The Wednesday Wars

“At 1:55, the bus arrived from Saint Adelbert’s to spring the other half—even Mai Thi, who had to go to Catechism since it was the Catholic Relief Agency that had brought her over from Vietnam, and I guess they figured that she owed them, even though she wasn’t Catholic.”

Holling’s narration of the Wednesday afternoon routine contributes to the novel’s setting in Long Island, NY in the 1960s. Half of his class is Jewish, and the other half is Catholic, revealing the religious demographic of the time. Furthermore, his comments about Mai Thi point to the Vietnam War and show the reader that the United States took in Vietnamese refugees at this time. Even though Mai Thi isn’t Catholic, the nonprofit that houses her has strings attached to their aid—she must attend Catechism. In one brief comment from Holling, Schmidt contributes to details of the novel’s setting as well as highlights the irony of the self-seeking charity that helps refugees. 

“‘Thank you, Miss Political Analyst,’ said my father. ‘Now analyze this: The person to whom you are now speaking is a candidate for the Chamber of Commerce Businessman of 1967. This is an honor that he has wanted for a long time. It is also an honor that will lead to larger, more profitable ventures than he has yet seen. It is not an honor that is awarded to a man who has a daughter who calls herself a flower child. So go wash your face.’”

The relationship between Holling’s father and sister is tense. Holling’s father sees everyone and everything in terms of business, even his own children and the choices they make. Meanwhile, Heather, on the brink of high school graduation, forms strong opinions about current events and her political views. She is more willing than Holling to stand up to her father and pushes Holling to do the same. 

“After we closed our books, Mrs. Baker asked me to discuss the character of Shylock. ‘He isn’t really a villain,’ I said, ‘is he?’ ‘No,’ said Mrs. Baker, ‘he isn’t.’ ‘He’s more like someone who wants…’ ‘Who wants what, Mr. Hoodhood?’ ‘Someone who wants to become who he’s supposed to be,’ I said. Mrs. Baker considered that. ‘And why couldn’t he?’ she asked. ‘Because they wouldn’t let him. They decided he had to be a certain way, and he was trapped. He couldn’t be anything except for what he was’ I said. ‘And that is why the play is called a tragedy,’ said Mrs. Baker.” 

This discussion of Shylock’s character acts as a catalyst to Holling’s journey of self-discovery. Just like Shylock, Holling’s father and community have decided he has to be a certain way: the perfect Son Who is to Inherit Hoodhood and Associates. For the first time, Holling questions whether that is who he is supposed to be. Based on his analysis of Shylock’s character, he starts to see that he faces a decision: to follow what others expect of him, or to choose his own path. 

“At the happy ending of The Tempest, Prospero brings the king back together with his son, and finds Miranda’s true love, and punishes the bad duke, and frees Ariel, and becomes a duke himself again. Everyone—except Caliban—is happy, and everyone is forgiven, and everyone is fine, and they all sail away on calm seas. Happy endings. That’s how it is in Shakespeare. But Shakespeare was wrong. Sometimes there isn’t a Prospero to make everything fine again. And sometimes the quality of mercy is strained.”

Holling often notices similarities between Shakespearean plots and his own life, but in this case, he highlights a difference. The Vietnam War brought sorrow to his community; Mrs. Bigio lost her husband, and Mai Thi’s refugee home was vandalized. Holling, as he grows in maturity, sees that Shakespeare’s happy endings aren’t always true to life. Life is messy, mercy is not always given, and sorrow is unavoidable.

“But just before we got in the door, Mai Thi stopped me with a hand on my chest. She looked at me for a long moment and then whispered, ‘Not good to be warrior.’ I looked at her, I guess kind of startled, and she went in to her desk before I could say a thing. But what did she know?”

After Holling convinces his classmates that he’ll be playing a warrior in the theater production of The Tempest, Mai Thi’s solemn warning betrays her firsthand knowledge of the dangers of being a warrior. However, Holling does not understand the significance of her statement. Mai Thi, having come from Vietnam, knows all about warriors and danger. Thus, Holling’s ironic response highlights his ignorance as well as Mai Thi’s unspoken yet severe circumstances. 

“I guess Danny must have told them about the Extravaganza, and they had come to see my play the part of Ariel the Warrior. I guess it didn’t matter to them that the Bing Crosby Christmas special was on television tonight, the way it mattered to my parents, who would never, ever miss it. I guess the Hupfers thought that a Shakespeare debut was a whole lot more important than hearing ‘I’m dreaming of a white Christmas’ one more time.”

Danny Hupfer’s parents come to see Holling in The Tempest, yet his own parents do not, choosing a Christmas special over supporting their son. Lack of support from Holling’s parents is a pattern in the novel; Holling’s father is always preoccupied with work or too busy maintaining his reputation to make time for his son. Nevertheless, Holling finds a supportive community elsewhere. In addition to Mr. and Mrs. Hupfer, those who show up to watch him play Ariel include Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Bigio, Danny, Meryl Lee, and Mai Thi. All of these people consistently show up for Holling, emphasizing the value of community and friendship. 

