55 pages • 1 hour read
Tae KellerJennifer Chan Is Not Alone
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 15-21 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary: “Then”
The narrative flashes back to the week after Jennifer’s first day at school. A bully named Pete has been mocking Jennifer behind her back by making martial arts moves. He decides to embarrass her by asking for a kung fu demonstration, and students begin filming on their cellphones. Mal imagines her mother stepping in and scolding the crowd, but no one intervenes. Jennifer corrects Pete and tells him she knows capoeira, a Brazilian form of martial arts she practiced with her father before he died. To everyone’s surprise, Jennifer performs an impressive spinning kick, and a few of the kids gasp in awe. Pete’s demeanor changes, and he asks her to do another cool move. Jennifer politely explains that she won’t perform for him like a puppy. Her manner of speaking defuses the tension, and a few girls in the crowd begin to laugh with Jennifer rather than at her. Pete smiles and tells Jennifer she’s “different,” meaning it as a compliment. Jennifer responds, “I know,” and walks away.
Mal is relieved that Jennifer won over the crowd, but she is also hurt that she could never be that confident herself. Pete’s compliment makes Mal think Jennifer is more special and better than other girls, including herself. She notices Reagan walk away in a huff and realizes that Jennifer is “upsetting the popularity chain” (113). Mal chases after Reagan and wonders if Jennifer understands that her confidence will only make people like Reagan mad at her.
The chapter ends with an entry from Jennifer’s journal, Volume V, called “Defense,” in which she describes capoeira’s history. She writes that capoeira was a form of self-defense that originated in Africa. It was secretly adapted into a dance when Africans were enslaved in Brazil. Jennifer comments on the beauty of the tradition and the cruelty of humanity. She believes learning about aliens is about turning violence into something beautiful. Jennifer thinks that aliens intervened in Area 51, a nuclear test site, to save humanity from nuclear destruction and from themselves.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Now”
Back in the present, Ingrid and Kath spend the night at Mal’s home with plans to break into Jennifer’s room the following morning. Mal and Kath stay up and talk privately about how Ingrid has changed. Kath explains that Pete has been bullying Ingrid, and she admits to shunning Jennifer to protect them from more of Pete’s teasing. Kath feels guilty, and Mal claims that doing the right thing can be complicated. Kath retorts that calling something “complicated” is an excuse. Kath asks why Mal is friends with mean people like Reagan and Tess, and Mal explains that Reagan has a tough time at home. Kath argues that many people have personal struggles without being mean. Mal acknowledges that Reagan can be mean to others but says she is nice to her. Then the two girls begin saying negative things about Tess and catch themselves ganging up on her. They’re surprised by how easily they can attack Tess behind her back and backtrack some of their comments.
Kath talks about the microaggressions she encounters at school as a Black and Jewish person, such as Tess’s comments on how to fix her frizzy hair, or people’s impression that she’s either too emotional or too cold. Kath comments on the racism that Jennifer encountered, and Mal responds that she knows about racism against Asians but has never thought deeply about her own racial identity. She has never thought about how certain moments have made her feel uncomfortable. Mal wonders if humans can grow up and evolve to be good, and Kath responds that she believes in human progress for the same reasons that Jennifer believes in aliens—it’s too lonely to believe otherwise.
Chapter 17 Summary
Mal sneaks into Jennifer’s home while Ingrid stands below Jennifer’s window to catch the journals. Kath uses a walkie talkie and serves as lookout for Mal. In the room, Mal can’t locate the journals, but she finds Jennifer’s bright orange aliens t-shirt shoved in the back of her drawer. She feels guilty for pressuring Jennifer to hide her hobby to fit in at school. Kath enters the room to help in the search and discovers the journals hidden underneath the floorboards. To their surprise, Mrs. Chan returns home early, and Kath climbs out the window and down the drainpipe. Mal is afraid since it is too high, and she freezes; she slides under the bed to hide. Mrs. Chan sees the open window and calls out Jennifer’s name. Under the bed, Mal thinks about Mrs. Chan and the Incident and stifles an overwhelming need to cry.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Then”
A few days after the capoeira incident at school, Reagan begins taking unflattering photos of Jennifer behind her back and sharing them with Tess and Mal. Reagan thinks Jennifer is cocky and has no right to look down on them and make Mal feel inferior. Mal feels uncomfortable with the gag, but when Tess joins in and takes photos of Jennifer, Mal participates as well. She feels relief when she realizes that making fun of someone else eases her own anxieties about herself. Reagan has taught her this trick, and Mal finds the feeling of relief “addictive.” She thinks that because the photos are privately shared, she is doing no harm.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Now”
Back in the present, Mal is at school after successfully escaping from Jennifer’s house undetected. The hallways at school are plastered with posters of support for Jennifer, and Reagan comments that people feel more guilt than genuine concern. Instead of joining Reagan and Tess for lunch as usual, Mal lies about having homework. Reagan confides that she’s afraid of losing Mal’s friendship. Mal assures her that she won’t abandon her, though Mal is unsure if she is telling the truth. She rushes off to meet Kath and Ingrid in the chapel. In the media tech room, Kath confirms that she sees no signs of the sound system being tampered with during the assembly. The girls pore over Jennifer’s notebooks, and Mal feels uncomfortable reading Jennifer’s private thoughts. She finds the page where Jennifer figured out the broadcasting frequency.
