40 pages • 1 hour read
Gertrude WarnerThe Boxcar Children
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1924A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Protecting the Family
Towering over the story is the Boxcar Children’s enduring love for one another. Orphaned and alone, the kids focus on keeping their little family together, safe, and happy. They do this by working closely as a team, respecting each other, and supporting everyone’s needs. In addition to their teamwork, each child finds ways to make unique contributions that make surviving and thriving on their own a little bit easier.
Each kid wants to protect and help the others. Jessie finds the Boxcar to shelter them, discovers blueberries to feed them, brings Violet and Benny with her to collect kitchenware, makes sure their plates and spoons are clean and safe, and cooks delicious meals for them from simple ingredients. She also makes a toy bear for Benny and teaches him to read.
Henry gets a job to make money, but he wants to spend his earnings only on his siblings. He constructs a cart for Benny that they can also use to carry heavy things, and he leads the others to build a brook pool so they can bathe and swim. When he and Jessie hear a noise in the woods at night, Henry grabs a broom to protect them, and later, he keeps a hammer under his pillow in case someone or something dangerous attacks the boxcar.
Violet always wants to help. She works with Jessie to improve all their lives, hemming a new tablecloth, gathering stones for a fireplace and pool, and figuring out how to teach Benny to read. Even Benny, who’s only five, makes everyone happier by being funny and friendly. His knack for charming adults goes a long way toward helping the kids stay fed and protected.
As the older family members, Jessie and Henry are the leaders, dividing the tasks between them. Henry works in town to get money for food and other things, and he builds a friendship with Dr. Moore that helps him to feed and protect his siblings. Jessie watches Violet and Benny and keeps them busy gathering needed things. They assist her in building a fireplace, mending Watch’s paw, and constructing a broom.
The older children lead the younger ones with a combination of firmness and encouragement. They listen to their needs and find ways to help them fill those needs while helping the rest of the family. Once the younger children know they can get, for example, blueberries or cherries or a swimming pool, they’re happy to do much of the work of picking fruit and gathering rocks. When Henry announces he’ll build a cart for Benny, he does so in a way that makes Benny eager to help:
“‘We’ll want a cart.’ ‘Will you make it with my wheels?’ asked Benny. ‘Yes, with your wheels,’ answered Henry. ‘But you must cart stones in it when I get it done.’ ‘Yes,’ said Benny. ‘I will cart stones or rocks or anything’” (80-81).
Because of their closeness, the Boxcar Children listen to each other, work hard to help one another, and stay tightly knit as a team. Whatever is needed, they quickly join together and get it done. Their little group is their world, and all of them will do whatever they can to protect it and be happy as a family.
Being Resourceful and Independent
The Boxcar Children are smart and resourceful. They think through problems, develop inventive solutions, and build what they need. In the process, they turn their perilous situation into a much better and safer life. They grow confident and learn that they can live well and be happy, even if they’re alone.
All the kids are smart, and they use their brains to figure out how to put the things around them to good use. Once she finds the boxcar, Jessie learns how to use the resources around it. She converts the nearby brook’s little waterfall into a refrigerator for their bottled milk. She needs a broom and reasons that they can fashion it from sticks found in the forest. When Benny receives new socks, Jessie uses his old ones to make a stuffed-toy bear.
They need utensils, and she reckons these can be found at a local trash dump. She makes a ladle from a cup attached to a stick. Plates and spoons need cleaning, so she figures out how to scour a found kettle with brook sand and then use the kettle to boil water that sterilizes the utensils. The kettle needs to hang above the fireplace, so she uses a wire tied between two trees to hoist it.
Searching for a job, Henry walks into town and notices a man, Dr. Moore, mowing his lawn but stepping away to cool off. At once, he knows the man doesn’t want to struggle outside in the summer heat, so he offers to do the work himself and gets hired. He invents a system for organizing the doctor’s garage, which nets him a hammer and some nails that he uses to build a cart for hauling things at the boxcar site. He thinks through how to build a dam across the brook and make a pool for swimming.
To protect the children when they go into town to pick cherries at the Moores’ orchard, Henry has them walk separately in twos so their feared grandfather can’t hear about four kids together who might be his grandchildren. It’s Henry who figures out that the nice man who visits the Moores during Violet’s illness is their grandfather and not dangerous after all.
Jessie wants to teach Benny to read, but they have no books. Violet reasons that they can make their own book and fill it with words made of ash from the fireplace. She also figures out how to use wood slats nailed to the inside of one of the boxcar’s doors as supports for a kitchen shelf. Even Benny gets inventive: When Henry says the dog they’ve found would make a fine watchdog, Benny promptly names the pooch “Watch.” He also knows enough about himself to insist that the toy bear Jessie makes for him contain a long, un-bearlike tail so he can drag it as he walks.
The children thus use smarts and some hard work to build a life together in the woods. In the process, they find that they can tend to themselves independently. Only a kindly grandfather with immense resources and a beautiful home can lure them away from the life they have made with their own efforts.
Giving Children Room to Grow
At first, Mr. Alden is impatient to locate his grandchildren and bring them home. Dr. Moore realizes the kids need time to grow into a tight-knit family before they can accept their grandfather. He and Mrs. Moore guide Mr. Alden toward knowing that the four Alden children need each other more than they need him.
Henry offers to do odd jobs for Dr. Moore, who accepts and discovers that the boy is hard-working and capable. Curious about him, the doctor tracks him to the woods and discovers their boxcar. Knowing they’re alone and at risk, but also realizing they’ll run away if he reports them or tries too soon to interfere in their lives, he monitors them from afar. Quickly, he sees that they’re very good at taking care of themselves.
Mrs. Moore, his mother, also visits the boxcar while the kids are away and notes that they have done well at setting up their kitchen. She tells them later, “I went up one day and saw all your dishes. I liked your big pitcher and teapot” (139).
The Moores keep a kindly eye on the children, letting them grow more confident as they master their life in the woods. Only when Violet becomes ill do they take direct measures to protect the kids. At this point, Mr. Alden appears at the Moore house, demanding to see his grandchildren and offering Dr. Moore $5,000 to bring them to him. He’s rightly concerned about them and wants to protect them, but in his hurry to find them, he becomes impatient and demanding—exactly the wrong way to treat children who already believe he’s a bad person.
Had the Moores not protected the kids, Mr. Alden would have pushed his way into their lives, and they would have run away again. Instead, the Moores explain to him that his grandkids fear him. Wisely, Mr. Alden realizes he must be gentle toward them if he wants them in his life. He understands that if he lets them get to know him first, they’ll see that he’s not bad but loves them very much and wants to protect them.
The children get used to Mr. Alden and find he’s very nice. Feeling safe with him, they’re delighted to learn that he’s their grandfather. Benny alerts his sister: “It’s Grandfather, Violet! And he isn’t cross after all!” (136)
Had they forced the issue, the Moores and Mr. Alden would have lost the children, but by giving them time to discover for themselves that their grandfather is a good and kind person, the adults show respect for the kids, honor their need to feel safe, and thus can welcome the Boxcar Children into their lives and look forward to a happy future together.
