What is a lesson Holling learns in The Wednesday Wars?

Holling learns multiple lessons throughout Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars. The more Holling learns about Shakespeare, the more Holling is able to apply Shakespeare's lessons to his own life. One of the early lessons Holling learns concerns Shakespeare's characterization of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Holling realizes that Shylock isn't actually a true villain; he's a product of his environment. Holling is then later able to apply the lesson to better understand his own father.

The very first play Holling reads with Mrs. Baker is The Merchant of Venice. When Mrs. Baker asks Holling about his thoughts on Shylock, Holling notes that Shylock "isn't really a villain" in the proper sense because Shylock is "[s]omeone who wants to become who he's supposed to be," but he is prevented by society around him ("November"). Members of society have "decided he had to be a certain way, and he was trapped. He couldn't be anything except for what he was" ("November").

Later, in February, he begins reading Romeo and Juliet with Mrs. Baker. During this same month, he asks Meryl Lee Kowalski out on a Valentine's Day date. Meryl Lee's father is the owner of Kowalski and Associates, the architecture firm Holling's own father is competing against for the contract to design the new junior high school. After their date, while waiting for Mr. Kowalski to pick them up, Holling and Meryl Lee enter a friendly, relaxed conversation about the amount of work their fathers are putting into their designs for the school. Holling feels so comfortable with Meryl Lee that he draws her a picture of his father's modern design. Unfortunately, when he attends the school board meeting with his father, he witnesses Mr. Kowalski showcase Mr. Hoodhood's design as if it was his own. At first, Holling feels betrayed by Meryl Lee but comes to believe she is innocent and that her own father had betrayed her. When Mr. Kowalski withdraws his design, leaving the contract in Mr. Hoodhood's hands, Holling witnesses his father be jubilant, even jubilant about the fact that Kowalski and Associates, the livelihood of Holling's dear friend's father, is likely to go out of business. Having read The Merchant of Venice, Holling is able to reflect that his father, like Shylock, is not necessarily power hungry because he's money hungry. Instead, like Shylock, his father may behave like a power-hungry animal because he believes it is what society expects of him:

I suddenly wondered if my father was really like Shylock. Not because he loved ducats, but because he had become the person that everyone expected him to become. I wondered if he had ever had a choice, or if he had ever felt trapped. Or if he had ever imagined a different life. ("February")

Associating his father with Shylock helps Holling better understand his father, to see him as less of a villain and as more of a person trapped by circumstances and society's expectations. Hence, reading The Merchant of Venice served as a good lesson that taught Holling a new perspective and a new understanding of those who appear to be villains. Later, because of his lesson from The Merchant of Venice, Holling even stands up to his father by saying that to become a man is to choose whom you want to be.

What is a lesson Holling learns in The Wednesday Wars?

Two important lessons that Holling learns are the ambiguity of interpretation and the importance of freedom. These lessons come through clearly in his reading of The Tempest, which becomes particularly intensive as he prepares to play the part of Ariel. On his first reading, Holling is sure that Caliban is the antagonist and that he deserves the harsh treatment he has received from Prospero. But Holling develops more sympathy for Ariel as he prepares to play the character. He distinguishes between the two characters in terms of their deserving freedom. Ultimately, he realizes that everyone has the right to freedom and that seeing Caliban only as a villain would require denying him that right. More generally, Hollis applies the idea of resolution to life in general, noting that in real life, a magician such as Prospero is not always available to resolve a crisis. Therefore, we must get used to things not ending happily.

How does Holling in The Wednesday Wars resolve his conflict?

One of the conflicts that the main character, Holling Hoodhood, faces is that he thinks Mrs. Baker, one of his teachers, hates him. When all the other students at Camillo Junior High attend Catechism at a Catholic church or Hebrew school on Wednesday afternoons, Holling, the lone Presbyterian, has to stay with Mrs. Baker. He says that she hated him "with heat whiter than the sun" (page 1). She gives him impossibly hard sentences to diagram, and then she makes him carry out boring chores. Finally, she decides that he will read Shakespeare on Wednesday afternoons, which Holling regards as torture. 

