The Tuesday Wars Quotes Analysis

Plot:
The Wednesday Wars is a great story about Holling Hoodhood, a seventh grader in 1967. I think that readers, no matter the age, will find this story enjoyable. I found the story to be pretty credible and realistic. Schmidt uses “real” events from history to help to ground the story; the continued use of Walter Cronkite, Vietnam, and the shootings of Bobby and Dr. King gives Holling’s world a sense of reality.  Essentially the plot follows an archetypal “coming of age” format, without any major climax. The story follows Holling as he struggles through the seventh grade, overcomes adversity, and ultimately grows up. Religion is pivotal to the tale but it isn’t really a “conflict” in this story other than to give rise to the main conflict

of the tale. The central conflict in Holling’s life is his interactions between himself and Mrs. Baker. He is sure that Mrs. Baker hates his guts and with making him bash the erasers, carry boxes, and tidy the back room I don’t blame him. This perceived hatred starts to wane after she gives him a cream puff. The incident with Sycorax and Caliban and she covered for him endeared her towards him. They begin to read Shakespeare together and he comments that he knew that she didn’t hate him when “she looked up at me and almost smiled a real smile. Not a teacher smile…” The Vietnam War is another of the conflicts throughout the entire novel. Characters lose loved ones, like Mrs. Bigio’s husband, and have opposing philosophical views about the war, like Holling’s sister, Heather Hoodhood and their father. The father son relationship between Holling and his father could be considered another conflict of the story. It’s essentially a “coming of age” story as well an Oedipal desire to defeat one’s father. There are a few sup-plots, smaller conflicts, dispersed throughout The Wednesday Wars: Sweiteck, track, first date with Meryl Lee, and Heather’s flight to “find” herself. The plot is well constructed and moves along at an enjoyable rate. Lastly, I feel that this story shows kids how to respect other cultures. The town that Holling lives in is pretty religiously tolerant and except for the few events with Mai Thi there isn’t any racism or intolerance taught.
Characterization:
Holling Hoodhood is a first person narrator of his own story. We are introduced to all the characters through his observations and the dialogue between himself and them. He is the only truly “rounded” character and everyone else is more of a caricature than a character. Because we are really only made privy to Holling’s emotional discourse as well as his strengths and weaknesses. He is a very believable seventh grader and his behavior is very consistent with a young American in the sixties. He is the only character to show true personal growth due to his reading of Shakespeare and experiences with his teacher.  Mrs. Baker is the next, best character for analysis because he has so many interactions with her during their Wednesdays together. She is a consistent character, but still secondary to Holling. Through his eyes we see racism with Mrs. Bigio and Mai Thi and how to make amends for being wrong. He learns how to stand up for others through Danny. Every other character is just a “satellite” around the planet that is Holling and are only known through their interactions with our protagonist.
Setting:
The 1960’s had their fair share of turmoil. Holling’s world is based in Long Island, New York with a backdrop of The Vietnam War. Within the confines of the story Holling doesn’t focus on the war, but rather we are allowed a view into what was more of a “battle field” for our protagonist; Camillo Junior High. At school Holling deals with the majority of his life conflicts. It’s not that the war doesn’t effect Mr. Hoodhood’s life: Mrs. Baker’s husband is wounded, Mai Thi is a “redemptive” character, and Heather embodies the rebellious spirit that filled the youth of the era. The Vietnam War is affecting everything around Holling, but his main war is in Mrs. Baker’s room on Wednesday afternoons from 1:45 to the end of the school day. When Mrs. Baker teaches Shakespeare to Holling, he begins to realize there is more to the world than his small town and to care for others as much as himself.
Point of View:
The POV is in the first person. This POV is appropriate and necessary because this is a coming of age story for the main character, Holling Hoodhood. He isn’t omniscient so we only get to “experience” his own emotions in detail and “see” other’s reactions. We get to hear his interpretations of his experiences and it adds to the growth in the character over the course of the tale. The majority of the story is told through dialogue and the interactions that he has with static characters of the novel. This helps to enlarge Holling’s world even though we only get to see through his eyes because his view of the world is enlarged.
Theme:
There are a number of themes present throughout this tale.

