44 pages • 1 hour read
Betty MacDonaldMrs. Piggle Wiggle
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1947A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapters 3-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Answer-Backer Cure”
Mary O’Toole comes home from school one day and tells her mother about getting in trouble for being rude to her teacher. Mary thinks her mother will be impressed with her witty comment, but instead, she is sent to her room. She continues behaving impudently, repeating, “I’ll do it because I want to but not because you tell me to” (39) when her parents ask her to do anything. Mrs. O’Toole calls several women in the neighborhood for advice and is told to call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. She does, and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle tells Mrs. O’Toole to come by her house after lunch to collect Penelope the parrot, “a cure for even the most stubborn cases of Answer-Backishness” (42). Mrs. O’Toole brings home the parrot, who speaks only to children. When Mary comes home from school, she is delighted with Penelope. The first thing the parrot says to Mary, who is eating a cookie, is, “Gimme a bite, pig!” (43). Worried about Mary’s amusement with Penelope, Mrs. O’Toole calls Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle reassures her that after enough time, Penelope won’t fail to change Mary’s behavior.
Every time Mary is about to be impudent, Penelope says something rude first. When Mary sticks out her tongue at Penelope, the parrot jeers, “Only snakes stick out their tongues” (46). Mary becomes increasingly annoyed by Penelope. The next day when Mary comes home from school, she tells her mother she apologized to her teacher for her rudeness. They decide to return Penelope to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and Mary refrains from being rude the next time her mother asks her to do something.
Chapter 4 Summary: “The Selfishness Cure”
Dick Thompson has a reputation for being greedy and selfish, though he is smart and obedient. One day, Dick’s mother buys him a box of peppermint sticks and instructs him to share them with the neighborhood children. He takes the candy outside but tells the other children that it belongs to him and that he’ll hit them with his baseball bat if they try to take any. His mother looks out the window and initially thinks Dick has learned to share but then sees him hit Mary O’Toole with the bat when she tries to take a piece. She sends him to his room and then asks Mary to give the candy to the other children. She calls her husband for advice. He suggests spanking Dick but then has the idea to call “Mrs. Wriggle-Spiggle or whatever her name is. You, know, the one who cured Hubert Prentiss” (54). Mrs. Thompson calls Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, who tells her to come and pick up a Selfishness Kit and be instructed on its use. The kit contains numerous locks and labels, and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle tells Mrs. Thompson to label and lock all Dick’s belongings. When Mrs. Thompson arrives home, she begins sewing labels into all his possessions and locks his toothbrush to the toothbrush holder with a tiny padlock. At first, Dick is delighted, and the whole family works together, labeling Dick’s possessions “DICK’S _____—DON’T TOUCH” until late in the evening.
At school, the other children mock Dick’s labeled lunch, Mrs. Thompson having marked his sandwiches, apple, and cookies with frosting saying, “Don’t touch.” In arithmetic, the other students make fun of his labeled ruler, and even his teacher laughs. After school, the other boys plan to play baseball with Dick, but when they see the labels on his mitt and ball and bat, they go home instead. When Dick returns home, he realizes he has locked the key to his toy chest inside it and is bored. The next day, the other children continue laughing at and refusing to play with Dick. At dinner, his mother marks his plate, but Dick tells her not to and that he doesn’t care which one he has. She says she will refrain from marking it if he shares his dessert with the dog. He does and also asks for the padlocks to be removed from his room and his next lunch not to be marked. He packs up the Selfishness Kit to return to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Radish Cure”
One morning, Patsy refuses to take a bath. Her mother is perplexed and begins calling other women in the neighborhood for advice. They are unhelpful, as all their children love baths. Finally, she calls Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, who suggests the radish cure. She tells Patsy’s mother to “let Patsy strictly alone, as washing is concerned, for several weeks. When she has about half an inch of rich black dirt all over her and after she is asleep at night, scatter radish seeds on her arms and head” (74). After three weeks, Patsy is no longer allowed outside because she terrifies the postman and is only able to open her mouth a crack to talk. Eventually, Patsy’s parents plant the radish seeds on her while she is sleeping. She wakes one morning to notice green leaves all over her, and her mother pulls out a radish. She finally requests a bath. She spends all day in the shower, at the end of which she is finally clean and holding a plate of radishes.