“When gods die, they die hard. It’s not like they fade away, or grow old, or fall asleep. They die in fire and pain, and when they come out of you, they leave your guts burned. It hurts more than anything you can talk about. And maybe worst of all is, you’re not sure if there will ever be another god to fill their place. Or if you’d ever want another god to fill their place. You don’t want fire to go out inside you twice.”

When Mickey Mantle disappoints Holling, Holling takes it hard. One of his biggest heroes has fallen. This is a normal part of the coming-of-age process that many young people experience. It’s common to build someone up in one’s mind and idolize them, only to find out that they are only human after all. Despite how difficult this is for Holling, he gradually finds heroes elsewhere. Danny, for example, remains loyal as a true friend to Holling, and adults in his life such as Mrs. Bigio and Mrs. Baker, though not perfect, are heroes that Holling looks up to and learns from. 

“She probably didn’t see that Mrs. Bigio was pulling her hairnet down lower over her face, because she was almost crying. And probably Mrs. Bigio didn’t see that Mai Thi was almost crying too. But I did. I saw them. And I wondered how many gods were dying in both of them right then, and whether any of them could be saved.” 

Both Mrs. Bigio and Mai Thi experienced profound loss: Mrs. Bigio’s husband died in Vietnam, and presumably, Mai Thi lost her parents as well as her homeland. Holling witnesses how Mrs. Bigio, in her grief, lashes out at Mai Thi, and he recognizes their pain. This situation highlights how people in pain tend to hurt others as a way of dealing with their sorrow. The reconciliation between Mrs. Bigio and Mai Thi later in the novel showcases the wonderful power of forgiveness and how closeness between them truly brings Mrs. Bigio and Mai Thi a sense of healing and peace. 

“Whatever it means to be a friend, taking a black eye for someone has to be in it.” 

This quote relates to the novel’s theme of friendship and community. When Doug Swieteck’s brother wants Doug to help him embarrass Holling with the newspaper photo, Doug refuses, taking a black eye for his friend. Although seemingly everyone at school makes fun of him, Holling sees that he still has loyal friends and a supportive community who cares for him. 

“‘It’s not like it’s your picture in the halls, or that you have that much to worry about,’ I said. I know. Dumb.” 

Holling’s insensitive words to Mrs. Baker show his momentary forgetfulness of the fear Mrs. Baker faces everyday worrying whether her husband in Vietnam will make it home. This shows that as people deal with hardships in their life, they are often blind to the needs of others. Part of Holling’s maturity process involves this lesson; seeing that people are more than a label or a job, and many aspects of a person’s life are often unseen until one gets to know them. 

“It seemed to me that we were in dramatic-health-concern territory, but you can’t exactly raise your hand in class and announce that you have to go take off what I had to go take off.” 

This quote exemplifies the novel’s humorous tone as Holling narrates his hesitancy to ask permission to take off his long underwear. It also contributes to the novel’s point of view. Like a typical junior high school student, Holling feels embarrassed at the thought of announcing his long underwear to the classroom and is therefore more willing to suffer under the heat from the radiator than to risk ridicule from his peers. 

“Can you imagine what it’s like to walk down the halls of your junior high and just about every single person you meet looks at you and starts to grin, and it’s because they’re glad to see you?” 

Schmidt repeats the wording from the beginning of the chapter, with one small change; when the chapter begins, people in the halls grin at Holling because of the embarrassing newspaper photo of him as Ariel the fairy covers every surface. Now, however, they grin because of a new photo in the paper: his heroic actions saving his sister. Through repetition, Schmidt creates bookends for this chapter, showing how public opinion of Holling changes drastically based on the content of the two photos. 

“And that’s when something changed. I suddenly wondered if my father was really like Shylock. Not because he loved ducats, but because maybe he had become the person that everyone expected him to become. I wondered if he had ever had a choice, or if he had ever felt trapped. Or if he had ever imagined a different life.” 

As Holling matures, he begins to see his father in a new light. He compares him to Shylock and wonders about the man his father used to be, realizing that perhaps, just like Holling, his father wanted something different for his life but believed he had no other choice but to follow the path everyone expected of him. Holling’s ability to look beyond the father he knows to the man he used to be reveals his maturity. Holling realizes that a person is more than who they are today. A person is made up of many decisions, experiences, and circumstances, and his father is no exception. 

“Toads, beetles, bats.”

This curse from The Merchant of Venice becomes a sort of mantra for Holling in response to frustrating or grim situations. Its repetition is a source of humor and adds to the narrative voice of a junior high school student. 

“‘Don’t look so surprised. You didn’t think I’d spent my whole life behind this desk, did you?’ And suddenly I realized that, well, I guess I had. Weren’t all teachers born behind their desks, fully grown, with a red pen in their hand and ready to grade?” 

As part of his coming-of-age, Holling realizes that Mrs. Baker is more than a teacher. She has a history he knows nothing of and a life outside of teaching. Schmidt uses Holling’s realization as both a source of humor and a lesson. People are made of more than one’s perceptions of them, and truly knowing and understanding someone involves considering every aspect of their life, from the past, the present, and everywhere in between. 

