43 pages • 1 hour read
Anne CassidyLooking for JJ
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaPart 2, Chapters 11-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “Jennifer Jones”
Part 2, Chapter 11 Summary
After Jennifer and Carol move into the new cottage, the next-door neighbor, a girl named Michelle, introduces herself to Jennifer. Later, Jennifer sees Michelle and a girl named Lucy playing next door. Jennifer and Carol go out shopping; when they return, Michelle and Lucy come back to invite Jennifer over. Michelle’s house is much brighter and nicer than Jennifer’s. The two girls had buried a dead bird and made a grave in the backyard, and Michelle invites her to come back after lunch once Lucy has gone.
At school, Jennifer sits beside Michelle after she is introduced to the class. She learns that Lucy is in a younger grade and has two older brothers who are obsessed with the military. Jennifer is pleased that she already has a friend and thinks that “this time it was different” than her previous first days of school (133). When she arrives home, she sees Perry leaving and finds her mother in her room with the door locked, complaining of a migraine.
Part 2, Chapter 12 Summary
In the morning Jennifer prepares to go on a school trip to the local reservoir, and Carol prepares to go see a photographer for a potential shoot. Though Carol seems depressed, Jennifer is finally enjoying her time at school with her new friends. At the reservoir, Jennifer, Michelle, and Lucy are all on the same team for a group project, but Michelle insists on walking up ahead of Lucy rather than joining her. Feeling guilty, Jennifer makes her way back to walk with Lucy. Lucy thinks she might have seen a cat and tells Jennifer that when the lake was filled up, a colony of feral cats drowned in the water. Coming up behind them, the teacher Mrs. Potts dismisses this story as a myth but admits that there are feral cats in the area.
Jennifer and Lucy rejoin Michelle and a new girl named Sonia, who both make fun of Lucy. Angry with the girls, Jennifer takes Lucy to sit somewhere else to eat, and she walks ahead of the group back to the picnic tables at the start of the hike. After going to the restroom, she spots one of the feral cats. Jennifer attempts to make peace with Michelle and Sonia but is rebuffed. She goes off on her own down the path to the road. When she returns home, she finds out that her mother hasn’t gotten the modeling job.
Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary
The next day at school, Jennifer gets in trouble with Mrs. Nettles for having walked off and must sit in an office and write about her behavior while the other children are at recess. Jennifer is worried about her mother and her friendship with Michelle; she worries that something bad will happen again, forcing her to move away or be placed in foster care.
When Michelle returns to class there is a music session underway, and she selects a recorder and joins Michelle and Sonia in the hall. Michelle and Sonia are cold to her. Jennifer gets angry at the girls’ cruelty. She hits Sonia on the head with her recorder and watches “as Sonia’s face reddened and crumpled and […] a long wail came from her ugly mouth” (158). Jennifer gets in trouble again, and Carol must come to school to speak with Mrs. Nettles and take Jennifer home. After school, Michelle comes to Jennifer’s house to apologize and informs Jennifer that she’s not friends with Sonia anymore. Jennifer is suspended from school for five days but is relieved to have her friend back.
Part 2, Chapters 11-13 Analysis
In these chapters, we see for the first time Jennifer’s interactions with peers her own age. While Jennifer longs to have friends, she finds it difficult to navigate the complicated social networks at school and with Michelle and Lucy. Again, we get a glimpse of the violence and anger that Jennifer is capable of when she is frustrated and overwhelmed, foreshadowing the murder that Jennifer will commit. Although Jennifer has been provoked into a violent act, she strikes Sonia out of anger rather than out of pure self-preservation. Because Jennifer is so starved of love, friendship, and stability, however, self-preservation can start to look like clinging to friends at all costs, even if that means violence is necessary. Jennifer also realizes that Michelle is in part attracted to and excited by this violence. Emphasizing the theme of childhood abuse and neglect, Jennifer passes her built-up fear and anger onto others in the form of violence and unpredictable actions.
At home, Jennifer and her mother settle into their new life in Berwick. Carol is still struggling to find work and is often absentminded or absent altogether. Jennifer’s home life is fraught with benign neglect verging on abandonment. For once, however, Jennifer finds the friendship and stability in her school life that is missing at home. Now, even when her mother wants to spend time with her, she would rather be spending time with her friends. Jennifer is desperate for affection and a stable, loving home environment. While she still loves her mother, she is beginning to realize that her mother will never be able to provide this for her. The novel depicts motherhood and mother-daughter relationships as a central relationship during childhood, which can be deeply flawed and even sometimes harmful.
In these chapters, we are also introduced to the uncanny natural environment surrounding the town. When Jennifer first meets Michelle and Lucy, they are digging a grave for a dead bird, foreshadowing a later burial. In addition, the lake has an eerie backstory involving drowned animals. In particular, the feral cats seem to unnerve the girls and symbolize wilderness, violence, and lack of society. The novel hints that the feral cats will continue to play an important atmospheric role in Alice’s story.
