Previous
Biotechnology and Ethics
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Adoration of Jenna Fox, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox implicitly argues that a person’s “humanity” should be defined by their moral worth rather than by their biology. The science-fiction novel makes this argument through two characters, protagonist Jenna Fox and antagonist Dane. Jenna is essentially a cyborg: after a traumatic car accident and subsequent runaway infections destroyed all but 10 percent of her brain tissue, Jenna was rebuilt by her biotech-pioneer father using a neurochip-loaded goo called Bio Gel. When the recovering Jenna discovers that the majority of her body is prosthetic or biotechnological, she starts worrying that she is no longer a human being. By contrast, her new neighbor Dane is entirely human biologically, yet various characters note that he is “missing something” morally: he regularly engages in violent, destructive, antisocial behavior for no apparent reason. After several disturbing interactions with him, Jenna begins to speculate that he is a psychopath, unable to care for any human being other than himself.
When Jenna discovers that her father uploaded the minds of her old friends Kara and Locke, who died in the same car accident that traumatized her physically, to a hellish suspended animation so that they can serve as “witnesses” that Jenna isn’t responsible for their deaths in case the authorities attempt to prosecute Jenna, Jenna realizes that her friends are suffering—but that someone like Dane would allow them to stay in suspended animation to protect himself anyway. Jenna ultimately proves her “moral” humanity by destroying the uploads, rescuing her friends from endless torment while potentially exposing herself to prosecution. In this way, the novel suggests that the true mark of humanity is a person’s morality and their actions, rather than their biological makeup.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme…
Humanity ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Humanity appears in each chapter of The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
How often theme appears:
chapter length:
Get the entire The Adoration of Jenna Fox LitChart as a printable PDF.
Humanity Quotes in The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Below you will find the important quotes in The Adoration of Jenna Fox related to the theme of Humanity.
Pages 3–91
Quotes
I used to be someone.
Someone named Jenna Fox.
That’s what they tell me. But I am more than a name. More than they tell me. More than the facts and statistics they fill me with. More than the video clips they make me watch.
More. But I’m not sure what.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“It was a private journey as much as a public one. He was searching for his personal essence as much as he was making a political statement.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“He’s missing something. I mean, really missing something[.]”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Pages 92–190
Quotes
“You have to draw the line somewhere, don’t you? Medical costs are a terrible economic drain on society, not to mention the ethics involved. And by restricting how much can be replaced or enhanced, the FSEB knows you are more human than lab creation. We don’t want a lot of half-human lab pets crawling all around the world, do we?”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“So it’s not human skin.”
“It is human. Completely human. We’ve been genetically altering plants and animals for years. It’s nothing new. Tomatoes, for instance. We engineer them to withstand certain pests or to give them a longer shelf life, but it is still one hundred percent a tomato.”
“I am not a tomato.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“I’m a doctor, Jenna. And a scientist.”
“Does that make you an authority on everything? What about a soul, Father? When you were so busy implanting all your neutral chips, did you think about that?”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
I’ve heard about sociopaths, people who connect with no one but themselves and their own self-interests. That would be Dane.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“They aren’t perfect, but none of us are ever exactly what we want to be, right?”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Is there such a thing? A real Jenna? Or was the old me always waiting to be someone else, too?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Without knowing it, she called me a lab pet. Why am I so drawn to someone who could destroy me? Why do I need her to be my friend?
The dictionary says my identity should be all about being separate or distinct, and yet it feels like it is so wrapped up in others.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Pages 191–265
Quotes
I look at my hands. Trembling. A battle between neurochip and neuron, survival and sacrifice.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Would the old Jenna have jeopardized her future for the sake of someone else?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“How can you know?” I ask.
“Some things aren’t meant to be known. Only believed.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
