Looking for JJ

Anne Cassidy

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2004

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-7

Part 1, Chapters 8-10

Part 2, Chapters 11-13

Part 2, Chapters 14-16

Part 2, Chapters 17-19

Part 3, Chapters 20-22

Part 3, Chapters 23-26

Part 4

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Part 2, Chapters 14-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Jennifer Jones”

Part 2, Chapter 14 Summary

A new photographer named Mr. Cottis comes to take pictures of Carol. Jennifer and Michelle both go to play in the nearby park, and Lucy’s brothers Steve and Joe are also there. Lucy has been ill recently and hasn’t played with them. Michelle confronts them, telling them that they’re too old to be at the park and that they shouldn’t be smoking. Steve makes fun of Jennifer’s mother, leaving her confused and angry. Both girls return home.

When she goes up to check on her mother, Carol is in a schoolgirl’s outfit and the room has been rearranged to look like a classroom. Jennifer notices money and is glad that her mother has gotten paid. When Jennifer asks why she is wearing her outfit, Carol cryptically replies that “that’s what you do in modeling […] you dress up in other people’s clothes” (167). Carol is unhappy and goes to take a bath. When Jennifer returns downstairs, she tells Michelle that she has to leave for now because Carol isn’t feeling well.

Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary

In the night, an ambulance comes to get Lucy’s mother, who has been ill with a heart condition. Outside, Michelle’s mother leads Lucy into the house and tells Jennifer that Lucy’s mother has suffered a heart attack. The next morning, Michelle tells Jennifer that Lucy will be staying with them. Michelle is upset that she has to share her room with the younger girl.

Carol has been doing a lot of jobs with the photographer Mr. Cottis, and there’s a lot of money in the house. Mr. Cottis and another man arrive to do another shoot with Carol, who gives Jennifer money for lunch and tells her to go and play. Jennifer meets up with Michelle but returns to the house to get her cassette player. She hears strange sounds coming from her mother’s room and knocks on the door to go and check on her. Carol and another man are both wearing school outfits, and Jennifer is troubled. Jennifer reflects that although their time in Berwick might not be going as planned, she still has “a school and friends and her own house, and she and her mum were together” (175). Jennifer hopes that she can continue to hold onto all these things.

When she returns outside, Lucy is with Michelle. Jennifer is upset and is mean to Lucy, venting her frustration about her mother with the other girl. Michelle becomes protective of Lucy and leads her away. Although Jennifer is still in some ways too young to fully understand what is going on with her mother, she reflects that “she didn’t know what was happening in her mum’s room. And yet deep down, in a way that she couldn’t have explained to anybody, she did know” (179).

Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary

The next day, Jennifer apologizes and Lucy forgives her. At school, Michelle and Jennifer look at magazines together. Lucy is hanging out with friends her own age and seems happier and more confident. Lucy’s birthday is that weekend at the reservoir, and Michelle asks Jennifer if her mother is coming. The day before, Carol had explained that she had another photo shoot on Sunday and wasn’t sure if she would be able to make it.

That Sunday, they have a picnic at the lake for Lucy’s birthday. Carol can’t come to the picnic, and Jennifer reflects that seeing her mother at a picnic “eating sandwiches and singing Happy Birthday” is an unlikely picture (187). Lucy’s brothers are also at the party, both in camouflage outfits. After the picnic, Michelle’s parents suggest they go on a walk, and Lucy joins them; Jennifer, Michelle, and the boys stay behind. Michelle gets into a fight with Steve and Joe, making Jennifer uncomfortable. The brothers make fun of Jennifer’s mother again, calling her a prostitute. Upset, Jennifer runs away from the group toward the road.

Part 2, Chapters 14-16 Analysis

Jennifer’s relationship with her mother becomes more troubled in these chapters, as she is deeply unsettled by her mother’s new line of work. Although she is not quite old enough to realize the full implications of her mother’s costumed photo shoots, she knows enough to be uncomfortable and wary of the photographer Mr. Cottis. When Lucy’s brothers make fun of her, Jennifer grows even more uncomfortable with her mother’s career. Although Jennifer once believed that her mother would always be there to take care of her, as she gets older and more experienced, she realizes that her mother is not the source of safety and comfort she once thought. The novel details the ways in which the maternal bond between Carol and Jennifer continues to fray as Jennifer becomes more aware and Carol more desperate.

In these passages, Carol’s gradual descent from modeling to pornographic photography is presented as a dirty secret of which Jennifer is only half-aware. As in other passages, Carol’s sexuality is depicted as something adult and dangerous. Although Carol is making good money, it seems as if Mr. Cottis is taking advantage of her and that she is not truly happy with the work. While Carol was initially portrayed in an ambiguous light, her portrayal becomes increasingly negative as we learn more about her new career endeavors. Rather than choosing to portray this as the act of a desperate mother trying to provide for her child, the novel emphasizes the way in which Carol is a poor mother, and her career choice only feeds into this characterization.

In contrast, Jennifer is now presented with several other models of motherhood in the surrounding neighborhood, as the novel continues to develop the theme of mothers, daughters, and the maternal bond. Michelle’s mother is warm and loving, with a messy kitchen and a stable home environment. Lucy’s father has abandoned Lucy’s mother, who seems to be struggling with health issues and raising her children on her own. While Lucy’s mother is not depicted in as negative a light as Carol, she is shown to have her own difficulties. Where once Jennifer idolized her mother as a representation of perfect femininity and glamor, Jennifer is beginning to see that more desirable family situations exist. Lucy’s stay with Michelle’s family emphasizes to Jennifer the way in which a change in environment can have a dramatic impact on an individual’s life. This foreshadows the events six years later, when Alice is finally given the opportunity for a normal life with Rosie.