“The sky had not improved during the day. The green and brown had swirled together, and the clouds had lowered themselves further and further, and they had dropped a kind of vapor from them that made it seem like we were running through the jungles of Vietnam, and breathing more water than air.” 

On the ides of March, Holling describes the dismal weather using vivid imagery. The dark, foggy sky matches the negative events of the day, such as the disastrous appearance of Sycorax and Caliban during the school board classroom observation and the pressure of the cross-country tryout. However, by the chapter’s end, the clouds part and the ides of March turns out to be a beautiful spring day. The change in the weather reflects the uptick in events as Sycorax and Caliban are vanquished for good and Holling gives the run of his life, making the varsity cross-country team. This exemplifies Schmidt’s repeated technique of using weather imagery to match the mood of plot events. 

“That night, Walter Cronkite reported that in Khesanh, some of the tunnels the Vietcong were digging now reached to within fifty yards of the marine fences. There were more mortar shells lobbed in. There were more pictures of the marines deep in their bunkers with their hands over their ears. Casualties were light, the White House announced.” 

Contributing to his depiction of the United States in 1968, Schmidt highlights a major battle from Vietnam, as well as the discrepancies between news reports and White House reports of casualties. His description of the dire situation for US marines contributes to the Vietnam War motif and paints a realistic picture of this period in American history. 

“‘He has a baseball game at two o’clock,’ I said. ‘No, he has an important meeting with the Chamber of Commerce scheduled for four thirty. He wouldn’t miss a Chamber of Commerce meeting for a baseball game.’ She was right. He wouldn’t.” 

Holling’s father misses the opportunity to take Holling to Opening Day at Yankee Stadium in favor of a business meeting. Based on his father’s track record of placing business ahead of family, Holling is not surprised. Holling feels disappointed and embarrassed when he shuffles back to class, but Mrs. Baker shows Holling the meaning of community and support by taking him to the game. From this situation, Schmidt shows the contrast between Holling’s family relationships and the friendships he has formed with a community outside of his family. 

“Mr. and Mrs. Hupfer and all the little Hupfers were behind Danny, who had not gone home but was standing there on his bloody knees and hollering as loudly as he could and waving his white shirt high up in the air. Coach Quatrini was going berserk again, and seemed to be trying to levitate himself off the ground. Meryl Lee was standing quietly, Mr. Kowalski behind her, and she held up a dried rose with a ribbon as I went by. And Mrs. Baker was standing next to her, wearing her white sneakers.”

As Holling begins the final lap of his cross-country race, he sees his community of supporters cheering him on from the sidelines. Although his family is not there, he has many people—classmates and adults—who love him enough to wake up early on a Saturday morning to support him. Schmidt highlights the community that Holling built by being a friend to others and receiving their friendship in return. He shows that one can find meaningful relationships outside of one’s family, and that having a friend goes hand in hand with being one. 

“That afternoon, driving with Mrs. Baker, the American Revolution was here. The escaped slaves were here. The abolitionists were here. And I was here. It made me feel sort of responsible.” 

The outing with Mrs. Baker to “survey points of local architectural interest” (221) marks a defining moment in Holling’s maturity. He sees his town with fresh eyes, realizing for the first time that he is responsible for learning from the past and present and improving his future. 

“Maybe the first time that you know you really care about something is when you think about it not being there, and you know—you really know—that the emptiness is as much inside you as outside you.” 

For most of the novel, Holling’s relationship with his sister is a typical sibling rivalry. However, when Heather leaves for California, Holling realizes how much he loves her. This realization provides further evidence of his growing maturity. By the time Heather returns home, Holling stops seeing her as his know-it-all older sister and now looks up to her as his ally and confidant. 

“Mrs. Baker looked at me, and I knew she wasn’t going to send me to Mrs. Sidman’s office so that she could be alone. You don’t send someone away who has lit a candle with you.”

When Mrs. Baker receives a telegram that contains either news of her husband’s death or news of his homecoming, she opens it in Holling’s presence. This shows the level of closeness between student and teacher over the course of the academic year. Mrs. Baker has been there for the difficulties of Holling’s year, such as when his dad failed to show up for Opening Day and when a bus hit him. Now it’s Holling’s turn to be there for Mrs. Baker, who, through Shakespeare, cross-country training, and sentence diagramming, developed a soft spot for Holling. 

“The river was a sudden ribbon of silvery light, flickering and sparkling and flashing, carrying the new light on its back all the way down from the high mountains. It was so bright that you couldn’t see below the surface until the water was right up to you, and then it was suddenly clear, and buoying me up in its rush. And it never stopped, this rush of bright water from the mountains, these flashes and chunks of light from the sun. There was so much of it to come.” 

After lying awake thinking about his future, Holling has this surreal experience at the stream. The stream symbolizes his future, blinding in its brightness, coming towards him in an endless flow. This moment in nature fills him with hope and brings him peace about facing the unknown of growing up and finding his place in the world.