The chapter ends with an entry from Jennifer’s journal, Volume VI, called “The Right Number” (147), where she determines the frequency to contact aliens as being 1420 megahertz. She cites the astronomer and scientist Carl Sagan’s estimate of the number of stars in the universe being more than the grains of sand on earth, and she wonders why anyone would hesitate to believe in extraterrestrial intelligence.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Now”
The school’s radio channels are too weak, but the girls send out a signal anyway and wait for a reply. Mal suggests performing Jennifer’s ritual to open herself to the universe. Mal stands on a chair and shouts out that she believes in aliens. Kath and Ingrid join her in solidarity, and Mal feels jubilant for not caring about what others think. She notices Tess staring at them through the window and immediately feels embarrassed. Tess explains that she was praying for Jennifer in the chapel, and Mal is unsure whether to believe her. Tess comments that she isn’t surprised that Mal believes in aliens because Mal always “believed the wrong things” (153). The girls explain that they are looking for Jennifer, but Tess doesn’t want to get involved. However, she shares some gossip and tells them that Pete had a crush on Jennifer and met with her the day she disappeared.
Chapter 21 Summary
The girls corner Pete in the stairwell and learn that a few weeks ago, he helped Jennifer with a favor and got her access to the town’s radio station. After her disappearance, he checked back at the station and thought he saw Jennifer. As the sheriff’s son, Pete used his connections to view the security footage but confirmed that the girl he saw was “some other Japanese girl” (161). The girls groan, and Mal informs him that Jennifer is Chinese and that not all Asians look alike. It’s the first time Mal thinks about her Asian identity. The girls dislike Pete but need him to get inside the radio station. Sensing Ingrid’s reluctance to involve Pete, Mal assures her that they’ll protect her from him and that Pete only has power over her if she gives it to him. Ingrid disagrees and says Pete has power because he has privilege.
Chapters 15-21 Analysis
These chapters develop the theme of The Importance of Facing the Truth by highlighting how Mal becomes more aware of her ethnic identity after years of dismissing or ignoring it. She also acknowledges other people’s experiences of racial bias. Previously, she hasn’t analyzed or challenged many of the uncomfortable moments when race and ethnicity have been the basis of bullying and microaggressions. When Kath asks Mal if she experiences racism, Mal replies that she doesn’t know, and she tells herself, “I’ve never really thought about it. And maybe that’s because of my no-intellectual-curiosity problem” (127). Even though Mal understands racism from her mother’s teachings, she nevertheless remains passive and doesn’t confront racist behavior because she is focused on blending in and doesn’t want to highlight what makes her different. She is also afraid of other people’s reactions, so she just hopes that someone else will step in to speak up.
The importance of Mal’s growing awareness about race and ethnicity is that she begins to recognize the ways people discriminate against others, which motivates her to intervene, oppose bigotry and ignorance, and be more critical of her own actions. After talking with Kath about racist microaggressions, Mal begins to think more about moments that have made her uncomfortable, like Tess’s assumption that she shares an essentialist bond with Jennifer. She thinks, “There are all these little maybe-things, where I don’t know whether something’s racist but it worms into my head anyway” (127). When Mal calls Pete out on his racist conflation of Japanese and Chinese, she realizes that it’s the first time she claims her ethnic identity and doesn’t feel awkward about it. She states, “I don’t think I’ve ever talked about being Asian before. My cheeks flush, and I wait for the embarrassment to follow, but it doesn’t” (161). Earlier, Mal referred to her mother’s ethnicity to describe her own background, but in this instance, she proclaims, “We’re not all the same” (161). The plural “we” shows that she accepts her ethnicity and identifies with Asian American communities.
Another development in Mal’s character is that she begins to demonstrate critical thinking and delves into the complexities of what it means to have power and exercise agency. Mal experiences a sense of freedom when she shouts in the media room and expresses herself without a care of what she looks like. The act is liberating and is a gesture toward Mal’s maturation into someone who determines who she wants to be rather than someone who follows others. Yet, the novel also includes Ingrid’s analysis that having agency and freedom requires more than changing one’s self-perception and willing it. Ingrid’s comment that Pete has power because of his father’s status and his popularity points to the ways that power is institutionally upheld and socially enforced. Ingrid argues: “I didn’t give him any power. Some people just have it. Pete has it because his dad’s important, and he has a lot of friends, and he’s…tall?” (163). Pete’s ability to harass Ingrid is not simply a case of her permitting it but a privilege that comes with his social status and physical prowess.
The discussion of aliens also provides Kath with an opportunity to open up about her personal experiences of feeling ostracized because of her racial and religious differences. Kath identifies with Jennifer’s investment in extraterrestrial intelligence as a perspective that values unity in diversity rather than conformity. In her journal, Jennifer explores the idea that aliens symbolize a transformation of humanity’s violence into something beautiful. Like her interest in abduction stories, Jennifer is fascinated with Area 51 not for the conspiracy aspects, but because she wants to believe that aliens intervened to prevent violence. She contends: “You’d think humans would’ve learned something after whole centuries of war. You’d think they would’ve learned to avoid it” (116). For Jennifer, the possibility of aliens represents optimism for humanity’s future, which is a hope that Kath shares. Jennifer is concerned with looking for evidence of aliens not for the sake of proving them real or to argue that Americans have been lied to, but in the hope that aliens may save humanity from its own destructive nature.
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