Student Question
In "Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler", why could Claudia activate her plan earlier than expected?
Quick answer:
Claudia could activate her plan earlier than expected because she found an unpunched train pass in the trash while doing chores. This discovery allowed her to avoid the time it would have taken to save up for train fare from her allowance. In addition, her brother Jamie's savings of $24.43 provided the necessary resources to execute their plan to run away, enabling them to leave much sooner than anticipated.
Claudia is able to activate her plan sooner than she expected because she finds "a ten-ride pass for the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad" in the trash when she is doing her Saturday chores, emptying the wastebasket from her parents' room. Nine of the rides on the pass have already been used, "marked off in little squares along the bottom edge", but there is still one ride remaining. Claudia figures that the cleaning lady must have mistakenly thought that the ticket was all used up, and thrown it in the trash. Claudia didn't feel too badly about taking the pass, because "the cleaning lady never went to New York, and Claudia's dad never kept close track of his pocket change or his train passes".
If Claudia had not found the pass, she would have had to save up enough money for train fare for herself and Jamie from...
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her allowance before she could make her final plans and put them in motion. Full fair to New York would cost one dollar and sixty cents, and even though she and Jamie are both under twelve and thus entitled to travel at half-price, it would have still taken her at least three weeks to save up that amount from her meager weekly earnings. Finding the train ticket in the trash enables Claudia to activate her plan a great deal earlier than she expected (Chapter 1).
In the book, why can Claudia launch her plan sooner than expected?
Claudia Kincaid is the main character in E.L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and she is not being appreciated by her family--or at least that is how she feels. Once the twelve-year-old purposes to run away, she realizes she does not have the resources (money) to do so alone. She has plenty of family to choose from, but she selects her nine-year-old brother Jamie as her partner.
It turns out he is the best choice, for he has the resources she needs (money) to put her plan in motion. It is Jamie's $24.43 and her discovery of an unpunched train ticket in a trash can which allow her to, as you say, "launch her plan sooner than she expected."