I find that most if not all of the themes that I have found should be imparted to children. A few of them are extremely obvious to see like his first impressions of Mrs. Baker hating his guts to teach kids that age old adage, don’t judge a book by its cover. Another theme that I readily identify is that you must be true to “who you are” which is a commonly developed theme in most coming of age stories. I feel as though Schmidt chose for Holling to read The Merchant of Venice because Shylock is different than everyone else around him and he wants to be his true self. Throughout the story, the author shows us that personal growth can only come from overcoming both internal and external conflicts or obstacles. His feelings of hatred were internal conflicts, he told his sister, "Mrs. Baker hates my guts," she responded with, "Then, Holling, you might try getting some,” because of the inherent theme of the story he gains said guts by the end of the book. One of his external conflicts was being threatened with death if he couldn’t get some cream puffs or tripping Sweiteck while playing soccer. All of these experiences help Holling gain personal growth. Yet another theme present is to be yourself and stand up for what you believe in. Danny punches the bully in the face. Heather stands up to her dad frequently because she is character meant to embody the rebellion of the times. Holling is cowed by his father for the majority of the story, but winds up standing up to him at the end. This eventual “defeat” of his father could be a considered a “George Lucian” ending or rather an “Oedipal” desire to beat one’s father. I found that even though most of these themes were pretty easy to spot they came as a natural part of the story. They add to the tale and teach morals without getting “preachy” with the

moralizing.
Style:
I rather enjoyed Schimdt’s writing style. His subject matter was so well scripted that this story feels autobiographical in so many ways. The prose is definitely a straightforward coming of age story and the author doesn’t make use of many literary devices except for while using the words of The Great Bard. He makes a lot allusions to Shakespeare and there is a lot of symbolism dispersed throughout the experiences had by Holling. Some of the symbolism is his “perfect” house and the ruined ceiling, and the imagery of Walter Cronkite. The word War is literally in the title of the novel so War and various conflicts are prevalent throughout the tale. The dialogue is extremely well suited to the characters and it feels natural. The overall mood of the novel is joyful. There are a few scenes of racism present in the book, but each are rectified through actions and words so they each became moments to teach about tolerance.

    The Wednesday Wars is a delightfully written novel by Gary Schmidt about a young man during The Vietnam War. I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to reading the sequel, Ok For Now, about Doug Sweiteck. I found Schmidt’s writing style to agree with my personal aesthetic and I was able to read the novel in a very quick amount of time. I became obsessed with trying to figure out what the list of pranks really were. Like, how “illegal” could an action of a middle schooler actually be? How many of the pranks consisted of dead animals, or sticky, putrid liquids? I would like to look at some of the themes and the plot in a more detailed manner. I love the symbolism that can be found in this book and I love the fact that Schmidt didn’t shy away from using the Bard’s script. I loved how the Shakespeare coordinated with all the chapter’s events, which I’m sure was the point. It was funny to see that Holling isn’t a dumb or bad kid but things just happen when he’s around, which works well for him being the narrator. For example, when he’s cleaning Sycorax and Caliban’s cage and they get loose. Or when he cleans the erasers for Mrs. Baker and the wind blows the chalk on the cream puffs. It’s also amazing that the kid could read and synthesize an entire play every month. Lastly I will comment on Holling’s sister and his family dynamic.
    History has alway interested me. I love the imagery of Walter Cronkite and the shootings of Bobby and Dr. King mixed with The Vietnam War. The Shakespeare is amazing; The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Much ado about Nothing. I found it a little contrived that Holling just so happened to have life experiences that coincided with with the themes of the plays that he was reading. That being said, the author did a good job of making it come about naturally. The Bard’s words coincide with the pivotal themes of the novel and I love that  this book will make Shakespeare more relevant to any of the youth who may read this book. He learned so many morals and  He wore yellow tights to the merriment of his classmates and Mantel which caused him to grow. He learns about love and dedication Romeo and Juliet and his own love interest Ms. Kowalski.
I found that the Hoodhood’s not using Heather’s name until after she comes back created a sense of drama. It wouldn’t have worked if we knew her name before they met up at the train station. She was slowly rebelling more and more, especially against her school uniform, yet another indicator that she is an archetype for the “rebellious” spirit running rampant throughout the youth of the time. It was like Holling let us into his world a little more and his defenses were down. The story needed him to help Heather. Their parents’ names are irrelevant because I think it’s to help create a distance from Holling which in turn helps us to understand the Hoodhood family. I am sort of reminded of the family fromt the show The Wonder Years,without Wayne.  The parents were static caricatures and were jerks. The mom seemed like she was maybe mentally ill or “broken” a little, but the dad was the quintessential bad father of the era; financially supportive but distant and callused. Despite the fact that they had a “perfect house” they had some water damage and the fact that they let Holling’s teacher, Mrs. Baker, hang out in the  hospital waiting room and they don’t show up at all is pretty telling. That tells me that they were being just a bit too selfish and into their own lives. This was definitely a comment on the breaking of the family unit and it is a prevalent cultural aspect of American society.
I’m not sure what the author's actual intent was while writing this story other than to write a compelling story. He laces themes, morals, motifs, symbols, and so much into a neat tale, it’s hard to remember that it was written for children. There was no one singular effect, or single climax, but it was a constantly moving and paced tale. I think that the author has transcended the page and made this story realistic and engaging. I find that this book hints at moral and I think that just the amount of history and Shakespeare used and the ways that Schmidt has introduced them in this book will benefit anybody who reads regardless of age.