From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

      Once again, narration and the narrative framework play a large role in the perception of this text. What is to be made of the third person narration and the audience that has been identified by the narrator? (laa)

      What is to be made of the parenthetical “asides” that appear in the text? What role do they play and what is their significance? (laa)

      Keeping in mind the construction of childhood that our culture adheres to, do the characterizations of Claudia and James seem plausible? How do these characters challenge the preconceived notion of childhood? (laa)

With primary themes of “adventure” and “home,” I think this novel would make a great teaching companion to The Wizard of Oz.  In many ways Claudia and Dorothy are quite opposite—Claudia comes from a richer family, lives in a different time period, chooses to leave home and go on an adventure, and remains a stronger character with more agency than Dorothy throughout most of the story.  But their characters also overlap in some interesting ways.  The concept of what it means to be “home” is what motivates both of them.  Both characters survive because they have help (in the form of males) to help guide them along the way, and both characters are concerned with planning ahead whenever possible and become weaker in moments when this ability to plan ahead is taken from them.  I think it would be quite interesting to have students examine not only the concepts of adventure and home through these texts but also to examine what makes both of these texts “classics.”  Some discussion questions I might use to guide such a conversation in my classroom would include:

1)      In what ways do the Museum and the land of Oz shape Claudia and Dorothy respectively? 

2)      What character(s) might play the same role in Oz that Mrs. Basil E. Frankeweiler plays in The Mixed-Up files?

3)      How does Claudia define adventure?  How does Dorothy define it?  Generate a list of the various adventures each character takes throughout her journey.  Are there adventures in both texts that resemble each other?

4)      In what ways is the museum for Claudia like Oz is for Dorothy?

5)      How do you think that Claudia defines “home”?  Dorothy? (sml)