Chapters 3-5 Analysis
Throughout the novel, instances of bad behavior are represented as ailments or illnesses. In Chapter 3, when Mary’s mother calls Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, she describes what Mary has been doing physically, squinting and blinking, and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle immediately suggests that Mary must be answering back and being impudent. A horrified Mrs. O’Toole asks if Mary has been impudent to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, who replies, “Oh no, Mary is always very polite to me, but I can recognize the Answer-Backer symptoms” (41). The word choice “symptoms” likens the bad behavior to a childhood ailment or disease. First, this suggests that, like illness, bad behavior is common and contagious. Second, it distances the behavior from the child’s character. MacDonald thus introduces the novel’s theme that Bad Behavior Doesn’t Negate Intrinsic Goodness. Though Mary has begun answering back, the behavior is characterized as the symptom of an illness rather than a personality trait. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle instructs Mrs. O’Toole not to worry because “some of the most charming children I know were once Answer-Backers” (42). In addition to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, the primary characters in the novel are the children in each chapter. All of them have a specific behavior issue, which is characterized as an ailment. The novel always includes a description of the child’s positive personality traits alongside the description of their bad behavior. Often, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle mentions things she likes about the children when she is on the phone with their mothers. The use of diction about illness and focus on good traits alongside negative behaviors separates children’s intrinsic character from the issues they exhibit.
MacDonald represents heteronormative gender roles throughout the novel, which are reflective of social norms of parenting at the time. It is always the mothers who become concerned about their children’s behavior and who are generally homemakers, while the men work outside the home and take less interest in the children. These representations introduce an element of social criticism through comedy. For example, in Chapter 3, “Mrs. Thompson closed the Selfishness Kit and took it downstairs to show Dick’s father. She told him about Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and he patted her on the back and said that he was sure everything was going to be all right and where was the evening paper” (59). Rather than presenting Mr. Thompson’s response without critiquing it, MacDonald emphasizes the patronizing quality of his response with the use of polysyndeton (a figure of speech that uses many coordinating conjunctions to join words or clauses in a sentence). He pats her on the back and says everything will be fine and asks where the evening paper is. The syntax of the passage suggests Mr. Thomson’s lack of interest; he is clearly attempting to appease his wife so he can get back to reading the paper.
MacDonald employs a comedic and lightly satirical tone throughout the novel. For example, when Patsy’s mother calls around the neighborhood for advice, Mrs. Grotto brags about her daughter Paraphernalia being a remarkable child who always takes baths. The choice of the name and Mrs. Grotto’s way of speaking suggest the humorously overdramatic ways some parents view their children. MacDonald comments on society through both comedic asides about gender roles and about the variety of approaches to parenting throughout the neighborhood. The novel also introduces humor within the characters’ thought processes. For example, after her phone calls, Patsy’s mother is upset to realize that bathing is “the most popular indoor sport [...] in town” (73). When Patsy’s father observes his daughter after he and his wife plant the radishes on her dirty skin, he observes, “Repulsive little thing, isn’t she?” (76). MacDonald thus uses the characters’ humorous thoughts about the world around them to add to the novel’s comedic tone. The cures themselves also contribute to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s humorous tone. The consequences of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s cures are whimsical and absurd as well as effective, from the parrot who speaks like an impudent child to the ridiculousness of a locked-up toothbrush to radishes sprouting from the backs of unwashed hands.
The author also demonstrates the theme of the Role of Community in Parenting. In Chapter 3, Mrs. O’Toole calls several neighborhood moms before she reaches out to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. In Chapter 4, Mr. Thompson suggests calling Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, which indicates that her reputation has extended even to fathers in the neighborhood. Finally, in Chapter 5, Patsy’s mother calls other women for advice about what to do with her daughter. These discussions paint a picture of parents who, rather than being embarrassed to discuss their children’s bad behavior, seek help and guidance from each other.
