# Jenny — Years of Grace character guide

> Jenny in Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Janie

**First appearance:** 0014-i

## Snapshot

Jane's twenty-five-year-old daughter, a quiet misfit in Lakewood who talks of leaving home and taking a job while her mother quietly worries she will never fall in love.

## Who they are

Jenny is one of the three grown Carver children whose futures occupy Jane on her fiftieth birthday, the middle child who does not care for dances, does not want any particular young man, and announces plans to lead her own life. Where her brother Steve has embraced banking and Boston, Jenny resists the conventional Lakewood script for a daughter, and her restlessness is a low, persistent friction in Jane's otherwise ordered world. She matters because her discontent quietly echoes the choices Jane herself once faced.

## Relationships

### [Jane Ward](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/characters/jane_ward)

_friendship_

Jenny is a friend or companion of Jane, with a relationship based on everyday interactions and support.

### [Jane Ward](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/characters/jane_ward)

_friendship_

Jenny is a friend or companion of Jane, with a relationship based on everyday interactions and support.

### [Jane Ward](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/characters/jane_ward)

_friendship_

Jenny is a friend or companion of Jane, with a relationship based on everyday interactions and support.

## In the story

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/i)

Jane's daughter, tripping over the puppy's leash.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/ii)

Jane's child who avoids practicing piano thanks to Jimmy's playful excuse about his ear.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/i)

Seen swinging in the garden beneath the apple tree.

### [Part IV: Cicily, Jenny, and Steve](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/part-iv-cicily-jenny-and-steve)

Key character alongside Cicily and Steve, contributing to the chapter's dynamics.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/v)

Bridesmaid, subject of the hat discussion, age sixteen.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/v)

Takes her College Entrance Board physics exam for Bryn Mawr; prefers college to a social debut.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/iii)

Dances with a Bacchic young man; later cut in on by Jack, laughing and talking animatedly.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/i)

Jenny sits beside Cicily on the sofa, her bright blondness accentuated by sombre mourning.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/iii)

Issues her ultimatum about moving to Westchester with Barbara Belmont to run dog kennels, asserting her independence and rejecting traditional expectations.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/iv)

Reads The American Kennels Gazette, discusses Stephen's health with Jane, and suggests her parents travel more.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/v)

Enters cheerfully, supports Jack, offers cocktails, and urges everyone to take the divorce less seriously.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/i)

Jane and Stephen's other daughter, who meets them in New York and avoids discussing Cicily's situation. She lives in Bedford Hills with her kennels.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/ii)

Mentioned as having a Seventy-Ninth Street penthouse.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/iii)

Hosts the penthouse party, dressed in black velvet pajamas, singing jazz, and managing the guests.

### [Chapter X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/chapters/x)

Mentioned as a grown child; Jane recalls her Alice in Wonderland comb.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/characters/jenny
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/years_of_grace_se/characters