The Adoration of Jenna Fox
– Essay Would your conscience be clear knowing that you illegally modified someone to save their life? This choice was made by parents Claire and Mathew Fox. The Adoration of Jenna Fox tells the story of a parent’s hard decision to genetically modify their daughter Jenna with BioGel. With this major decision, comes many side effects, including the loss of most her memory, therefore she questions what it is to be human. This essay discusses the effect on not only Jenna, but her parents, her grandmother Lily and her new friend Allys.
Jenna develops anger towards her parents, not for their decision to her modify, but the fact they lied to her. In Details (130), Jenna asks her parents “Why didn’t you tell me? The minute I woke up? Didn’t I deserve to know? ” This series of short rhetorical questions release a lot of Jenna’s feelings of being confused and angry. She also answers her own questions because she doesn’t want to hear the answer. When her parents won’t discuss what happened, Jenna starts digging to find answers. In Denied (134), Jenna says: “The pieces speak, but there are not enough.
Yet” Jenna says this to herself to reassure her that she will eventually belong in society. This line also contains hidden meanings including the fact that she cannot understand the events that occurred. Similarly, the line; “Uploaded? You uploaded my brain? ” (Father -117) also uses rhetorical questions. The use of the word “you” once again, shows her anger towards her parents in a direct manner. It makes them feel bad for their lies and the secrets they kept, therefore Jenna starts to question humanity and what are human qualities.
Throughout the book, Jenna questions whether her parents’ decision was right or wrong- not legally, but morally. She constantly asks herself whether the choice to modify her was for her or her parents’ benefit, or whether she was just a lab pet for her father’s experiments. In Lily (126), Lily and Jenna have one of their first real conversations; “’I said good-bye. I grieved. Then a few hours later, your parents told me what they had done. ’ ’And you thought it was wrong? ’ ’I’m not like your parents.
I think there are worse things than dying. ’” Jenna is very surprised of Lily’s honesty and starts to appreciate their relationship. Lily is obviously against the Fox’s decision to modify Jenna and believes that Jenna has the right to know. This leaves Jenna to believe that her parents’ decision was for their benefit only. As Lily and Jenna’s relationship strengthens, Jenna is more open to listen to Lily’s onion and what she has to say. One example of this is from The Greenhouse (142). “’I’m sorry,’ she says. But I’m not sorry I told you. It just isn’t right. ’” This is another example of the Fox’s wrong decisions and how Lily and Jenna’s relationship tightens. By this time, Jenna becomes certain that modifying her was for her parents’ benefit and in Control; Jenna confronts her parents to find they are only making excuses. Another bad choice is expressed in Backup (189). ‘I know, Father’. I sit down in the chair opposite him. ‘There’s those three people in the closet, too. Now that’s what I call a disability. ” Jenna says this in a sarcastic way. This is when Jenna starts to build anger towards her parents because they are continuing to lie and make excuses. She is at the point where she doesn’t trust her parents and believes that have done everything wrong. Jenna starts to take action against her parents in A Plan (239), and with the help of Lily, they free the minds of Kara, Locke and herself. By this time, Jenna believes that Claire and Mathew have broken any relationship they ever had with her.
With the Fox’s decision, they didn’t hesitate to break the law to save their daughter- but at what consequences. An example of this is in Father (121). “I’m illegal aren’t I? That’s why we live here. We’re hiding out”. Jenna questions bio-medical ethics and the nature of the soul. She not only questions whether bio-engineering legally right, but morally. As soon as Jenna’s parents’ modified her, they pushed their relationship. In Day One/ New Jenna, the following paragraph discusses moral ethics. “Does that make you an authority on everything?
What about a soul, Father? When you were busy implanting all your neural chips, did you think about that? Did you snip my soul from my old body too? Where did you put it? Show me! Where? Where in all this groundbreaking technology did you insert my soul? ” This shows one of the consequences of her parents’ decision. Jenna hates them for lying and their choice to modify her. She starts to realise that there’s more to being human and that the choice to engineer her has taken away all humanity within.
Similarly, the line; “At least with the FSEB’s current point system in place, right? ” (Viewpoint 200) expresses Allys’ view towards bio-engineering. Both Allys and Jenna question whether the FSEB can regulate humanity and whether it considers emotions from the soul. In conclusion, Claire and Mathew Fox’s decision to modify Jenna had many consequences including the destruction of relationships. Jenna believes that her modification was only for her parents’ benefit and it was humanely wrong. This is expressed through Jenna, Lily, Allys and Claire and Mathew Fox.
