The Leavers

by

Lisa Ko

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Leavers makes teaching easy.

Jim Hennings Character Analysis

Angel’s adoptive father, and Elaine Hennings’s husband. Jim is one of Peter and Kay Wilkinson’s best friends. Along with Elaine and Angel, he lives in New York City, and—much like Peter—is often insensitive when it comes to cultural differences. For instance, when Deming orders the meal in Fuzhounese and Elaine mistakenly refers to it as Mandarin, Jim callously says, “It’s all Chinese to us dumb-dumbs,” as if he can’t be bothered to learn the nuances of Chinese culture.

Jim Hennings Quotes in The Leavers

The The Leavers quotes below are all either spoken by Jim Hennings or refer to Jim Hennings. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cultural Identity and Belonging Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

Daniel’s muscles contracted. So Angel hadn’t gone to Nepal. If they were still friends, if she was still talking to him, he would tell her about Michael’s e-mail, about Peter’s accusation of ingratitude, how torn he felt between anger and indebtedness. If only Peter and Kay knew how much he wanted their approval, how he feared disappointing them like he’d disappointed his mother. Angel had once told him that she felt like she owed her parents. “But we can’t make ourselves miserable because we think it’ll make them happy,” she had said. “That’s a screwed up way to live.”

Related Characters: Angel Hennings (speaker), Deming Guo / Daniel Wilkinson, Michael, Jim Hennings, Peter Wilkinson, Kay Wilkinson
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:
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Jim Hennings Quotes in The Leavers

The The Leavers quotes below are all either spoken by Jim Hennings or refer to Jim Hennings. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cultural Identity and Belonging Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

Daniel’s muscles contracted. So Angel hadn’t gone to Nepal. If they were still friends, if she was still talking to him, he would tell her about Michael’s e-mail, about Peter’s accusation of ingratitude, how torn he felt between anger and indebtedness. If only Peter and Kay knew how much he wanted their approval, how he feared disappointing them like he’d disappointed his mother. Angel had once told him that she felt like she owed her parents. “But we can’t make ourselves miserable because we think it’ll make them happy,” she had said. “That’s a screwed up way to live.”

Related Characters: Angel Hennings (speaker), Deming Guo / Daniel Wilkinson, Michael, Jim Hennings, Peter Wilkinson, Kay Wilkinson
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis: