The Face on the Milk Carton (Page 137-184)

Title: The Face on the Milk Carton
Author: Caroline B. Cooney
Page 137- 184

Summary
About two months had passed, Janie’s life “returned” back to normal. Taking with friends and dating her boyfriend seem natural. But, in reality, Janie’s conscience stills bothered her more and more as time goes by. All the stress was building up by the secret that caused the short break up of Janie and Reeve. The main cause of the verbal fight between the couple was that Reeve told his older sister about her situation. Without his girlfriend’s consent, the furious Janie took all her stress out to him. For that short time period (of 2 weeks), Janie came to her senses and reflected the fact that the secret must be divulge. After the conciliation of the teens, Reeve told Janie the discovery his sister found. The truth the big sister found was that Hannah stole her; her “parents” were actually innocent. That part could be considered to be the resolution. The anguish Janie felt disappeared and her courage returned to tell her parents about her secret. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson’s reaction were logical. They could not believe the fact her precious daughter did that to Janie’s family and herself. At the end, Mrs. Johnson decided to contact the Springs about Janie being with her. Mrs. Johnson said, “If I could have any wish, it would be that no parent on this earth ever suffered a missing child” (Cooney 180). She felt guilty to have someone else’s child. Therefore to stop the suffering of another mother, Mrs. Johnson was fine to return Janie to her real home. Even though, Janie preferred to stay with the Johnsons. The book concluded with Janie on the phone calling the Springs. The dénouement was, “Hi. It’s..your daughter. Me, Jannie” (Cooney 184).

Quote
“In the velvety silence of the room Janie, Lizzie [Reeve’s older sister], Reeve, her mother, and her father listened to the telephone ring in New Jersey” (Cooney 184).

Reaction
Throughout the book, Cooney uses suspense to make the reader even more interested in the story. The outrageous plot of a girl being kidnapped is extreme. In addition, the denouement ended with a hangover. Due to the fact, there is a sequel, which makes most people to keep reading her novellas. Her writing style is just full of suspense and mystery. The quote above supports my statement. Quotes like this keep the reader in tension. The quote was taken in the occation where the Johnsons were contacting the Springs. To me, “velvety silence” has a huge connotation that makes me think of the silence of a haunted house. The book is just full of many connotations that make the people wonder what will happen next.

I rate this book 4.9/5-too much suspense almost gave a heart attack ;). (Recommend this to bibliophiles who love the genre of mystery)

The Face on the Milk Carton (Page 63-136)

Title: The Face on the Milk Carton
Author: Caroline B. Cooney
Page 63-136

Summary
With the doubt of living with the Johnsons, Janie began to research about her case. The first step to determine whether the Johnsons had kidnapped her was to look around her house. Janie went to the place where no one went, the attic. In the desolated area, Janie found many boxes with labels on it. The peculiar thing about the labels was that one of them was labeled Hannah. Janie thought who’s Hannah? (Cooney 67) With that box labeled Hannah, Janie discovered a small cloth of the polka dots dress in the milk carton photo. After some time, Janie began to avoid looking at the Johnsons. All her doubts even made her have “daymares” or bad daydreams. Her eating habits were deteriorated. Until the curiosity of who’s Hannah, was released by Janie’s “parents” asking her what was wrong. The response was the question of who’s Hannah. For a short moment, her parents were surprise to hear that name. All the Johnsons had told her was that Hannah was their real daughter. To make the story short, Hannah was taken by a cult’s beliefs. The parents told her that in the 1960’s to 1970’s, the Hare Krishna movement enticed people to joined them and leave their family back. The Johnsons experienced the lost of a dear one. That’s explained the part about Mrs. Johnson being strict to Janie, to avoid losing her. Ironically, the mother was still losing Janie. After losing Hannah for some time, the parents felt lonesome. Once, suddenly Hannah appeared with a child in their house. That child was the 3 year old Janie. Ever since then, they took care of her and Hannah became missing- due to the cult. To Janie, the story was fabricated. Deep in her mind, Janie knew that the lost of a daughter led the lonely Johnsons to kidnap another child to replace Hannah. Though, Janie decided to keep living with them. As for the relationship of Janie and Reeve Shieldses, they became closer enough to the point of kissing each other in public. In addition, Reeve became an accomplice to hide her secret from her parents.

Quote
“We’re related, it’s okay, she’s all but my mother, there’s no daymare, no nightmare, no demons, Hannah just had an illegitimate baby and it’s me and that’s all there is to it” (Cooney 81).

Reaction
The internal conflict stills goes on. Janie decided to be Janie Johnson, not Jannie Spring. However, her conscience mortifies her every time she looks at the milk carton. The feelings Janie had after the story of Hannah are reflected in the quote above. To me, that quote shows the self denial she got to face about the Johnsons having a reason to have her/kidnap her. The part of the quote, “we’re related,” shows the fact that Janie’s desire to be a Johnson, even though she’s not. For some reason, Janie wants to hide the truth about her being kidnapped. The troublesome part about this quote is that there’s ambiguity. The quote might not be self denial of her being kidnapped but a resolution to maybe accept her fate to live with them. She had accepted to be her daughter and leave her original family back in New Jersey.