49 pages • 1 hour read
Julie Andrews EdwardsThe Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1974A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
The Umbrella
The umbrella symbolizes creative thinking, as Savant uses his imagination to turn the common object into something that has diverse usages. The first usage is unsurprising. Rain falls at the zoo, and Savant opens his umbrella to keep himself and the children dry. For Savant, however, the umbrella already serves another purpose. Lindy compliments the big yellow butterflies on the umbrella, and Savant replies, “I bought it because it’s cheery and it makes people look up” (11). The umbrella serves as a teaching tool, reflecting Savant’s belief that most people are devoid of wonder and imagination and seeking to remedy this.
In Whangdoodleland, a world premised on imagination, the varied benefits of the umbrella become clear. To rescue Lindy from the Splintercat, Savant, Tom, and Ben must board the speedy Brainstrain. Savant uses the umbrella to get himself on the train and to pick up Tom, who had fallen off. After rescuing Lindy, the umbrella becomes a form of shelter, with Savant using it as a makeshift roof when the group spends the night outside. Later, Savant weaponizes the umbrella, using it to hit the Gyascutus so that the children have more time to cross the bridge and reach the palace. The umbrella thus becomes instrumental in the group’s success, demonstrating The Value of Developing and Maintaining Imagination.
Scrappy Caps
Savant introduces the sympathetic hats—scrappy caps—in Part 2, Chapter 1, telling the children, “I think that the time has come to start a new phase of your lessons. I think you are ready to try the sympathetic hats.” He adds, “A scrappy cap is a covering worn on the head, which is sympathetic to the brain’s impulses and desires” (74-75). According to Savant, to travel to and from Whangdoodleland, the children must wear their caps. As the professor has already expertly trained himself, he doesn’t need a scrappy cap.
Later, in the Whangdoodle’s palace, Savant reveals that the scrappy caps don’t have the power to take the children to and from Whangdoodleland. He tells the Prock, “They are just a device…something for the children to believe in…to help them bridge the gap” (248). Though Savant’s tone implies an admission, the scrappy caps were a symbol of belief all along. Savant only gave the children the caps after he had trained them: They were “ready” for the caps because they had developed their minds and imaginations and believed in themselves. Without that belief, the caps would have been useless.
At the palace, however, Savant has stopped believing in himself. First, he can’t cross the bridge, and then he says creating a female Whangdoodle is impossible. Though Savant claims the scrappy cap is superficial, the Prock urges him to put it on, and after Savant does, “[t]houghts and ideas [flood] into his mind” (251). As with the children, Savant already possesses the thoughts and ideas, but the cap reminds him that he has the intellect to help the Whangdoodle. The materiality of the scrappy cap restores Savant’s belief in himself.
The Five Senses
The motif of the five senses supports the theme of developing and maintaining imagination. Imagination doesn’t exist in a vacuum but develops through learning how to look, listen, smell, touch, and taste. To build the imaginations of the Potter children, Savant first teaches them how to look. On his property, he asks them to tell him the colors they see, and they do, but they miss many colors. Later, he teaches them how to smell, getting Lindy and Tom to smell a toasted marshmallow that isn’t materially present. Without powerful senses, their imaginations remain lackluster, and they lack the acumen to navigate and survive Whangdoodleland. To rescue Lindy, for example, Savant, Tom, and Ben must look and listen. Savant sees her $0.25, Ben sees the Splintercat’s paw print, and Tom hears Lindy singing, and they put together these clues using their imagination.
The motif also underlines the theme of Embracing Knowledge and Hard Work. Enhancing the senses is similar to learning, as both require concentration and effort. Savant teaches the children how to look, listen, and so on with the same deliberation that he teaches them about genetics. Moreover, just as learning is a constant process, so is preserving acute senses. At the palace, an exhausted Savant can’t see the bridge. He also loses touch with his knowledge and can’t create another Whangdoodle. Lindy pushes Savant to cross the bridge, and the scrappy cap reminds Savant that he can make a partner for the Whangdoodle. Once he focuses on them again, Savant’s senses and brilliance return.
