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
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BetaChapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Never-Want-to-Go-to-Bedders Cure”
Mrs. Gray always dreads bedtime because her children, Bobby, Larry, and Susan, complain every evening about being made to go to bed. Frustrated, Mrs. Gray begins calling other parents for advice. The first two are no help, but then she remembers Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle tells Mrs. Gray that not wanting to go to bed is “one of the commonest of the children’s ailments” (81). She suggests that Mrs. Gray stop telling the children to go to bed and instead let them stay up as late as they want. Mrs. Gray is concerned about her children’s health but agrees to try the cure. That night, Mr. and Mrs. Gray go to bed at 10:30, but Bobby, Larry, and Susan stay up late playing parchesi. The next morning, Dick Thomson’s mother comes over and offers to take the children to the beach, but they are still sleeping. They are upset when they learn they missed the trip.
The next night, the children stay up late playing tiddlywinks. Mrs. Gray wakes them up for a morning dentist appointment, and they are exhausted the next day. That night, they go outside to roller skate and are yelled at to be quiet by a neighbor. They come inside and play parchesi but argue and then fall asleep on the board. The next day, the children go to a matinee at the movie theatre, but all of them fall asleep during the film. When they wake up, they realize all the other children have gone home, and they are locked inside. Eventually, the janitor lets them out and drives them home. Their parents have guests that night, and while Susan and Bobby go to bed, Larry wakes them up to go in search of leftover sandwiches and snacks. The next day, at Patsy’s birthday party, Bobby, Larry, and Susan are so sleepy they don’t enjoy the festivities at all. That night, at eight o’clock, they ask permission to go to bed. Mrs. Gray tells them, “From now on, if you are good, I will let you go to bed at eight o’clock every night” (90).
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Slow-Eater-Tiny-Bite-Taker Cure”
One morning, Allen begins eating his breakfast mush grain by grain. Despite his mother’s instructions, he continues eating extremely slowly. Concerned, his mother starts calling around the neighborhood for advice. The first two mothers are unhelpful, but then she calls Patsy’s mother, who tells Allen’s mother to call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle offers the Slow-Eater-Tiny-Bite-Taker dishes and instructs Allen’s mother to serve him food fitting their sizes. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle says she will send for Allen on the fourth day. Allen’s mother serves his food on increasingly small dishes, with the largest plate the size of a saucer and the smallest plate the size of a penny. He is amused by his new dishes but becomes increasingly exhausted, having to crawl upstairs to bed and needing “to rest eight times on the way upstairs” (101) one night.
The next day, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle calls and tells Allen it’s his turn to exercise her spotted pony, Spotty. He rides downhill to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s house in his wagon, then tries to ride the pony but is unable to sit up. He guides Spotty to his own house and rolls off into the grass. Allen’s mother asks him what’s wrong, and he cries that he is too tired to stay on the horse’s back and is upset because he won’t have another turn for a long time. Allen’s mother tells him it’s all because of his new eating habits and that he will have to eat something if he wants to ride the pony that afternoon. She gives him portions of food on the dishes, starting with the smallest size and progressing to the biggest as he eats his food. When he finishes, he feels strong enough to ride Spotty again. He takes the dishes back to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s house, riding the pony.
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Fighter-Quarrelers Cure”
Twins Joan and Anne Russell fight constantly. One morning, Joan wakes up and pinches Anne, telling her, “There’s a big black spider in the bed and it’s on your side” (106). Anne runs into her parents’ room, and they are surprised she “fell for that old trick again” (107). They tell her it’s highly unlikely that Joan is telling the truth, given that she is still in bed (which she wouldn’t be if there were, in fact, a spider). Mr. Russell complains about breakfast, and Mrs. Russell replies sharply. He tells her he thinks the children’s quarreling is rendering his wife irritable, and she agrees that it is driving her crazy. When the girls leave for school, Mrs. Russell starts calling around the neighborhood for advice. She speaks with Mrs. Quitrick, who has the same problem but no useful advice and then decides to try Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle tells Mrs. Russell that the best way to cure “Fighter-Quarreleritis” is to help the children hear and see themselves as others do. She tells Mrs. Russel that she and Mr. Russell must write down the children’s quarrels and then pretend to be Anne and Joan.
