The Selection

When America and Aspen meet in the tree house in Chapter 2, America sings for Aspen, and when he is able to, he gives her a penny as payment. Aspen could never afford her actual performance fee, but the pennies are a small token of appreciation for her services. America collects the pennies in a jar, and even though they don’t add up to much, she says that the jar full of pennies “[is] like having a reminder of everything Aspen [is] willing to do” to show her he loves her (24). The jar of pennies represents America and Aspen’s relationship and how it changes over the course of the novel.

When America drops the penny into her jar at the end of Chapter 2, she mentions the “happy sound of the newest one hitting its neighbors” (24). For America, this jar represents two years’ worth of joy and secrecy. The pennies aren’t a significant sum of money, but to America, they’re a symbol of Aspen’s devotion. Similarly, although Aspen thinks that he has nothing to offer America, his small acts of love have added up to a beautiful (if complicated) relationship. However, Aspen resents the pennies and the jar because they serve as a reminder that he cannot provide for America in the way that he wants to.