52 pages • 1 hour read
Heather MarshallLooking for Jane
Fiction | Novel | Adult | 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.
Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 12 Summary: “Evelyn”
It is now May of 1970, 10 years after Evelyn was admitted to St. Agnes’s Home for Unwed Mothers. Although the novel won’t reveal so until Chapter 28, the woman using the name Evelyn from this point on is actually Maggie.
Evelyn (the real Maggie) is in medical school. She’s visiting Ottawa for a protest, advocating for women’s reproductive rights. The protesters call themselves the “Abortion Caravan.” As she heads to the protest, Evelyn reflects on her experience as one of only two women in her class at medical school. There, she met her close friend (and future husband) Tom and lived with the other woman in her class, Marie. Evelyn recalls accompanying Marie to have an abortion—still illegal at that time but performed by Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who is an advocate for women’s rights and who provides underground abortions in safe settings. Evelyn is deeply moved by his work, and she asked if he would train her to provide abortions since she is now a doctor. He agreed but warned her that the work can be dangerous as it is illegal and must be done in secret.
At the protest, Evelyn meets Paula, an activist for women’s reproductive rights. She invites Evelyn to join a further act of protest: delivering a coffin to Prime Minster Trudeau’s house.
A few days later, Evelyn joins the protesters again, this time at a hearing where the prime minster and government representatives are discussing abortion laws. The protesters are very organized. In pairs of one man and one woman, they chain themselves to their seats and shout to interrupt the hearing. They force the hearing to stop. Evelyn and many others are roughly handled by security, but there are too many of them to arrest.
Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary: “Angela”
It is February 2017, and Angela takes The Jane Network home to show Tina. Tina tells her that Dr. Evelyn Taylor teaches at the same university where Tina does. Tina also recognizes Dr. Morgentaler’s name; she calls him “a big deal” because he went to the Supreme Court to challenge the law that banned abortion.
Although it is still early in their fertility treatments, Angela and Tina decide that Angela should take an at-home pregnancy test. They’re too anxious and excited to wait. The test comes back positive. A week later, they visit the doctor, who confirms that Angela is pregnant. The receptionist at the doctor’s office asks Angela a question about last names, giving Angela an idea about her search for Nancy Mitchell. She realizes that Nancy might have gotten married or changed her name, perhaps no longer using her maiden name of Mitchell. She finds a record of Nancy marrying Michael Birch and searches for Nancy Birch on Facebook.
Part 2, Chapter 14 Summary: “Evelyn”
A year after the protests in Ottawa, Evelyn is back in Toronto. She runs her own family medicine practice in an old house that she and Tom bought and converted into a doctor’s office. Her practice is busy, and she loves the connections that she’s making with her community and patients. Tom and Evelyn are married. He is gay, so their relationship is not romantic. They are close friends, and the marriage makes them both feel safe and helps them avoid unwelcome questions.
Evelyn and her nurse, Alice, offer secret, illegal abortions after hours in their doctor’s office. Patients find them through word of mouth, but Alice wants to join the Jane Network so that more patients can find them. She explains that the Jane Network is a “whisper network” that connects women who need abortions with doctors who can provide them. The group uses the code word “Jane” for secrecy. The idea makes Evelyn nervous because it would increase the risk of being caught, but she agrees to consider it.
Evelyn and Alice attend a recruiting meeting for the Jane Network. Evelyn is skeptical at first but is inspired by the group and agrees to join.
Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary: “Nancy”
Nancy’s narrative picks up in 1981, about a year after she discovered the truth about being adopted. Nancy’s grandmother has died, but she continues to volunteer at the nursing home where her grandmother lived. It is called St. Sebastian’s, and it is in the building where St. Agnes’s used to be.
Nancy realizes that she has missed her period. She is still in college and did not intend to become pregnant. She reflects on the fact that she has been drinking heavily and might not have been as careful as she should have been when having sex with her boyfriend, Len. Nancy is shaken by the realization that she is pregnant and doesn’t feel that she can trust anyone with the information, although her roommate seems to guess.
Nancy wants to get an abortion, but the service is still illegal. She remembers visiting the hospital with Clara after Clara’s abortion, and she begins calling the doctors in the phonebook and asking for Jane. After a few strongly negative reactions, someone gives her a phone number. Although she doesn’t know it yet, it is Evelyn and Alice’s practice that she calls. She makes an appointment for her abortion.
Nancy is very nervous when she arrives for her appointment, but Alice and Evelyn are professional and reassuring. Nancy is confident that she is in good hands. A police raid interrupts the abortion, but Evelyn and Alice have advanced warning due to their connections with the Jane Network. They therefore have time to prepare and help Nancy prepare: They agree on a story, hide evidence, and calmly take their places as if Nancy were there for a routine appointment. Nancy offers a convincing performance, and the police leave without further trouble.
Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary: “Evelyn”
It is now the summer of 1983. Evelyn visits St. Sebastian’s Home for the Aged to visit one of her long-time patients, Chester Braithwaite. She struggles with the memories of her arrival at St. Agnes’s 23 years before.
