Student Question
What secret does Mrs. Baker keep from Holling in January's chapter of The Wednesday Wars?
Quick answer:
In "January" of Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, one thing Mrs. Baker knows that Holling doesn't is Shakespeare is using Macbeth to say "something about what it means to be a human being." One of Mrs. Baker's most important statements of what Shakespeare is trying to teach, a statement that shapes the major theme of the chapter, is the following: ... And that compared with love, malice is a small and petty thing. ("January") At first Holling disagrees with her. He fails to see how malice, meaning the urge to intentionally hurt someone, can be such a "petty thing" since he has just been publicly humiliated by Doug Swieteck's brother, who plastered the town'
In the chapter titled "January" of Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, one thing Mrs. Baker knows that Holling doesn't is Shakespeare is using Macbeth to say "something about what it means to be a human being." One of Mrs. Baker's most important statements of what Shakespeare is trying to teach, a statement that shapes the major theme of the chapter, is the following:
... And that compared with love, malice is a small and petty thing. ("January")
At first Holling disagrees with her. He fails to see how malice, meaning the
urge to intentionally hurt someone, can be such a "petty thing" since he has
just been publicly humiliated by Doug Swieteck's brother, who plastered the town's schools with clippings of a newspaper photo depicting Holling playing Ariel dressed in yellow tights decorated with white feathers on the backside. It's when Holling receives restitution for the humiliation...
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that he finally sees the wisdom of Mrs. Baker's words.
Holling first tries to take his revenge by decking Doug
Swieteck's brother with a hard, icy snow ball, but Holling's moment of glory
doesn't last long because, soon, Doug Switeck's brother and his juvenile
delinquent friends are threatening to deck Holling with a barrage of snowballs.
Yet, the fates intervene and help restore Holling's glory, and
Holling's love for his sister plays a big role in his
restitution.
Just as the line of juvenile delinquents are about to pelt Holling with
snowballs, a school bus that has lost control on the icy road comes sliding
past. At the same moment, Holling's sister is crossing the street and about to
be hit by the sliding bus. Holling takes a flying leap and knocks his sister
out of the way. Though his own backside is injured by the rear bumper of the
bus, Holling's heroic deed is captured on film and printed in
the paper, completely erasing from the town's memory his more embarrassing
photo. Holling's heroic deed to rescue his sister shows that malice truly is
petty next to love since love can overcome malice, just as
Mrs. Baker says.