in, saying, “She is! She’s the worst!” (125). The group is more invested in disparaging each other and poking at vulnerabilities rather than providing support.
While Reagan and Mal have a genuine desire to protect each other, Mal struggles with her dependence on Reagan’s authority and her promise to never leave her. Her loyalty to Reagan becomes strained; given Reagan’s experiences of abandonment, Mal feels pressured to stick by Reagan even when she knows Reagan is wrong. Though Mal admits that their bullying was “mocking [...] and mean” (218), Mal makes excuses for Reagan’s behavior and insists that she’s “not rude to everyone” (218). Though Mal understands that looking for Jennifer is the right thing to do, she feels that by acting conscientiously, she is “betraying” Reagan. Mal’s passivity does not stem solely from a lack of judgment and self-esteem—she is also motivated by a strong sense of loyalty to a friend whom she genuinely likes and values. Mal intuits that Reagan feels threatened and hurt by Mal’s burgeoning friendship with Jennifer. Her misguided sense of loyalty leads her to believe, “If I try to befriend one person, I end up betraying another” (124). While this doesn’t excuse Mal’s behavior, it complicates what it means to be loyal to a friend.
By contrast, Mal respects the opinions of Ingrid and Kath and admires their intelligence and maturity. The three support each other, but they can also discuss their differences of opinions respectfully. When Ingrid casts doubts on Mal’s alien theories, she notices Mal’s self-conscious expression. In response, Ingrid’s “eyes soften,” and she gently says, “Look, I’m not saying it’s impossible. It’s just unlikely” (71). Even when Ingrid and Kath remain angry with Mal, they don’t let their disapproval of her behavior detract from the important matter of finding Jennifer. Kath admits that she shunned Jennifer out of self-preservation for herself and Ingrid, who are already unpopular. However, she acknowledges that her sense of loyalty and protection toward Ingrid doesn’t make her exclusion of Jennifer right. In contrast, Reagan doesn’t analyze the consequences of her actions and thinks that if she acts out of concern for Mal, then she can’t be wrong. She tells Mal: “I’m trying to protect you. That doesn’t make me a bad person” (202). Even though their friendship has a loving foundation, Mal accepts that she and Reagan have different values and priorities. She realizes that her loyalty to Reagan also hinges on her being an unquestioning follower, and she learns to seek friendships that support her burgeoning independence.
Fostering Empathy and Kindness to Combat Bullying
Mal, the first person narrator of Jennifer Chan is Not Alone, bullies Jennifer and struggles with the aftermath of this incident. The novel reveals Mal’s thoughts and the social pressures she faced that led up to the bullying incident. However, it does not excuse Mal’s behavior; instead, it traces the ways her lack of empathy and compassion contributed to her hurtful treatment of Jennifer. Mal tries to cope with her guilt by blocking out Jennifer’s voice; however, the novel includes excerpts from Jennifer’s journal to impress on the importance of understanding other people’s experiences and to show how empathy and kindness are essential to prevent bullying.
Throughout the novel, Mal recognizes when her behavior toward Jennifer is mean or rude, but she makes excuses for this by either justifying her meanness or playing the victim. She never takes Jennifer’s feelings into consideration. For example, Mal makes excuses for taking mocking photos of Jennifer by claiming that she and her friends weren’t openly teasing Jennifer. She contends, “It was just in our private chat. We weren’t saving or screenshotting the photos, so I figured, if it wasn’t hurting anyone, then maybe, surely, I wasn’t doing any harm” (140). She ignores the spitefulness that inspired the photos—the intention behind them was demean Jennifer. The biggest distortion in Mal’s perception is her contention that Jennifer has maligned her and not the other way around. When she attempts to lure Jennifer into the basement bathroom, Jennifer texts back that Mal isn’t the friend she thought she was. Mal repositions herself as the victim and claims, “It was like she’d punched me in the throat. The words, they were basically an act of violence” (213). Rather than understand the impact of her behavior from Jennifer’s perspective, Mal either minimizes the severity of her taunts or contends that she, and not Jennifer, is the one being attacked.
Mal avoids reading Jennifer’s journals because Jennifer’s perspective reveals her humanity and vulnerability. In an interview that explains her impetus for writing this novel, the author, Tae Keller, says that “The act of bullying is an act of dehumanizing someone,” and she says that this is why Mal hesitates to read Jennifer’s words—Mal doesn’t want to confront the ways her bullying dehumanized Jennifer (Kenney, Sophie. “Tae Keller Explores Bullying from Both Sides.” Kirkus Reviews, 23 May 2022). Mal makes excuses for not wanting to read Jennifer’s words, saying “[h]er journals are so personal, and these thoughts weren’t meant for me” (144). However, Jennifer gives her journal to Mal not only to share her interest in aliens but also for Mal to know more about her and build ways to relate to each other. Instead, Mal and her friends destroy the journal in front of Jennifer to assert that her thoughts and feelings don’t matter. Mal remarks on the cruelty of that moment and describes how “Jennifer made a noise that didn’t even sound human” (220). Throughout the novel, Mal gradually becomes more sensitive to Jennifer’s feelings. When she pieces back the shreds of the journal that she and her friends had violently ripped up, Mal takes the steps to admit her faults and honor Jennifer’s voice.
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