As she heads to Chester’s room, Evelyn sees a young woman who looks familiar. It is Nancy, volunteering at the home. Chester and Evelyn share a whiskey to say farewell. It is a sad but peaceful visit.
Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary: “Nancy”
It is Nancy’s last day volunteering at St. Sebastian’s. The patient she is assigned to visit is Sister Mary Agatha, who was one of the nuns at St. Agnes’s. Nancy reflects on her mother while Sister Agatha sleeps. Nancy’s mother has been diagnosed with brain cancer and is receiving chemotherapy treatments. Nancy has a new boyfriend, Michael, and he is a comfort to her during her mother’s sickness.
Sister Agatha tells Nancy that she reminds her of someone (it is probably Maggie whom Nancy reminds Sister Agatha of, though neither of the women know of their connection). Disoriented by her illness, the nun tells Nancy that the babies were sold and that she can still hear the mothers and babies crying.
As Nancy is leaving, she sees Evelyn leaving as well. Nancy recognizes Evelyn right away and calls out to her. After a little prompting, Evelyn recognizes Nancy as well. Nancy thanks her for her help with the abortion and expresses interest in volunteering for the Jane Network.
Part 2, Chapter 18 Summary: “Angela”
Angela is at the university library while Tina teaches. Angela is using the library to try to find Nancy’s birth mother since none of the Nancy Birches she reached out to on Facebook have responded. Angela finds an old news article about the closure of St. Agnes’s after a resident sent a letter that revealed the abuse and mistreatment at the home. Angela also finds an obituary for Margaret Roberts, published in 1961. She understands that the obituary contains a euphemism for suicide, which she concludes was Maggie’s cause of death.
As Angela reads The Jane Network, she finds a reference to Maggie, the author’s best friend at St. Agnes’s. Angela concludes that Dr. Evelyn Taylor, who wrote The Jane Network, might have known Maggie. She asks Tina to introduce them.
Part 2 Analysis
Part 2 of Looking for Jane follows the same structure that Part 1 did, alternating chapters between the three protagonists’ points of view. As the story develops in Part 2, the author’s reason for using such a structure becomes more evident. In Part 2, the stories of Nancy (whose birth name is Jane) and Evelyn (whose real name is Maggie) start to overlap. After meeting when Nancy seeks out an abortion, the two women reconnect at St. Sebastian’s Home for the Aged. The narrative structure allows Marshall to introduce readers to both of these characters (and their pasts) before they meet each other. It also allows the author to reveal some information to readers that the characters themselves do not know yet—e.g., St. Agnes’s Home is a defining detail in both of their histories. This dramatic irony not only builds tension but also develops the theme of Motherhood as Both Universal and Personal. Nancy and Evelyn are brought together again and again both because they share a community and because they are connected via the shared experience of motherhood. There are also very personal reasons that they might be drawn together (they will discover at the end of the novel that they are actually mother and daughter).
In Chapter 18, Angela makes a few important discoveries related to her search for Nancy. As she draws connections between Nancy, Maggie, the Jane Network, and St. Agnes’s, Angela serves as a proxy for the reader, searching out clues as to how these narratives connect. Selecting the most modern character to fill this role encourages identification, as Angela’s historical and social context is most like a 21st-century reader’s.
Looking for Jane is a coming-of-age story for Evelyn (actually Maggie); the novel introduces her as a young woman, scared and alone as she navigates pregnancy and the cruelty of St. Agnes’s Home. She does not feel like she has choices or a voice. She lacks Bodily Autonomy and Reproductive Rights. In Part 2, Evelyn undergoes a transformation. She is an adult and very different from the young woman she was in Part 1: “Nine years ago, Evelyn left St. Agnes’s a different woman. After all the trauma, after the crippling sense of helplessness, and lack of control over her own life, she vowed she would never again be in a position where she would have to rely on anyone else or feel as powerless as she had” (128). The motif of naming underscores this transformation; Evelyn’s husband calls her “Eve” rather than Evelyn. In this way, Evelyn receives a different name to mark her new, more mature and independent identity. The name itself is also significant: “Eve” is most closely associated with the creation myth in Abrahamic religions. In these traditions, Eve was the first woman and is thus a symbol of femininity and motherhood. The myth of Adam and Eve is also closely associated with the idea of sin, as Adam and Eve are said to have committed humanity’s first transgression. Evelyn’s nickname therefore prompts readers to think about what sin is, what morality is, and what motherhood is.
Chapter 15 includes the second abortion the book describes. Both abortions involve Nancy, but the two abortions contrast with each other. Clara’s abortion is rushed, painful, and dark. She screams in pain, laying on a black sheet that Nancy imagines must be stained. Nancy’s abortion in Part 2 is clean and professional. She is nervous, but Evelyn and Alice comfort her and answer her questions. This contrast furthers the theme of Justice Under Unjust Systems, as Evelyn, Alice, and other members of the Jane Network seek to provide safe abortions despite the ban.
