Jenny Tull in

A detailed Summary of Jenny Tull in

Character Paper AP English

In the book Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, the character Jenny, the second

child of the Tull family has married three times. As a child she was thought to be the

"luxury", the child that was "fun to dress" to her mother. As an adult she is a pediatrician who is conveyed in the story to be lively, witty, animated, outspoken, and withdrawn from the people who are closest to her. She is described to have "coarse dark hair that she was always hacking at, much to her mother's disapproval" and she was "studious looking", with bones that were so sharp "they seemed like they could puncture her skin".

Jenny has a strong asset which is to show the family how to survive, "We make our luck right? We have to overcome and learn from our setbacks." Jenny always seems to recognize the need for cheer within the family and she tries to be exuberant. But like the rest of her family she has suffered from her father's disappearance.

Jenny's mother emotionally and physically abused Jenny when she was a child. Her mother shouted words such as "serpent", "cockroach

Jenny reflects a human experience that I have experienced. Since Jenny did not have high regards for her mother who called her a "serpent" she decided to escape Pearl's dominance and aggression by leaving Baltimore to attend college. When Jenny did this I felt a sense of relief but I was not surprised when she later returned to Baltimore to set practice. "She could have accepted more lucrative offers in Philadelphia or Newark, she chose Baltimore instead". The fact is that Jenny really did love her mother and she had grown to rely on her.

mother insults Josiah I think that Jenny is the person who sends Josiah the "mystery gifts". I think she is sad that her mother would not let her associate with him and she feels guilty about her mother outwardly screaming to Josiah in person: "A dummy! A retarded person." I also think that Jenny is sympathetic and caring because she feels empathy for her brother Ezra who had become the family "custodian", guarding their post, and for Cody who "catalogues" everything. She also reveals that she is thoughtful and sympathetic to her third husband Joe when she promised to never remarry, but "there Joe was, and his children. And his baby was so little and so recently abandoned..."

" and "hideous little sniveling guttersnipe" which haunted Jenny, altering and defying her character. This abuse affected Jenny by causing her to have low self esteem. Eventually when she had her own child, Becky, Jenny even began to act violently towards her own daughter. "She brought Becky a drink o

Some common words found in the essay are:
Josiah Jenny, Homesick Restaurant, He's Joe's, Philadelphia Newark, Becky's Becky, Becky Jenny, Tull Jenny, Josiah Payson, WWII Jenny, Paper English, jenny child, josiah jenny, cup becky's, threw cup, threw cup becky's, becky jenny, own daughter,

Approximate Word count = 1034
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English