The Face on the Milk Carton

“She lived entirely inside her mind, searching her memory like a little kid going through an encyclopedia, trying to find the right heading. Jane Elizabeth Johnson, Kidnapping of.” 

Janie feels as though her body functions independently of her brain in the hours after she first learns of her kidnapping. As Janie’s body goes through the motions of a normal school day, her mind frantically works to process the news of her kidnapping. Because Janie lives before the widespread use of the internet, the narrator uses an encyclopedia to illustrate Janie’s hunt for information.

“She had not allowed herself to read the name under the photograph. Now she read it. Jennie Spring.” 

Janie enjoys trying out new spellings of her name to make it look more interesting. When she realizes that she once had an entirely different name, though, she feels shocked and upset. This moment develops the theme of identity, which is central to the novel. Many teenagers are trying to establish their chosen identities, but Janie realizes that her current identity isn’t even real.

“Janie stayed till the end of Lassie. The final scene was in the kitchen. Timmy of course had a glass of milk. Nobody in old television gave their kids soda. It ended happily ever after, with hugs all around and a barking collie.” 

The simplicity of life on an old TV show appeals to Janie when her own life has become surprisingly complicated. In this passage and others, Janie longs for a “happily ever after” with her family, but she wonders who her true family is.

“She had a sense that she must hold on to her sanity, the way in a crowd in the city you held on to your purse. That it would take both hands to stay sane.” 

The narrator frequently uses comparisons to convey how Janie thinks and feels. This particular comparison reveals how alert and frightened Janie feels about her mental state. It foreshadows the disorientation and fear that Janie develops as she struggles to accept her past. 

“When he ran away to take Michael’s phone call, had he also been running away from the kiss he had given Janie?”

Mere moments after Reeve kisses Janie for the first time, she begins to wonder if he regrets the action. The speed with which Janie shifts from happiness to doubt underscores the instability in Janie’s life. She feels as though her identity and relationships continually shift.

“All the questions were unthinkable.” 

Janie considers calling the 800 number on the milk carton to obtain information about her kidnapping but cannot imagine what she would say on the phone. The surreal feel of Janie’s situation makes it difficult for her to choose a direction for her inquiries. This quotation applies more broadly to Janie’s position in the novel, too. From the moment she discovers the milk carton, she feels lost and uncertain about how to move forward.

“At the top of the page, he had circled Jayyne Jonstone, adding ‘Janie, you having an identity crisis?’” 

Mr. Brylowe, Janie’s English teacher, returns her essay with a note about the unusual way Janie spelled her name on the essay. His comment is an example of dramatic irony. While readers know that Janie really is having an identity crisis, Mr. Brylowe does not realize how close his question comes to the truth. 

“I gave up my real family for a sundae? thought Janie Johnson.”

When Janie remembers leaving her mother and siblings for ice cream with a stranger, she feels horrified. Janie blames herself for her kidnapping and experiences guilt and frustration. She returns to this guilt throughout the novel, harshly judging her actions.

“Still dripping from the rain, clinging to her book bag, Janie said, ‘I want to know why there aren’t any photographs of me until I’m five. Even if you didn’t buy a camera until then, you would have had a baby portrait done. I want to know who Hannah is upstairs in the trunk. I want to know why you won’t let me see my birth certificate.’” 

Janie has kept the discovery of her kidnapping a secret from Miranda and Frank. With this quote, she finally shares some of her suspicions with her parents. Notably, she does not tell them about the milk carton. Janie’s omission leads to continued misunderstanding. Miranda and Frank respond to the concerns she poses, but because they do not know that she was reported kidnapped, they cannot entirely reassure Janie. 

“They are my mother and father, she thought. They raised me. They love me. I love them. Mother and Daddy are all I have, and all I want.”

Janie’s reluctance to investigate her kidnapping surfaces multiple times. Though she feels compelled to find out what happened in her childhood, she worries that doing so will destroy the life she has known. Janie recognizes that Frank and Miranda may face awful consequences if she continues to uncover her past.

“Janie’s made-up versions slipped and slid like cars on ice; they crashed into what few dim memories she had—or had created. But one thing was true and certain: the dress in the attic matched the dress on the carton.” 

This quotation illustrates Janie’s difficulty distinguishing memories from dreams. Her use of cars colliding as a metaphor shows how Janie’s confusion has become a destructive force in her life. Without confidence in her memories, Janie turns to items such as the dress and the milk carton to stay grounded.

