Meet Molly

Author: Valerie Tripp

Molly is my least favorite of the original three American Girls. She’s described as spirited, but I think she’s a little bratty.

All the American Girls are introduced doing something that is a timeless childhood experience while grounding the reader in her time period. Samantha was being unladylike climbing a tree, Kirsten was playing dolls on the deck of a ship, Molly is refusing to eat her vegetables from the family victory garden.

I looked for some kind if symbolism in Turnips and couldn’t find anything that seamed to fit with Molly’s story, although I did run into gardening blogs that said that a hot, dry summer will make turnips bitter. Molly does tell us that it was a hot dry summer and most of the victory garden failed, so I think the turnips were just bitter, no hidden symbolism.

Molly cares a great deal about patriotism… not necessarily being patriotic, but in being viewed as patriotic. I can’t tell if that is realistic for a child hearing all the WWII propaganda, or if it’s just Valerie Tripp being a war jaded baby boomer projecting on the past.

Molly wants to be Cinderella for Halloween, so in her mind that

means her friends have to be the ugly stepsisters… Molly grows up to be Delphine doesn’t she?

Why can’t they all just be fairytale princesses? Be Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. Why do you have to put your friends down like that Molly?

The girls seam to think that Mrs. McIntire was too easy on Ricky, but I think the McIntire parents believe in letting the punishment fit the crime, and I for one am a fan of this calm, logical, firm punishment style. Ricky destroyed the girl’s Halloween candy, so he losses his candy. His prank leaves a mess in the driveway, he has to spend his Saturday cleaning it up. The girls throw Ricky’s cloths out the window in revenge, so they spend their Saturday doing Ricky’s laundry.

Speaking of Saturday: based on the timeline, it is clear that Halloween fell on a Friday, with the final chapter taking place on Saturday November 1st. Except that is not possible. Halloween 1944 was a Tuesday not a Friday… Halloween was a Friday in 1986 though, so it was right to the kids reading this book.

Sidenote: what kind of neighborhood is this where Mrs McIntire felt comfortable punishing other people’s kids? She just included Linda and Susan in the laundry punishment. Don’t get me wrong, they were involved and I think it was fitting punishment for what they did, but having worked at a school… how do you just do that?! You don’t have to even call their parents?! Oh the good old days I guess.

Next up: Meet Felicity