Angel’s adoptive mother, and Jim Hennings’s wife. Elaine is one of Peter and Kay Wilkinson’s best friends. She lives in New York City and is adamant about helping Angel connect to Chinese culture. Despite her worldly posturing, though, Deming finds her phony and annoying when she takes him and the Wilkinsons to a Chinese restaurant she claims is quite good. Deming can tell the food is very bad, but he nevertheless decides to order for the table in Fuzhounese. When he does this, Elaine makes a remark about his fluency in Mandarin, and Deming corrects her, eventually calling her stupid for misidentifying the language.
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Elaine Hennings Character Timeline in The Leavers
The timeline below shows where the character Elaine Hennings appears in The Leavers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...course,” Kay says. This information puts Daniel on edge, as he realizes that Angel—Jim and Elaine Hennings’s adopted Chinese-American daughter—hasn’t gone to Nepal, as she originally planned. Ko doesn’t reveal why...
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Chapter 4
...we doing with this twelve-year-old Chinese boy? In Ridgeborough?” he hears Kay say. “Jim and Elaine, at least they’re in New York City.” She goes on to explain that Deming told...
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...Bronx so he can reconnect with Vivian and Michael. When they arrive at Jim and Elaine’s house, they settle in, and Deming meets Angel, who is also of Chinese descent, though...
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For dinner, Jim and Elaine take everyone to a Chinese restaurant they claim is fantastic, but Deming knows the food...
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Chapter 5
...telling him about the time she tried to overdose on sleeping pills and Jim and Elaine sent her to a therapist. Remembering these conversations, Daniel takes out his phone and texts...
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Chapter 8
...“I’m sorry about everything.” He then asks her not to tell Kay, Peter, Jim, or Elaine about the $10,000, assuring her that he’s “working on fixing things.” Still angry, she says,...
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...and deletes the note, leaving the bar and telling himself he’s going to Jim and Elaine’s apartment to deliver the correct essay to his parents, even though he doesn’t know Jim...
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Chapter 14
...me to stay?” he says, and she shakes her head. “I got an e-mail from Elaine,” she replies.
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