SUMMARY
Pearl Button is a little girl living in a
big and rich house, a kind of house that she calls House of Boxes. At the moment
of the story, she is playing in the garden, when two big and fat women (perhaps
native New Zealander people or gipsies) get there. They liked the child very
much and offer her to go with them. At first, the girl has some doubts, but, as
the two women seem very nice and wear coloured robes, she decides to go. So they
go away from the girl’s house on foot, but, after a while, the girl feels
tired, and one of the women carry her. They arrive to their camp; there
everybody is very nice, and they give her some fruit. She likes it very much,
and, although she stains her dress, nobody worries about it. Then they leave
their camp and drive on carts until they reach the beach; Pearl has never seen
the sea and she’s amazed and happy. She sees the small houses where these happy
people live; the women take off her clothes, and all of them go to the shore. A
small wave wets Pearl’s feet and, after the first surprise, she enjoys it very
much. But, at this moment, policemen arrive to rescue the girl.
But, was the girl really kidnapped? Or is
it better to say that she ran away from her boring life? Were the two women
kidnapping her? Or were they only inviting her?
To be happy, do you have to break the
rules, do you have to escape from the routine?
There is a narrator in this story, but
sometimes this narrator uses the characters’ words and thoughts to tell the
story, e.g., “House of Boxes”. What is the effect of this? Don’t you feel
nearer the characters? The distance between narrator and character is broken and
you are aware you know better their feelings, their points of view.
QUESTIONS
What
does the name’s girl suggest to you?
What
resources does the author use to make the two women nice for us?
What
does a “House of Boxes” look like?
Do
you think the girl cried because she was afraid? How do you know?
“The
woman was warm as a cat”. What animal do you think is the best pet for a child?
Why?
Are
fat people nicer or kinder, according to the cliché? Are they more
“comfortable”?
Why
dies the writer says “[the water] stopped being blue in her hands”?
Who
were the “little men in blue coats”? How do you know?
What
do you know about the Stockholm syndrome?
VOCABULARY
swung,
rugs, whip, briar, nestled, purring, paddock, coaxed