Dynamic Character: Jenna

Why characters are Influential

By: Elias Dorsey

Authors note: This is an essay about how Jenna Boller in the book “Rules of the Road”, by Joan Bauer is very influential and how some of the things she says prove it. The purpose is to identify how Jenna is influential and why.

Out of all of the characters in the book, "Rule Of The Road by Joan Bauer, Jenna is by far the most influential. The story is about a young girl named Jenna who has many family problems and insecurities. She only longs for a way to escape from her life. So when Mrs. Gladstone, her boss at the shoe company she works at called Gladstone shoes, offers her a chauffeur job. She jumps on it.

So she drives Mrs. Gladstone across the country, searching the different branches of Gladstone shoes. One of the most memorable quotes happens rather early into the book. The quote is “I can sell anybody anything.” I think this quote is important because it expresses how she thinks, and also that statement comes into play later in the book when she displays it at one of the different Gladstone Shoes stores.

            When she gets to the store, she is disappointed in the scene she sees. The customer service at that branch of Gladstone shoes was terrible. The store clerk had no consideration for his customers. Jenna had to take care of it in some manner. She saw the perfect opportunity when a police officer walked past the front door to the building. She flagged him down and made the store clerk give the lady a discount for her five children. It shows that Jenna has sympathy for people and she wants everything to be as fair as possible.

Another quote in the book that displays what kind of character she is, is when she says “He’s a survivor, like me.” When she says this, it shows how much she has grown through the book after stressing over her alcoholic father and her mother that was never there. It demonstrates that she can stand up for herself and live on her own. Like how a mother bird nudges her baby bird.

In conclusion Jenna has been the most influential character, and has grown a lot throughout the story.