Jeanette - character anaylsis

The character I have chosen is Jeanette. Above is a quick painting from my sketchbook of how I think Jeanette would look. Her age changes from a young girl to a teen but her teen age is not stated,  I but believe her to be 15-16 years, her hair colour red/auburn. Height again not stated but I imagine her to be fairly short with a slim build.

Words to describe Jeannette throughout the novel:

Sheltered/Innocent- Jeanette does not experience what many would call a normal childhood, she is home schooled until the age of 8 or 9, and brought up in the ways of the Church, her Pentecostal church/beliefs is all she knows.

Afraid/Scared- when the 'unnatural passions' she had with Melanie and then with Katy were uncovered she was very afraid of the repercussions from the church. Scared when she is locked in her mothers parlour without food for punishment for her 'unnatural passions'. Afraid when the pastor performs an exorcism on her to relieve her from her 'illness'

Confident- she happily preaches in the market and teaches in the Sunday school.

Courageous-  Jeanette quits the church and is forced to leave home at 16 because of her "sinful" ways, and for fear of bringing illness on the family. This showed great courage because the church was all she had every known and had been a way of life for her since she was a very young child.

Excitable/kind - she is excited by the crafts she creates at school, excited by her religious beliefs, she has a close friendship with Elsie, shows many acts of kindness throughout the novel.

Religious/Naive

Jeanettes mother is a devout, fully involved member of the Pentecostal church which is a fundamentalist Christian denomination. Her mother was very devout and saw sex as a sin, she wanted to have a child without having sex so she adopted Jeanette. She saw Jeanette as someone she could mould in to a child of God. So her whole childhood was centred around her mothers religion. There were no books in the house apart from the bible and Jane Eyre, her mothers favourite novel. She does not mix with anyone outside of the church, so has a very sheltered upbringing. 

Inquisitive - She reads Jayne Eyre (only other book in the family home, besides the bible) and discovers that it has a different ending to how her mother read it to her. She constantly questions her mother about life in general and makes frequent trips to the library to expand her literary knowledge.