“She prayed the phone book would have been stolen. But it was there, hanging in a metal case by a metal cord. Her life, her soul, her history, her genes.” 

Janie feels a constant push and pull between her curiosity and her fear. She seeks out the Spring family’s address but simultaneously wishes that she could not access it. By using words such as “life” and “soul,” the narrator underscores the high stakes of Janie’s investigative actions. 

“They both knew if he had gone to a different sort of place, with a safer, richer, cleaner feeling, they could have. Would have.”

Reeve and Janie consider going into a cheap hotel room to explore their physical attraction. When they do not, the narrator explains why by revealing both of their thoughts about the decision. This marks a rare moment of omniscient perspective in the novel. Instead of aligning only with Janie’s perspective, the narrator briefly presumes to know Reeve’s thoughts, too.

“New Jersey. What a nice, catchall phrase for the mess that had erupted in her life. It rounded up the chaos into a neat rectangle below New York, leaning onto Pennsylvania and waving out over the Atlantic Ocean.” 

Janie uses “New Jersey” to compartmentalize the threats to her calm life in Connecticut. For her, the state represents disorder and messiness. Janie’s feelings about New Jersey overlap with her concerns about the Spring family. Many of her memories from her childhood with them involve impressions of noise and disorganization.

“It horrified her that she had once daydreamed of being somebody other than Janie Johnson. Jayyne Jonstone, indeed. How precious her own name and address seemed now.”

This quotation marks a turning point in Janie’s consideration of her identity. Once Janie has a new identity forced upon her, she gains a new appreciation for the straightforward existence she once took for granted. 

“She was trying to fence off all the dangerous places, where things might cave in, where they would know that she knew. She kept having the sense that if she could steer her life right, the way Reeve was steering the Jeep right, they would avoid ever hitting the kidnapping.”

Investigating her kidnapping without confiding in Miranda and Frank causes Janie a great deal of stress. That stress leads Janie to feel ill at ease in her own mind. Some of the “dangerous places” she references here include the “daymares” that Janie believes a demon has put into her brain.

“The only thing anybody wants is to be the center of a universe, she thought.” 

Janie validates Reeve’s desire to feel heard and valued in their relationship. However, she struggles to grant herself the same consideration. Janie believes that her desire to hold Hannah’s attention led to her kidnapping. She treats herself harshly in response, railing against the little girl in the photo.

“The milk carton was all that existed of herself.” 

Janie considers disposing of the milk carton after Sarah-Charlotte questions her about it, but she has come to see the carton as a token of her evolving identity. This perception marks a shift in how Janie views the milk carton. While it once represented a threat to her way of life, it now represents her real identity.

“Reeve said, ‘It’s Pandora’s box, isn’t it? The myth. The minute you opened that milk carton, it was all there: every evil thing. And you’ll never be able to put it back. It’s out now.’” 

Reeve uses a literary allusion to the story of Pandora to help Janie understand her situation. In the Greek myth of Pandora, a character opens a forbidden jar and thereby releases bad things into the world. By mentioning Pandora, Reeve indicates that Janie must see her investigation through to its conclusion. She cannot unknow what she has discovered.

“‘I hate her. I hate that little girl.’ She began to cry. The tears made no noise and took no effort, but they burned fiercely, as if they were the acid remains of her horrible deeds.” 

Janie’s anger about her kidnapping causes her to dissociate from her younger self. Although she was only three years old at the time of her kidnapping, Janie blames herself for allowing it to occur. 

“She wondered if she could learn how to laugh again. If there would be a time, living next door to Reeve, when she would smile in an ordinary way at the driver of that Jeep?”

This quotation underscores the extent to which finding the milk carton has upended Janie’s life. It occurs at the height of Janie’s loneliness when she has temporarily alienated Reeve through inattention and has no one to guide her decisions. The quote underscores the wistful mood of that moment in the novel.

“They can remember it, thought Janie. I have found a few scraps of memory, but to them it is bright: the day Hannah brought a little girl to fill their lives.” 

Janie feels left out of her parents’ shared grief. Even as she worries about hurting Frank and Miranda, she envies them the certainty of their memories.

“‘They’ve waited long enough,’ said Janie’s mother. ‘I know what it is to lie awake year after year, never knowing what happened to your little girl. I know what it is to cry out on her birthday, If only, if only!’” 

Miranda’s pain about losing Hannah causes her to feel empathy for the Spring family. Though she previously has been characterized as disciplined and calm, this quotation shows that Miranda also lives with pain. By connecting Janie with her birth parents, Miranda channels that pain into empathy.