41 pages • 1 hour read
Judy BlumeTales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1972A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Family Dog”
Although Mr. Hatcher loses the lucrative Juicy-O advertising account, he is pleased when he is assigned the Toddle-Bike TV commercial. Peter is disappointed to find that his ability to stand on his head, taught to him by his grandmother, will not win him a role in the ad.
Fudge suddenly refuses to eat his meals. His parents try to cajole him; Peter notes that “my father did tricks for him while my mother stood over his chair trying to get some food in his mouth” (23). When these efforts fail, Fudge’s mother begs him to entertain the toddler by standing on his head as she tries to feed him. Peter agrees once but refuses the next morning, as he wants to get to school on time. He rebels, saying, “I’m not going to stand on my head anymore” (24). He advises his mother that Fudge will eat when he is sufficiently hungry.
Fudge continues to misbehave by throwing his food instead of eating it. When he hides under the table during dinner and barks like a dog, Mrs. Hatcher places his dinner plate on the floor to appease him. Peter fantasizes about trading Fudge for a cocker spaniel puppy. Mrs. Hatcher consults the pediatrician, who echoes Peter’s advice about letting Fudge get hungry, suggesting that she cook the child’s favorite foods.
Fudge refuses the lamb chops she prepares for him; Peter eats them instead. The child is given the cereal that he demands and refuses it. His father tells him to eat the cereal or “wear it” (17). Finally losing his patience, Mr. Hatcher puts Fudge in the bathtub and dumps the cereal over his head. He tells his wife not to comfort Fudge when he screams after this episode. Subsequently, Fudge resumes eating his meals.
Chapter 3 Analysis
The Hatchers are proponents of a very diplomatic, psychological method of dealing with their often difficult toddler, Fudge. Mrs. Hatcher enlists Peter in their attempts to cajole Fudge into eating by demanding that he entertain the child by standing on his head; she spoons mashed potato into the baby’s mouth when he laughs at the trick. The normally restrained, mature older brother engages in an uncharacteristic act of rebellion when he flatly refuses to repeat the trick the following morning. In a foreshadowing of the pediatrician’s advice, Peter tells his mother that Fudge will eat again when he is sufficiently hungry.
An adult can recognize that the Hatchers have fallen into the trap of relying upon consistent good behavior from their more acquiescent child, Peter, to appease the more difficult sibling, Fudge. Peter’s narrative indicates that he is aware of this. While Peter has flashes of sympathy for his parents’ dilemma, he is a child too. He instinctively recognizes the inequity of this situation. When his father resolves the power play constituted by Fudge’s refusal to eat by dumping cereal over the child’s head, he solves the toddler’s immediate problem and appeases Peter’s constant sense that the normal mode of dealing with Fudge merely exacerbates his behavior.
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By Judy Blume
