Blog # 4

Since my last post I have read one more chapter called The Small Room Outside and I am now up to page 98 at a chapter called Small Oils. In this chapter Iris and her family have finally settled into the Van Den Meer house. Iris is trying to find a way to get Clara to come out and hang out with her so that she can teach Clara English. Iris starts talking to her sister Ruth about the gypsy queen and since Clara believes she is a changeling she is interested by this and comes down to see Iris and her sister. The rest of the chapter is about Iris, Ruth and Clara in the garden talking and Iris finding out information about Clara. Maguire uses a lot of show don’t tell detail which I really like and could help with writing the paper. I could talk about how he instead of saying something like the grass is green would say something like the grass was vibrant with different colors. He also uses a mixture of big and small words to get a point across which I find interesting.
I think the idea of a changeling kid has to do with some symbolism in the book. I have noticed that the word keeps coming up a lot through out the book. The changeling I think stands for a kid that we would in real life call special or have a disability. For example someone who maybe does not learn as fast as someone else or has a disability like has a speech impediment or is handicapped. Just from clues from the reading I get the idea that it relates to some one that has a disability whether it’s a big one or small one.
I think the flowers might also have some symbolism to them, because when the family was living with the painter they would pick flowers everyday and at the Van Den Meer’s Clara wants to show them her flowers. I think from the way that they are mentioned that the flowers could stand for freedom and the life beyond closed doors. When iris and her family are living with the painter they are almost like prisoners, because they cannot roam in the city or really leave the house. So when Iris and her sister Ruth are set to get flowers in the field, they are free from the house and get a sense of some freedom away from everything in the field. With Clara, because she is considered a changeling she has to stay in her house. So when she gets to go out side and pick flowers and smell them its like her freedom from the house and gives her a sense of the world outside of her house.