Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
First Person (Central Narrator)
Jumped has three main narrators: Leticia, Trina, and Dominique. (Ivan also narrates a chapter, but more on him later.) Each chapter alternates narrators, so we get to see the school, the main ladies, and other people through each narrator's eyes. Most of the narration is internal and reflective, and even though the girls don't talk all that much, they have a lot to say in their minds. Also, the narrators are all teenagers, which means there's no preachy adult perspective or ponderous lesson to be learned. We just get the story in pretty authentic teen-speak.
To Believe or Not To Believe, That Is the Question
Whenever we have first-person narrators, we should always ask ourselves if the narrator is reliable. And in the case of the three girls telling the story, the answer is a pretty definitive "no." None of our female narrators are reliable—instead, they are textbook unreliable narrators.
On one hand, the narrators are fairly accurate about the factual events that occur throughout the day, things like Dominique and Trina passing by one another in the hallway, or Trina getting up to stomp with the Boosters at lunch.
But on the other hand, the interpretations of the events of the day and the internal reflections vary wildly from character to character. Trina thinks that the Boosters want her up with them; Leticia thinks that Trina's imposing herself where she's not wanted. Leticia thinks that her broken nail is the most important thing in the world, more important the impending fight, while it's pretty clear from the teachers' priceless reactions that the nail is pretty unimportant.
Once we realize the characters' unreliability when it comes to their internal conflicts, we as readers are stuck trying to figure out which self-perceptions are accurate. Dominique thinks she doesn't have a temper, but is this true? Trina thinks that she brightens everyone's day, but does she? We end up calling into question some of the core qualities of each character because we're unsure whether they see themselves accurately.
In short, it's pretty safe to trust the events in the novel as they happen, but we'd recommend taking each narrator's perspective with a grain of salt and looking carefully at what other people say around that narrator. And even then, we may not get the whole picture.
Where Does Ivan Fit?
Ivan, Trina's partner in art class, narrates one chapter when he visits Trina in the hospital. He is the only visitor we see Trina getting, other than her mom. Ivan serves to bring us up to speed on the plot, and he's also the most genuine narrator of the bunch. We trust him because he has no ulterior motive; he does what he does because it's the right thing to do—there's no other game to this dude. And since he comes near the end, his narration helps us trust our assessment of the story, namely that Trina doesn't deserve her fate.