From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

“Break up, not bust up. Indecent, not undecent.”

Throughout the novel, Claudia corrects Jamie’s grammar and phrasing. Claudia’s insistence on proper grammar relates to her broader tendency to comply with social norms and expectations, whereas Jamie is less aware of and concerned about such things. While their productive differences help each of them to progress throughout the novel, Claudia learns not to be so quick to correct Jamie, showing her increasing ability to distinguish between superficial concerns and things that really matter.

“They complemented each other perfectly. She was cautious (about everything but money) and poor; he was adventurous (about everything but money) and rich.”

Through the foil characters of Claudia and Jamie, Konigsburg explores various dichotomies. Spending money and taking risks are two major areas in which they differ and complement one another. The implication is that neither extreme is healthy. Their relationship also serves as a positive example of learning from others.

“You’ve missed all this, Saxonberg. Shame on you! You’ve never set your well-polished shoe inside that museum. More than a quarter of a million people come to that museum every week. […] And they all enter free of charge because that’s what the museum is: great and large and wonderful and free to all. And complicated. Complicated enough even for Jamie Kincaid.”

Mrs. Frankweiler addresses Saxonberg as a friend, but her comments also have an edge. Here, she berates him for never visiting the museum. Her reference to Saxonberg’s “well-polished shoe” emphasizes his apparently high-class status, which she juxtaposes with the large number of people who frequent the museum for free. This suggests that she sees the museum and the art it contains as having universal significance, not reserved for a particular class or type of people.

“Jamie wished to eat in the snack bar downstairs; he thought it would be less glamorous, but cheaper, and as chancellor of the exchequer, as holder of the veto power, and as tightwad of the year, he got his wish.”

Compared to Claudia’s extravagant taste and fanciful whims, Jamie is more down-to-earth and practical. Here, Mrs. Frankweiler pokes fun at Jamie’s excessive financial restraint. Her comparisons between him and major political and financial figures become comedic, even satirical, when she follows them with an informal description of him as “tightwad of the year.” Perhaps she thinks that Jamie takes himself, and his money, a bit too seriously.

“I know what happened, though I never told them. Having words and explanations for everything is too modern. I especially wouldn’t tell Claudia. She has too many explanations already.”

Here, after describing the moment when Jamie and Claudia begin to come together as a team, Mrs. Frankweiler explains that she would not share her explanation with the children since it is possible to have “too many explanations” for life. Her comments suggest that some of life’s enjoyment comes from its mystery. The implication is that experiencing a rich life is sometimes more important than trying to analyze or understand life.

“What happened was: they became a team, a family of two. […] Becoming a team didn’t mean the end of their arguments. But it did mean that the arguments became a part of the adventure, became discussions not threats. To an outsider the arguments would appear to be the same because feeling like part of a team is something that happens invisibly. You might call it caring. You could even call it love.”

Mrs. Frankweiler muses on the nature of teamwork. As she suggests, Claudia and Jamie’s interactions do not change outwardly once they start working together sincerely. Instead, their relationship is built on loving concern for each other, which becomes a foundation for working through problems. These comments highlight the fact that Claudia and Jamie’s success—despite their youth and their unusual circumstances—could only be reached because they worked together.

“Claudia informed Jamie that they should take advantage of the wonderful opportunity they had to learn and to study. No other children in all the world since the world began had had such an opportunity.”

Claudia and Mrs. Frankweiler share a thirst for knowledge. Their engagement with the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as Claudia and Jamie’s visits to local libraries serve as an example of the extensive resources widely available. With such opportunities available, they must still make a choice whether to benefit from them, as Claudia encourages Jamie to do.

“Are you altogether unconscious of the magic of the name of Michelangelo? I truly believe that his name has magic even now; the best kind of magic because it comes from true greatness.”

