Fair Weather

At the beginning of this section, Granddad’s appearance is a turning point and one of several surprises in the novel. This plot twist indicates that the children will have more fun in Chicago than if they were with their aunt alone, as Granddad’s character has a subversive role in the book and is often used to add adventure, fun, and disruption. The character of Granddad is central to the novel’s more zany humor and plot twists: A School Library Journal review explored whether he represents a man experiencing senility, while a Kirkus review has said that his oversized personality “hijacks” the narrative. Peck himself described the character as a homage to Mark Twain, his favorite writer. Granddad’s country ways and sayings are a refreshing contrast to the overly refined Euterpe’s city ways, providing humor through incongruity. His presence in Chicago also emphasizes the continued theme of Country Ways Versus City Ways. Peck’s historical novels often explore the experiences of elderly characters, especially in comparison to his young protagonists. In his Newbery acceptance speech for A Year Down Yonder, he described his elderly characters as “ancient monuments of wisdom for a self-referential youth culture” (Peck, Richard. “2001 Newbery Medal Acceptance Speech.” American Library Association Institutional Repository). Although Granddad is not wise in a conventional sense, he is an example of experience and presents an alternative, less hide-bound model for how to navigate life than the other adult characters. This prefigures the later reveal about his past life and renown. The inter-generational dynamic therefore helps this section to develop the theme of The Advantages of Family Love and Friendship Compared With Wealth Alone. 

Fair Weather further develops this theme through another unusual inter-generational dynamic, that between Lottie and Aunt Euterpe. Again, this relationship relies on the novel’s reversal of role expectations. Lottie first “takes charge” of Aunt Euterpe in Chapter 6 and will then do so throughout the novel. While all the older and younger characters effect changes in their various family members, Lottie has the biggest effect on Euterpe. She is able to talk her aunt into accepting situations that Euterpe would otherwise find offensive, as when she says a scandalous dance is Bible-based. Euterpe has treated the children with condescension because of their education in a one-room schoolhouse, but Lottie proves herself to be a complex, intelligent character despite her lack of schooling.

This second section also develops the theme of Female Power and Social Structures in the 1890s. The first section has shown that domestic sphere of the farm and the children’s lives is ruled by Mama, presenting her as a matriarch. However, her character’s attitude toward her daughters’ gender is complex and critical: In Chapter 4, she states “Give me boys” anytime (44). In her opinion, boys are simple and straightforward and don’t either keep secrets or try to outdo each other, as women do. This can be read as a foreshadowing of the complex and competitive world of Chicago high society, by which Aunt Euterpe has been ostracized. Despite this, Euterpe strives to live by all decorous rules that she thinks might help her to be accepted. Her distanced admiration—and concealed envy—of Mrs. Potter Palmer and her home is a moment of pathos. Here, the novel draws on a real historical person: Bertha Palmer was indeed head of the fair’s Board of Lady Managers and the unofficial hostess for the city; her social acceptance or otherwise determined whether a woman would be admitted into Chicago society. When Euterpe describes the Palmers’ mansion as so private that it lacks outside doorknobs, this stands as a metaphor for her own exclusion from society. Euterpe’s vulnerability here creates an emotional and plot obstacle that the novel will resolve through the later sections.

Rosie’s narrative stance continues to provide reminders that she is narrating from a distant point in time, and it becomes increasingly clear that she is an elderly woman at the time of narration. She gives a clue about just how much later time has gone by in Chapter 6 when she describes hearing the sound of the Ferris wheel in her dreams “for years.” This further develops the inter-generational relationships in the novel, as the elderly Rosie’s perspective becomes increasingly significant to the novel’s meaning as a coming-of-age story. At this point, her narration makes increasingly clear that the fair will eventually play as big a role in her personal growth as her family members, and will be a positive force. The young Rosie, however, experiences excitement mixed with terror at the scope of the fair. She can hardly breathe and grips Lottie’s hand tightly. The searchlight is terrifying, and the giant Ferris wheel is “the fright of [her] life” (66). As with Euterpe, Peck shows Rosie’s character changing through exposure to new experiences and ideas which challenge her greatly.

The picture in Chapter 6 is the first of the three postcards included in the book, introducing an additional layer of information and immersion in the fair as a historical event. The “picture” side are real images of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. They are informative and extend the verbal descriptions of the fair and its features. The reverse side, Rosie’s messages home, are masterpieces of comic understatement, as when Rosie tells her parents that they “have” Granddad. Like Lottie, Rosie is not sophisticated, but she knows by instinct not to tell her parents about the sights at the fair that her parents may consider scandalous, developing the theme of Country Ways Versus City Ways. When Rosie arrives at her aunt’s house on Schiller Street for the first time, she is astonished that her aunt’s street has a name. By contrast, her postcards home are simply addressed to “Mr. and Mrs. Gideon Beckett, Rural Christian County, Illinois” (71).