As time goes on, Holling resolves his conflict by realizing that Mrs. Baker is his friend and is trying to help him. He grows interested in the Shakespeare plays he is reading, such as The Tempest. Eventually, using the expressive and romantic language he learns by reading Romeo and Juliet, and asks out Meryl Lee, with whom he has had a long flirtation and who is also reading the play. Mrs. Baker also winds up filling the role that his parents should play, as his father, an architect, is always busy with work (and is a very controlling person) and his mother is largely absent. When his father doesn't show up to take Holling to a Yankees game because he is busy with work, Mrs. Baker takes him instead. Finally, Holling comes to have some empathy for Mrs. Baker, whose husband is serving in Vietnam. When her husband goes missing and is later found, Holling shares Mrs. Baker's suffering, and, by realizing that she is a caring person with troubles of her own, he resolves his conflict by learning to get along with her. 

What does Holling learn and what is the theme of "April" in The Wednesday Wars?

Each chapter in Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars is a month in Holling Hoodhood's seventh-grade school year, and April is a busy month for this young man.

First of all, Holling is the only seventh-grader who makes the varsity squad of the cross country team. Some are a little disgruntled because they know Holling only ran as fast as he did because he was being, well, motivated by a couple of rats; Holling admits that it true but it does not seem to bother him:

“I wonder why Holling had the fastest time," said Danny after the announcements--a whole lot louder than he had to. "Could it be because he was running away from two rats who were trying to eat him?"
"That might have a little to do with it," I said. 

Later in the month, Holling wins a cross country meet because his friend, Danny Hupfer, was tormented by his own teammates during the junior varsity race and gives Holling the incentive and motivation to beat the bullies and win. Holling learns that he is strong enough not only to win but to withstand whatever the older boys might choose to do to him.

Second of all, the country is undergoing some dramatic changes. First of all, Operation Pegasus begins, sending thousands of troops to save American military prisoners during the Vietnam War. Lyndon Johnson decides not to run for President. Why he makes that decision is something Heather Hoodhood and her father disagree about; however, when Martin Luther King is assassinated, the entire Hoodhood family feels this loss deeply, despite their political differences. This is time of increased political awareness for Holling, and he discovers he has a bit more in common with his sister than with his father.

Holling and his two buddies, along with their fathers, have tickets to go to Opening Day at Yankee Stadium. Sadly, Mr. Hoodhood once again chooses work over his family; however, Mrs. Baker takes him to the game. While she is there, she gets an opportunity to put in a good word for Meryl Lee's architect father--something she would never have done for Mr. Hoodhood because he has consistently proven himself to be a careless, selfish, and disinterested father. Holling surely realizes that his teacher does not hate him and that there is more to life than work. He will use this experience later to help give him the courage to "speak up" for himself to his father. In this chapter, Heather struggles with doing just that: she wants to go to Columbia University but her father makes her work in his office and tells her she will not be going to such a liberal and outspoken school. She does not speak up for herself either--yet.

Both Holling and his sister are in relationships, but Holling is upset because Meryl Lee may have to move after the junior high building plan cheating fiasco involving her father. Heather's boyfriend, Chit, is a kind of flower child like her; he drives a yellow Volkswagon beetle with flower decals.

April is a time of blossoming friendships and growing up for Holling Hoodhood in this coming-of-age novel. 

How has Holling attempted to bring peace to his world in The Wednesday Wars?

Probably the best place to look for support on how Holling tries to bring peace to his world is to look at the relationship between Holling and his sister, Heather. Through most of the book, Heather is quite antagonistic to Holling.  n her defense, she is antagonistic to just about everybody. I have to give Holling a lot of credit because no matter how mean or snarky Heather is to him, Holling never reciprocates it back to her. He wants to have a good relationship with his sister. He needs it actually because deep down Holling knows that he'll never have a great relationship with either of his parents.  

Holling begins to thaw Heather's icy exterior and harsh attitude toward him when he saves her from being hit by the bus. His actions were more reflex than conscious thought to save her and their relationship, but his actions do give Heather a wake up call about the fact that her brother loves her deeply enough to risk his own life. 

Heather will eventually run away from home, and she will get stranded far away. It isn't Mr. or Mrs. Hoodhood that rescues her. It's Holling. His father actually refuses to help, and Holling takes the situation into his own hands. He wants his sister back, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to get her back. The book ends with their warring relationship finally at peace. 

"Holling," she said. "I was so afraid I wouldn't find you."

"I was standing right here, Heather," I said.  "I'll always be standing right here."