THE HUNDRED DRESSES - I
By El Bsor Ester
Summary
The story is about a quiet and shy girl named Wanda Petronski, a Polish immigrant, who had come to America with her family. She attended school with American children who found her name to unusual.. This is because they all had easier names like Thomas,Smith or Allen . She was poor and was always seen wearing a faded blue dress. Her classmates teased her because she always claimed that she had hundred dresses “all lined up” in her closet. But she was found wearing the same blue dress every day. The girls who mainly teased her were Peggy and Maddie. Peggy was pretty, smart and had many dresses. She was very popular unlike Wanda.
Peggy and Maddie used to wait for Wanda before school even if it meant getting late. Peggy used to ask her mockingly, how many dresses she had and Wanda used to say that she had a hundred dresses in the closet. On hearing this, girls used to laugh and jeer at her. Maddie, a poor girl herself did not like when Peggy made fun of Wanda. She feared that she could be the next. She wanted Peggy to stop making fun of Wanda, but could not summon courage to face her as she feared she’d lose her best friend. However, Peggy’s intention was never to hurt Wanda but she was curious as to why Wanda lied that she had a hundred dresses in her closet.
There was a drawing competition and everyone expected Peggy to win but Wanda got the medal for drawing hundred dresses. Truth about the same hundred dresses claimed by Wanda in her closet unveiled on the day of the drawing competition was a great surprise to all. The room was lined with one hundred drawings portraying different dresses, each so beautiful. That day, she truly had “a hundred dresses all lined up”, in the classroom. At that moment, Peggy and Maddie, who did not believe Wanda realised the secret of a “hundred dresses” and felt guilty about having teased her about it.
Question & Answers
Q1. Where in the classroom does Wanda sit and why?
Wanda used to sit in back corner of the classroom where the rough boys sat, the boys who got the lowest marks and had the loudest laughter. No one ever knew why she really sat there but there were guesses that it was because of the mud her shoes carried while coming to school.
Q2. Where does Wanda live? What kind of a place do you think it is?
Wanda lived in Boggins Heights. it was that part of the town where poor people lived. The place was filled with mud and stuck to Wandas shoes which she carried to the classroom.
Q3. When and why do Peggy and Maddie notice Wanda’s absence?
On Wednesday, Peggy and Maddie noticed that Wanda was missing. They had been waiting for her outside school, before school began. As she did not come, they even got late for school. It was then that they realized her absence from school.
Q4. What do you think “to have fun with her” means?
“To have fun with her” means to tease her about the hundred dresses she claimed to have lined up in the closet; but she always wore the same faded blue dress. This was funny.
Q5. In what way was Wanda different from the other children?
Wanda was a quiet and shy girl who had no friends. She did not mingle with others in the class. She had the weirdest name in her class which differentiated her from everyone else.
Q6. Did Wanda have a hundred dresses? Why do you think she said she did?
No, Wanda did not actually have a hundred dresses; she only had drawings of them. She was a poor girl who would have desired to have a closet full of hundred dresses, all lined up. That may the reason, she said that she had hundred dresses.
Q7. Why is Maddie embarrassed by the questions Peggy asks Wanda? Is she also like Wanda, or is she different?
Maddie is embarrassed by how Peggy deals with Wanda not because she cares about Wanda, but because she was poor herself and feared that one day, she would turn on her the same way. Maddie is a poor girl but not as poor as Wanda and unlike Wanda, she had a lot of friends.
Q8. Why didn’t Maddie ask Peggie to stop teasing Wanda? What was she afraid of?
A. Maddie did not ask Peggy to stop teasing Wanda because as she too was poor, she feared that she could be the next target for the girls. Maddie wore clothes given by Peggy, she was afraid that if they did not tease Wanda, they may start teasing her.
Q9. Who did Maddie think would win the drawing contest? Why?
Maddie thought that her best friend Peggie would win the Drawing contest because she was the best artist in the class.
Q10. Who won the drawing contest? What had the winner drawn?
Wanda had won the drawing contest. She had flawlessly drawn a hundred beautiful dresses.
Q11. How is Wanda seen as different by the other girls? How do they treat her?
Other girls saw Wanda as poor and vulnerable. She had a strange name, did not make friends and remained quiet. She sat in the back corner with the rough and noisy boys. Wanda always wore the same dress and came from a poor locality full of mud on the roads. The other girls treated her badly and belittled her. They made fun of Wanda.
Q12. How does Wanda feel about the dresses game? Why does she say that she has a hundred dresses?
Wanda felt embarrassed and insulted when other girls played the dresses game on her. She claimed to have a hundred dresses in order to put those insults and jokes away. Actually, she was preparing drawings of a hundred dresses for the drawing competition and she referred to them when the girls asked her that how many dresses she had.
Q13. Why does Maddie stand by and not do anything? How is she different from Peggy? (Was Peggy’s friendship important to Maddie? Why? Which lines in the text tell you this?)
Maddie stands quietly and watches as Peggy humiliates Wanda because she felt that Peggy was high and mighty. Thus, Peggy could never be wrong. As Maddie was poor herself, she feared that she could be the next target for the girls to mock at. Also, Maddie did not tease Wanda while Peggy did. Yes, Peggy’s friendship was important to Maddie. The lines which indicate this are -
“Peggy was the most popular girl in school. She was pretty, she had many pretty clothes and her hair was curly. Maddie was her closest friend.”
Q14. What does Miss Mason think of Wanda’s drawings? What do the children think of them? How do you know?
Miss Mason thought of Wanda’s drawings to be wonderful. She even said that judges liked it so much and thought that each one of them worthy of winning the medal. The children too, were awestruck at the sight of such beautiful paintings. It is evident from the fact that the boys, who had no interest in dresses, were whistling and Peggy who thought of herself to be the best artist, accepted that Wanda’s drawings were amazing.
Comments
Post a Comment