Here, Mrs. Frankweiler describes Michelangelo to Saxonberg. Her use of the word “magic” implies that Michelangelo’s art exceeds rational explanation. The story explores this theme through Claudia and Jamie’s interactions with Angel, which demonstrates the potential for art to challenge and inspire. Her mention of “greatness” raises related questions about the subjective processes by which we experience and evaluate art.

“Her determination convinced Jamie that Saturday should be spent just this way.”

Jamie begs Claudia to take him to a department store so that he can watch TV, but Claudia refuses and leads them to a library to do research. Opposed to the idea at first, Jamie soon becomes caught up in the research and his role in the process. This passage reveals Claudia’s influence and leadership as the elder sibling; it also shows that enthusiasm for learning can be contagious.

“It makes me furious to think that I must explain that restaurant to you, Saxonberg. I’m going to make you take me to lunch in there one day soon. I just this minute became determined to get you into the museum.”

As this passage demonstrates, Mrs. Frankweiler can be blunt, even rude, on occasion. Her rough personal manner belies her compassionate and understanding personality, though she has little patience for people or things that bore her. Her decision to meet Saxonberg in the museum to revise her will, foreshadowed here, highlights the museum as a setting where people make changes and are changed.

“Jamie giggled, ‘Yeah, I guess homesickness is like sucking your thumb. It’s what happens when you’re not very sure of yourself.’

‘Or not very well trained,’ Claudia added.”

Claudia and Jamie find, to their surprise, that they are not homesick. Jamie’s comparison to sucking one’s thumb, a behavior associated with babies, suggests that one reason they are not homesick is that they have outgrown homesickness by becoming confident in themselves. This relates to the novel’s larger themes of self-discovery. Though Claudia and Jamie are too young to experience a full coming-of-age arc, they both develop in significant ways.

“Going home without knowing about Angel for sure will be the same as going home from camp. It won’t be any different. After one day, maybe two, we’ll be back to the same old thing. And I didn’t run away to come home the same.”

Claudia insists that running away from home was not just a stunt or plea for attention. Instead, she wants to return home changed in lasting ways. While she doesn’t articulate exactly how she hopes to change, she recognizes that solving Angel’s mystery might be enough to bring about the change she seeks. This suggests that Claudia craves the satisfaction of meaningful and unique accomplishment, compared to the monotony of her regular home life.

“She could do two things, she decided. When she was grown, she could stay the way she was and move to some place like India where no one dressed as she did, or she could dress like someone else—the Indian guide even—and still live in an ordinary place like Greenwich.”

As Claudia reflects on what it means to be changed or different, she at first fixates on superficial factors, sparked by her experience with a South Asian tour guide. Claudia’s determination to stand out and distinguish herself as an individual represents a significant break from her history. In the past, she focused on obeying and fulfilling others’ wishes for her, at home and at school. Her time away from home provides her with an opportunity to take the initiative and learn about herself.

“Well, Claude, we just traded safety for adventure. Come along, Lady Claudia.”

Jamie’s progression through the novel is marked by a changing relationship to money, which highlights larger shifts in his character and priorities. Here, he reveals to Claudia that he gave away the last of their money to the taxi driver. His playful tone, which continues their use of “Sir” and “Lady” to refer to each other from earlier, shows that he no longer sees money as the most important thing. Instead, he recognizes it as a means to other, more important ends.

“‘The only kind of deal I can make concerns money, and we don’t have any more of that.’

‘You are poor, indeed, if that’s the only kind of a deal you can make.’”

When Mrs. Frankweiler offers a deal to Jamie, he turns her down, since he doesn’t have any more money. Mrs. Frankweiler suggests that those who deal only in financial terms are “poor” from a certain perspective, no matter how much money they have. Mrs. Frankweiler lives by this philosophy, since she sells Angel for a small fee when she could have made much more if she revealed the statue’s artist. Instead, she prizes information, including secrets, showing that money is not a sufficient lens to use for interpreting and evaluating the world, as Jamie used to do.

“And the more plans you made, the more it became like living at home away from home.”

