48 pages • 1 hour read
Kate DiCamilloA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Tuna melts symbolize bonding. For school, Beverly memorizes the Magee Jr. poem that begins, “Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds” (31). Tuna melts represent the opposite of Magee’s first line. Through tuna melts, Iola brings people together and gives them comfort. Partly due to tuna melts, people don’t slip away. During their first interaction, Iola compels Beverly inside through tuna melts, telling her, “Why don’t you come on inside, and I will make you a sandwich […] I make the best tuna melt you will ever have in your life” (26). The tuna melt, a shared experience for Beverly and Iola, creates the condition for their friendship. Over the tuna melt, Iola outlines the terms of their connection, and Beverly agrees to them. The tuna melt propels their relationship.
Tuna melts also unite Iola and Beverly with Elmer. Beverly and Elmer’s relationship grows closer when he has dinner at Iola’s trailer. For dinner, Iola serves tuna melts and mentions, “I like it when the numbers go up instead of down” (162). Tuna melts increase the connections in her life. Over the tuna melt dinner, Iola becomes a rounder character, discussing her husband and describing some of her past. During the tuna melt dinner, Elmer also draws Iola. The food helps her connect with others. The bond isn’t “surly” or hostile: The tuna melts represent a positive, thoughtful bonding experience.
Beverly regularly thinks about the line, “[i]n a crooked little house by a crooked little sea” (19), which she first reads in Chapter 4. The regular appearance of the line suggests it symbolizes something critical, and the line represents the world’s imperfections. Broadly speaking, the line reflects the three major themes. The world isn’t perfect: People and animals go away, there’s inextinguishable cruelty, and humans aren’t entirely self-reliant—they need others. Like the world, neither the house nor the sea is perfect. Both are “crooked” or misshapen, and neither is grand—instead, the house and the sea are unassuming or “little.”
As Beverly faces the world’s glaring flaws, she thinks about the line, and the line reflects her increasing willingness to deal with the world as it is—an imperfect place. The existence of blemishes doesn’t preclude meaning or comfort. Beverly applies the line to her situation in Iola’s trailer, telling Elmer that “it’s a crooked little trailer by a crooked little sea” (151). Iola’s home isn’t perfect, but it’s a friendly, helpful place. Thus, “crooked” isn’t automatically bad.
Just because Beverly accepts flaws doesn’t mean she tolerates a toxic status quo. The narrator says, “[Beverly] was someone who wanted things to be different from how they were. She was someone who wanted things to change” (224). Whatever Beverly changes won’t make the world perfect. There will always be a “crooked little house by a crooked little sea,” so people should find the beauty in imperfections.
Angels symbolize communication in the Bible and DiCamillo’s book. A painting of the Annunciation captivates Beverly. In the painting, an angel speaks to Mary. The novel doesn’t say what the angel tells Mary, but Beverly thinks, “[Y]ou knew something important was happening in the painting because the angel had wings like blue fire” (191). She then wonders, “[I]n real life, how did you know who was announcing what?” (191). Her question indicates that communication isn’t straightforward. What people are trying to tell one another can be unclear. Mrs. Deely thinks she’s telling people God’s truth, yet Elmer thinks she’s harassing them. Beverly stays respectful of Mrs. Deely’s message by reading the cartoons. Mrs. Deely could be a type of angel with a message that Beverly doesn’t want to outright dismiss.
Angels symbolize the complexities of communication, verbal and nonverbal, when Beverly dreams about an angel. The angel “didn’t speak” but “kept opening and closing her mouth.” Exasperated, Beverly screams, “What’s the message? Tell me!” (221). Undaunted, the angel smiles. Communication occurs both verbally and nonverbally, and, as Beverly’s reaction to the angel in her dream indicates, nonverbal communication can be trying. Angels symbolize the array of communication methods and the frustration of decoding a multitude of announcements.
Throughout the story, the birds Beverly notices represent imperfection and connection. When Beverly takes Iola to bingo, she spots a bird’s nest in the V of the VFW sign. Arguably, the nest is out of place; typically, a bird’s nest is in a tree or somewhere in nature. The nest in the VFW sign isn’t a flaw, but it showcases the world’s messiness and the bird’s adaptation to that messiness. Things pop up in unexpected places. The world isn’t predictable, and there’s plenty of room for error or deviation. The birds depart from standard norms by making a nest in the V.
The birds in the nest also symbolize connection. Like Iola and Beverly, the birds have a bond. Iola gives Beverly a home and feeds her tuna melts. The nest gives the birds a home, and the main bird takes care of the other birds and feeds them. At the VFW Christmas in July party, Beverly sees the “bird returning home—bringing something back to the nest,” and the scene makes her “heart [skip] a beat” (200). The moment symbolizes connection, and the connection moves Beverly.
In addition to the birds in the nest on top of the V, there’s a seagull that loiters around Mr. C’s kitchen. Beverly notices the seagull “standing right outside the door, looking in at them, cocking his head from side to side” (48). The seagull is out of place. Presumably, it should be with other seagulls and not trying to spend time with humans. The world, though, is imperfect, and sometimes seagulls want to build relationships with people. Doris constantly tells the seagull to go away, but the seagull inevitably returns. The seagull insists on bonding with Doris and the people at Mr. C’s and doesn’t care if it’s out of place. When the group holds their Christmas feast, the seagull arrives. Doris warns the seagull not to come inside, but inside or outside, the seagull’s presence connects it to the feast.
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By Kate DiCamillo