Everything Is Not Always as It Seems

Everything Is Not Always As It Seems

Did you know that approximately 800,000 children are reported missing each year in the United States? In the story "The Face on the Milk Carton" by Caroline B. Cooney the main character, Janie Johnson, was kidnapped from a shopping mall in New Jersey when she was three years old. However, she didn't find out this information until she was 15 and saw her picture on the side of a milk carton as a missing child. Janie then tried to solve the mystery of her kidnapping. Throughout the whole story there is a reoccurring theme of everything is not always as it seems. This theme is demonstrated several times during the story.

Sometimes everything is not always as it seems to be. One example of this is demonstrated in the beginning of the book. After Janie sees her picture on the side of the milk carton as a missing child, she begins to question who she really is. Following this, Janie then thinks to herself, "That is me on there. I, Janie Johnson; I was kidnapped" (14). Up until this moment her life had pretty much been perfect. She was a good student; she had plenty of friends, and a family that loved her. She was now unsure of all these things. She never imagined that this could ever happen to her. She was in shock and didn't know what to do next. All her life she thought she was Janie Johnson, but now she is questioning whether or not that is her real identity.

Another example of the theme is demonstrated when Janie begins to realize that the parents that she has known and loved all her life may not be her real parents. When Janie starts to wonder about her parents kidnapping her she thinks, "Does that mean that either my mother or my father is not my mother or father? That somewhere out there is a real mother or a real father who has wondered for twelve years where I am?" (16). Janie would have never thought that the people she had lived with all these years may not actually be related to her. They were normal, kind and loving people. Their family was a normal family. Janie loves her parents and knows they would never do anything to hurt her, but now Janie is wondering how this could be true if her parents are criminals.

Throughout the story, Janie also learned who her true friends were, and they weren't all who Janie thought they were. While having a conversation with Sarah-Charlotte on the phone, "Janie struggled