Mrs. Frankweiler offers perceptive comments about Claudia and Jamie’s journey. Her comments demonstrate the wisdom she has gained through experience. This comment reflects her understanding that Claudia and Jamie ran away in part to escape from the rigid structure of modern life, but they found a similar tendency toward planning and structure in themselves. Only by setting out on their own for a while could they clearly see their own qualities and tendencies, allowing them to consider what might be worth changing.

“The adventure is over. Everything gets over, and nothing is ever enough. Except the part you carry with you. It’s the same as going on a vacation. Some people spend all their time on a vacation taking pictures so that when they get home they can show their friends evidence that they had a good time. They don’t pause to let the vacation enter inside of them and take that home.”

Here, Mrs. Frankweiler highlights the difference between those who are changed by special experiences and those who engage with such experiences on a superficial level. If Jamie and Claudia gave up on learning the truth about Angel and went home, they would have a nice story to tell their friends but nothing more. By pursuing their investigation to its conclusion, their lives are changed, and they form new bonds with each other and with Mrs. Frankweiler. According to Mrs. Frankweiler, such changes can only happen when people “pause,” showing the need for introspection, reflection, and self-awareness.

“I need having the secret more than I need the money.”

Here, Mrs. Frankweiler explains her reasoning for not selling the sketch proving that Michelangelo created Angel. The extra money she could obtain by selling it would not make her as happy as keeping the secret to herself does. How exactly keeping secrets provides pleasure is never explained, though Mrs. Frankweiler would likely say that too much explanation and analysis takes the fun out of most things, including keeping secrets.

“Returning with a secret is what she really wants. Angel had a secret and that made her exciting, important. Claudia doesn’t want adventure. She likes baths and feeling comfortable too much for that kind of thing. Secrets are the kind of adventure she needs. Secrets are safe, and they do much to make you different. On the inside where it counts.”

By definition, a secret makes someone feel special because it distinguishes the person who knows it from those who do not. For Claudia, keeping secrets is a way of distinguishing and asserting herself as an individual. Though Mrs. Frankweiler leaves Claudia with one particularly juicy secret, Claudia is likely to realize and apply the same principle in other ways throughout her life.

“Now she wouldn’t have to be a heroine when she returned home…except to herself. And now she knew something about secrets that she hadn’t known before.”

Mrs. Frankweiler identifies some of the changes in Claudia as she returns home to her prior life. Instead of trying to please other people and earn their approval, Claudia now realizes the importance of confidence, individuality, and self-esteem. Her newfound appreciation for secrets also sets the stage for her to enjoy a rich private life as she gathers cherished information.

“I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It’s hollow.”

Mrs. Frankweiler reminds Claudia and Jamie that gathering knowledge and information is no guarantee of a happy life. In addition to study, they must also feel and appreciate the knowledge they gain in a deeper, more intuitive way. Mrs. Frankweiler’s comments ring true for Claudia, who became emotionally invested in her quest to determine whether Michelangelo created Angel.

“Because after a time having a secret and nobody knowing you have a secret is no fun. And although you don’t want others to know what the secret is, you want them to at least know you have one.”

While Mrs. Frankweiler advises the children about the significance of secrets, she also warns that a person can become too isolated for their own good if they keep everything to themselves. Instead, there is value and excitement to be found in sharing some but not all of what one knows with others. Mrs. Frankweiler demonstrates this principle by sharing lots of information with the children while withholding other information, such as the fact that Saxonberg is her lawyer.

“We’ll adopt her. […] She’ll become our grandmother, then, since ours are deceased.”

On their way home, Claudia and Jamie plan to reconnect with Mrs. Frankweiler soon and describe their relationship with her in familial terms. Though Mrs. Frankweiler provides obvious and immediate support to the children, including helping them discover the truth about Angel and find their way home, they also provide a much-needed human connection to Mrs. Frankweiler, who has no children or grandchildren. This illustrates that connection is a basic human need, one that can only be fulfilled by other people.