The Adoration Of Jenna Fox Essay Topics

From the color of one’s hair to the way they act around others, nobody is exactly the same. So what do all humans have in common? What is it that makes human beings different from other living things? Throughout The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson, Jenna and her family explore what it means to be a human in order to determine Jenna’s humanity. While many factors make a person human, only one truly separates them from other species, self-awareness. In order to be self-aware, a person must have their own identity, be able to create future plans, take responsibility for their actions, and have memories or past experiences. To be a human, one must be self-aware because a person must know themselves to understand how they fit into the

world.
To be considered a human, one must be self-aware in order to form their own identity.

While Jenna is trying form an opinion about whether she is human, she looks up the definition to find that there are multiple qualities that make a person human. Jenna states, “Different from others. Is one yes out of five enough?” (Pearson 190). When there are multiple definitions for a word, most people pick the one that relates the most to their situation. In Jenna’s case, she doubts whether the one definition that applies to her makes her as human as anyone else. After Jenna struggles to figure out why Dane acts almost soullessly towards her in the woods, she finally learns what it truly means to be human. Jenna clarifies, “I decide that sometimes definitions are wrong. Even if they're written in a dictionary” (Pearson 222). Dane, a completely biological human, acts with no compassion towards others, while Jenna, with only ten percent of her old self, is a better person than Dane. With that, Jenna accepts that what makes one human is not any percentage but their identity or who they are as a person. This is an important step for Jenna in forming her own identity because one must know themselves in order to become who they are meant to be. As the book continues, Jenna becomes okay with the fact that even though she does not understand much about the world, she knows that she is Jenna Angeline Fox, a person of compassion, adoration, and honesty. She has an

identity.
Being self-aware makes a person human because this awareness allows them to plan for the future. While Jenna plans her mission to destroy the backups of Kara, Locke, and herself, she traps her parents in her bedroom and continues her plan. Jenna explains how her decision may impact others by saying, “But one small change makes the world spin differently in a billion ways for one family” (Pearson 256). Jenna releases their backups into the river to heal a hole she feels inside herself, being immortal. When a person is immortal, they will never die, causing them feelings of being stuck and being different from the humans around them. With Jenna’s plan, she makes a change that will forever impact her life by altering how her parents view her future and losing part of their trust. This decision, whether it is well thought out or not, is caused by Jenna wanting to be normal and could not of been made without self-awareness. After Jenna does what she thinks is right, she feels she has a better understanding of how she fits into the world because she is no longer immortal. She can live a shorter, yet more full life.
Being self-aware makes a person human because they can take responsibility for their actions. After Jenna destroys her and her friends’ backups, Jenna’s parents question whether she made the right decision. Jenna tells them, “If it’s a mistake, it’s my mistake. Give me that” (Pearson 257). At this moment, Jenna takes responsibility for what could be a life-altering event. Destroying the backups prevents Locke and Kara from ever being recreated and would cause Jenna to eventually die. Without self-awareness, Jenna would not be able to make a well-thought-out decision and take responsibility for this choice because she would not understand the consequences and how it would affect her future as well as Kara and Locke’s potential futures. As people go through life, they grow and become better at handling responsibility. This is because when a person takes responsibility, they start to better understand their place in the world, which causes them to think about others’ perspectives as well as their own opinions. To have stable relationships, responsibility is a quality that is necessary and truly makes a person human.
To be considered human, one must be self-aware to have memories and past experiences that influence their lives.

While Jenna is trying to regain the memories of her childhood, she watches one tape the most because it shows a time where her father has complete trust in her. Jenna wonders, “He trusts seven-year-old Jenna. What did I do to make that change?” (Pearson 158). The lives of people from different families, cultures, and backgrounds vary because of the experiences they have in their lives. From watching that memory, Jenna understands that to trust and to adore someone makes the relationship stronger. When Jenna questions how she can get her parents’ trust back, it shows her human quality of wanting approval which could only be understood through her past experiences. To know where one fits into the world, one must have memories to understand not just the world, but the people around

them.
What makes a person human is being self-aware because, without knowledge of their self, they will not understand their place in the world. For a person to have self-awareness, they need to have their own identity, the ability to plan for the future, to be able to take responsibility for their actions, and have past experiences or memories. In The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Jenna has all of these qualities, making her just as human as anyone else. This means Jenna and others who are self aware but need medical technology to improve their lives should be treated like human beings because they are, in fact, human.