Where The Lilli Bloom Chapter Summary

Four siblings have been through more than the average person can even imagine; they’ve braved unwanted visitors, disrespect, and loss of both people they love and material possessions. To many readers, this plot may sound familiar. Written by Bill and Vera Cleaver, the novel Where the Lilies Bloom has much more in common with the well-known fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Important characters in the novel include the four Luther siblings (fourteen-year-old Mary Call, eighteen-year-old Devola, ten-year-old Romey, and five-year-old Ima Dean), Roy Luther (their father), Cosby Luther (their deceased but often spoken of mother) Kiser Pease (their neighbor), and Goldie Pease (Kiser’s sister). In the novel, the siblings lose their father

and become orphans, forced to hold their own in the harsh Appalachian society of the 1950s. The main character, Mary Call, is left in charge of the family, and despite trying to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders through most of the novel, she eventually finds it’s okay to ask for a little bit of help. Before this resolution, however, Mary Call finds herself facing many different situations where she must protect her family from outside forces threatening to tear them down. Throughout the novel, Mary Call and her siblings become an extended metaphor for the three bears in Goldilocks.
Although there are many characters who act as Goldilocks to the Luthers, Kiser Pease is one of the most prominent.

For example, when Mary Call comes back from attempting to wildcraft on her own and getting stung by hornets, she finds Kiser sitting on the porch in Roy Luther’s chair. Kiser gives Mary Call the chair and reveals his intrusive nature: “While I was waiting for some of you’uns to come back I took the freedom of tryin’ to get in to speak to Roy Luther, but his door wuz locked” (Cleaver 109). This tells the reader and Mary Call that Kiser has entered their house without them knowing and without their permission while they’re away, like Goldilocks does to the bears in Goldilocks and the Three Bears. After entering the house and finding himself unable to enter the bedroom, Kiser takes a seat in the Luthers’ rocker, furthering the comparison. In this scene and many others in the novel, Kiser Pease takes on the role of a common metaphor for Goldilocks in contrast to the Luthers’ three

bears.
Another important allusion to Goldilocks is created not by a character or even a living thing, but by a simple snowdrift.

In this scene, winter is upon the Luthers; they’re struggling to keep food on the table, and eventually even the roof of their house gives way to the snow. In the middle of the night, Mary Call hears the crash and rushes in to examine the damage: “And I… saw Cosby Luther’s rocker all splintered, lying on its side and snow on the floor and underneath it what had been the ceiling” (Cleaver 153). This rocker is one of the very few things these siblings have left to remember their mother by; it’s something they value greatly, so most of them are devastated when it’s broken. This alludes to the key scene in Goldilocks and the Three Bears where Goldilocks sits in the littlest bear’s chair until she eventually breaks it. It’s a bit of an odd thought to compare a little girl to an unlucky snowdrift, but the two have more in common than the reader may

think.
Perhaps the most blunt comparison comes with the introduction and mere existence of a fairly minor character in the novel: Goldie Pease. She arrives fairly late in the novel: “This was the day Miss Goldie Pease, Kiser’s sister, came sliding down the valley… reaching our front gate” (Cleaver 160) Goldie comes to intrude on the ‘bears’ in the most literal metaphor seen in the novel; her name is Goldie, just like Goldilocks. The Luthers feel threatened and forced out of their home by Goldie, who is intruding just as Goldilocks did in her own story. The allusion of Goldie Pease is probably about as straightforward as it gets when it comes to presenting the Luthers as the three bears from Goldilocks.
Where the Lilies Bloom is a seemingly simple novel, but when looking deep enough, it can become a brilliant extended metaphor to a fairy tale readers grew up with. The four Luther siblings in the novel are an allusion to the three bears in Goldilocks. The part of Goldilocks is played by many different characters or objects; from the subtle jerk Kiser Pease to the obvious metaphor of his sister Goldie to a literal piece of snow, the representation is diverse but prevalent. The insertion of a subtle metaphor to one of readers’ classic childhood stories is an interesting and unexpected way to hold their attention. The clever inclusion of this metaphor makes reading the book more enjoyable and familiar, even though the reader may never know why. In reality, it’s a simple allusion of the four main characters to three widely-known little bears.

Works Cited
Cleaver, Bill and Vera. Where the Lilies Bloom. New York: Harper Trophy, 1969. Print.