The Great Gilly Hopkins

The author introduces the protagonist Gilly by describing her rude behavior and difficulties with relating to people, especially authority figures. The author also establishes Gilly as a sympathetic character despite her many flaws, providing details from Gilly’s history that portray her unstable life. The characters surrounding the protagonist have colorful and distinctive personalities, and this allows the reader to imagine the world of her novel vividly. Paterson accomplishes this with imagery, characterization, internal monologue, and dialogue.

Gilly’s hostility is revealed through indirect characterization. Gilly places her old bubble gum underneath the car handle in Miss Ellis’ car and refuses to comb her hair when Miss Ellis pleads with her to do so. When Miss Ellis asks Gilly to start off on the “right foot” (2) with Maime Trotter, Gilly imagines herself skating on her right foot and kicking her new foster mother with her left. This metaphor shows that Gilly’s anger is palpable.

The dialogue in the car between Miss Ellis and Gilly reveals expository information about Gilly’s life bouncing from foster home to foster home. During the conversation, Miss Ellis references Mrs. Richmond going to the hospital, and at that very moment, Gilly pops a bubble gum loudly in the car. This combination of details suggests Gilly’s indifference to Mrs. Richmond’s hospitalization. Miss Ellis also mentions the Dixon family who moved to Florida, and she says that it has just been bad luck that Gilly cannot find a suitable, long-term home. Miss Ellis seems to be trying her best, but Gilly resents her and expresses this by refusing to do what she says or getting revenge in her own sneaky way.

The author uses internal dialogue to explore Gilly’s perspective on the different families that she has lived with and how she felt about them. Gilly thinks of the Dixons, the Nevins, and the Newmans, and she compares the various families and thinks negatively of them all. Gilly’s anger toward these families that didn’t accept her hints at the pain under her anger. She remembers that one of the families, the Newmans, did not want her to stay with them because she was still wetting the bed at age 5. However, Gilly also thinks of herself as “Great” and “Gruesome” (3), and she quickly shifts her emotions from pain to a sense of pride in being difficult and disobedient. The author is implying that there is heartache underneath Gilly’s proud, brash facade.

The imagery of Maime Trotter’s home reveals a humble lifestyle. Before Gilly had even set foot in the house, she notes that the fence is not a white picket fence, but a “dirty white fence,” containing an old house with a porch that resembles “a potbelly” (3). The comparison of the porch to a potbelly is a metaphor that foreshadows Gilly’s derogatory remarks about Maime Trotter’s weight. Inside Maime Trotter’s home, Gilly notices right away that there is dust everywhere. In the living room, there is a “squat” brown couch, a chair with “slumped” arms, an old black-and-white television set, and a dusty piano bench (5). The imagery captures Gilly’s sense of disappointment that Maime Trotter is not rich and reveals a somewhat disheveled home.

Gilly also notices Maime Trotter’s happy smile, which she compares to a weight-loss before-and-after advertisement. This comparison builds up a defined idea of Maime Trotter’s personality by showing that she does not rely on her appearance to feel good about herself. Gilly’s judgmental nature is shown in her criticisms of Maime Trotter’s “awful smile” (7). She compares Trotter’s smile with her biological mother’s beautiful one and finds Maime Trotter inferior to her biological mother. This foreshadows the lesson Gilly will learn about not judging people by their appearances.

Gilly’s racist attitudes are revealed through her thoughts about Mr. Randolph, her teacher Miss Harris, and her classmates at school. She complains to Maime Trotter that she has never touched a Black person before. She holds Mr. Randolph’s elbow, but she does not want to hold his hand to help him walk. However, when Mr. Randolph almost falls, Gilly protects him from falling, revealing a humanist impulse that foreshadows how her prejudice will disappear over the course of the story as she becomes closer to Mr. Randolph.

Gilly is not as strong as she tries to act. In her new bedroom, she begins to feel deep sadness when she looks at her biological mother’s picture. The author uses internal dialogue to show that Gilly is deeply pained by not having her biological mother in her life. As Gilly admires her mother’s photo, she thinks about the word “mother” and realizes that just the word “triggered something deep in her stomach” (9). However, Gilly is guarded and does not allow herself to cry, promising herself that she will not dissolve “like hot Jell-O” (9). Gilly instead turns to feels anger and acting out. Gilly’s desire to create mayhem is especially strong at school. She is devoted to creating chaos. After being reprimanded by the principal, Gilly is emboldened by his kindness and feels “her powers returning” (25). This moment foreshadows that Gilly will put up all her defenses against the people she meets in Thompson Park.