The next morning, before the twins can begin quarreling, Mrs. Russell runs into their room, telling them, “There’s a big black spider in our bed on my side. Daddy said so” (114). Mr. and Mrs. Russell continue arguing throughout the day. When they drop the evening’s dessert, pumpkin pie, on the rug because of their quarreling, Anne and Joan start to cry. They say they can’t stand it, and Mrs. Russell tells them, “It is just a habit we caught from you” (119). They all pledge not to fight or quarrel anymore.
Chapters 6-8 Analysis
Chapter 6 is a slight divergence from the novel’s pattern of each chapter focusing on a single child, their ailment, and their cure. The “Never-Want-To-Go-To-Bedders” in that chapter are siblings Bobby, Larry, and Susan. The children are characterized collectively, for the most part, with limited individuating characteristics. The chapter includes a focus on sibling dynamics—how the children argue and act as influences on each other—in addition to the usual focus on an ailment and its cure.
As the novel progresses, it refers back to children who have appeared earlier in the text. For example, the birthday party that functions as the final lesson for Bobby, Larry, and Susan, at which they are too tired to enjoy the festivities, is for Patsy (of The Radish Cure). When Bobby falls asleep, the magician gives the rabbit not to him but to Hubert Prentiss (of the Won’t-Pick-Up-Toys Cure). In addition to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, other children and members of the community are referenced repeatedly throughout the book. The novel, therefore, gradually characterizes the neighborhood as a whole and emphasizes the community’s importance as a theme in the novel.
The novel emphasizes the Role of Community in Parenting, shown primarily by mothers’ pattern of calling around the neighborhood for advice when their children begin exhibiting negative behavior. Although they have an impulse to seek connection and help, MacDonald represents many of the interactions as unhelpful or even ridiculous. For example, when Mrs. Gray seeks advice about her children’s refusal to go to bed, she first calls Mrs. Grassfeather, whose children go to bed without argument but only because if they don’t, they won’t be allowed to stay up late, the next time their Uncle Jasper comes to visit, but “as the Grays had no Uncle Jasper, Mrs. Gray realized that Mrs. Grassfeather could be of no help” (80). When Mrs. Gray then calls Mrs. Gardenfield, she is told they go to bed at 6:30 p.m. to wake up at 4:30 a.m., which is also no use to her. MacDonald highlights the range of different choices and experiences of parenting. The satirical tone with which these calls are represented suggests that although community is essential, it can be unhelpful, annoying, or ridiculous as well.
Throughout the novel, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s cures focus on the children’s own agency in changing their behavior. After they have understood the natural consequences of their behavior, they must take action to change their situation. For example, in Chapter 7, Allen must eat normally to ride Spotty effectively. After he does so, he exhibits a proud posture as he goes on horseback to return Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s dishes. The novel thus suggests that behavior change as a result of a child’s agency is more effective—and produces the benefit of an improvement to the child’s confidence—than parent-led approaches would likely be.
This section of the novel emphasizes one of the novel’s key themes: Bad Behavior Doesn’t Negate Intrinsic Goodness. One of MacDonald’s main techniques in emphasizing this theme is the focus on bad behavior as an illness rather than a personality trait. Anne and Joan’s Fighter-Quarreleritis is a particularly significant example of this theme, as Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle likens their condition to both contagious illness and habit. She notes that “Fighter-Quarreleritis is a common children’s disease and it is very contagious” and that “fighting and quarreling are merely habits” (111). The cure for Anne and Joan is based on Mr. and Mrs. Russell pretending to fight using the same language their daughters use to argue. In addition to the diction about illness, the cure suggests that all that is needed to improve Anne and Joan’s behavior is an understanding of how it affects others and appears from the outside. When Anne and Joan gain that self-awareness, they immediately change their behavior. Chapter 8 is also significant because Anne and Joan are also the names of Betty MacDonald’s real daughters, and the dedication to the novel reads, “For Anne, Joan, Mari, Salli Heidi, Darsie, Frankie and Stevie who are perfect angels and couldn’t possibly have been the inspiration for any of these stories.” Both the naming choice and dedication suggest the importance of MacDonald’s personal experience with parenting and interactions with other children as the inspiration for Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
