The Face on the Milk Carton Character

In the book The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney, I think that the main character, Janie, is hopeful. Janie saw a picture on the back of a milk carton of a little girl who had been kidnapped 12 years before. She thought the girl was her, and she couldn't believe that her parents would do that. On page 26 it said, "I'm sick, she thought. Deranged. Imagine imagining they kidnapped me! I mean, talk about proof of a loving family. From the folded laundry to the refrigerator note-". In this quote, Janie was thinking about all the nice things her parents had done for her. This showed that Janie was hopeful because she didn't want to blame her parents for kidnapping her. Instead, she thought of reasons that it couldn't be them. She hoped that she wasn't kidnapped, but if she was, she hoped it wasn't them who kidnapped her.

Also, Janie is very observent. On page 33 it said, "Her mother was beautifully dressed. She hung up her crimson wool coat and slipped off her high, slim heels. Her feet were very long and very narrow and finding shoes was a real trial. Janie's feet were short and wide. There's nothing in me that's like her, thought Janie. Is it because I have none of her genes? Because she is not my mother?" This showed that Janie is observent because she noticed how different she was from her mom, and the things she noticed were small things, like the size of her feet. Another difference she noticed was on page 34 when it said, "They talk more that I do, too, thought Janie. They spout conversation continually, both of them. I have more listening in me that talking." This quote showed that Janie was different from her parents because they talked more than she did. All of these things made her think that she really could have been kidnapped, since she wasn't very much like her parents. If she wasn't so observent, she may not have noticed these things.