74 pages • 2 hours read
E. L. KonigsburgA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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Known simply as Angel, this statue of an angelic female figure with folded arms may or may not have been created by Michelangelo. After winning Angel in a game of poker, Mrs. Frankweiler sells him to the museum for a low price and without revealing her evidence that Michelangelo created Angel. As a major public attraction at the time Claudia and Jamie arrive at the museum, Angel quickly captures their attention. At Claudia’s insistence, they focus their efforts on uncovering the mystery of Angel’s origin, and Angel becomes a symbol of Claudia’s parallel quest to return home a changed person. Claudia’s identification with Angel is strong enough that she perceives a resemblance between herself and the statue, though Jamie doesn’t see it. As Claudia gains knowledge of Angel, she also learns of her own resourcefulness, resilience, character, desires, and more. Angel demonstrates the potential for art to reflect and challenge those who encounter it.
Money appears in the novel as a recurring motif that sheds light on human character and society. Closely related to money are the associated motifs of gambling and card games as well as cheating. The money also serves as a “clock” in the story, as the children use the last of their money to travel to Mrs. Frankweiler’s house, which is the catalyst for the resolution to their adventure. As the novel opens, Claudia and Jamie are both characterized by their relationship with money. Claudia tends to spend her money quickly while Jamie saves it up. Jamie also plays and cheats at the card game War with his friend from school to supplement his income; the reference to War may be a comment on the way that those who are primarily concerned about money are symbolically at war with one another, playing a zero-sum game.
As the novel progresses, Claudia and Jamie continue to spend and make money, including by retrieving loose change from a fountain in the museum, which poignantly reflects the wishes and hopes of those who visit the museum. When he finds a quarter, Jamie guesses that someone rich threw it in, but Claudia counters that it was probably someone poor, saying, “Rich people only have penny wishes” (84). Desperate for money as Claudia and Jamie are, the novel reflects a compassion for those who struggle to make ends meet while showing the shortsightedness of those who are financially focused, as when Mrs. Frankweiler tells Jamie that those who only bargain with money are “poor, indeed.” Mrs. Frankweiler’s insistence that she never cheats in high-stakes situations gives Jamie plenty to think about.
Secrets are a recurring motif throughout the novel. The fun of keeping secrets is central to Claudia’s plan to run away in the first place as well as her ability to return home changed, as Mrs. Frankweiler explains:
Of course secrets make a difference. That was why planning the runaway had been such fun; it was a secret. And hiding in the museum had been a secret. But they weren’t permanent; they had to come to an end. Angel wouldn’t. She could carry the secret of Angel inside her for twenty years just as I had. No she wouldn’t have to be a heroine when she returned home . . . except to herself. And now she knew something about secrets that she hadn’t known before (150-51).
Mrs. Frankweiler’s use of secrets mirrors Claudia and Jamie’s playfulness and childlike wonder. To Mrs. Frankweiler, and later to Claudia, a secret is a precious treasure, more valuable than money, that provides ongoing pleasure to those who keep it. Secrets are particularly enjoyable when other people know you have a secret, which is why Mrs. Frankweiler chooses to sell Angel, setting off a public debate as to the statue’s origin without revealing her evidence that Michelangelo did create the statue. Similarly, Claudia enjoys making and keeping secret plans, such as when she addresses Jamie “in her best secret agent fashion” while planning to send an anonymous letter to the museum (97). As Claudia learns to act independently, her acquisition of significant secrets signifies her development as a distinct and distinguished individual with a rich private life, no longer satisfied simply doing what is expected of her.
As Jamie and Claudia spend time in the museum, they start calling each other Sir James and Lady Claudia; they also occasionally use similarly archaic language, as when Jamie asks, “Where, dear Lady Claudia, dost thou expect to bathe?” (80). In so doing, they pretend that they are nobles during one of the historical eras whose art now appears in the museum. After they spend the last of their money to travel to Mrs. Frankweiler’s house, Jamie again refers to Claudia as Lady Claudia, but she rejects the title, saying, “We’re paupers now” (125). Not long thereafter, when she is in Mrs. Frankweiler’s ornate bathroom, however, Claudia addresses herself in the mirror as Lady Claudia, showing that she still feels that she is playing a role. The adoption of these alternate identities and forms of speech is part of Claudia and Jamie’s immersion and sense of play in their adventure, suggesting that one way to discover who you are is by testing alternate roles.
By E. L. Konigsburg
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