The View From Saturday

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1996

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Teamwork, Friendship, and Making Critical Choices

Throughout The View From Saturday, the theme of teamwork follows several different threads, both literal and figurative. Literal teamwork is needed for The Souls to compete in the Academic Bowl. Nadia, Margaret, Izzy, Ethan, and the turtle wardens work together as a team in all weather conditions to help another species have a chance of a successful future. This teamwork becomes a symbol for Nadia, who eventually recognizes that her family are also working toward a common goal, trying to figure out the future as best they can as a team.

The journeys each member of The Souls (and Mrs. Olinski) take prior to the competition also involve teamwork within friendships that mold each member into the kind, respectful humans capable of achieving greatness. Noah’s character is creative and smart, but he is so full of facts that he often doesn’t stop to consider the big picture. During his visit with his grandparents in Florida, Noah helps tirelessly with the wedding preparations and finds that his kindness and help are reciprocated and amplified in collaboration with others—one resident teaches him calligraphy and gifts him a calligraphy set, and another helps him paint. Noah discovers that through collective kindness, teamwork generates bigger and longer-lasting rewards than individual efforts, exemplified by the snowball effect following Noah’s choice to give away his gifts at the wedding. The residents applaud him and follow his lead, offering gifts of their own.

Nadia has a harder time committing to “teamwork” during her visit with her father, grandfather, and new step-grandmother. Her perspective is clouded by hurt and confusion about where she stands within her family. However, when Nadia steps back and understands that working as a team is the only way to save the turtles during the storm, she puts her own pain aside and joins Margaret’s team, despite being furious with her. Choosing teamwork and embracing the friendship offered by Ethan and the rest of the group frees Nadia from the self-fulfilling path of resentment, and she’s able to see the complexity of her parents’ divorce from a totally different perspective. Nadia (and her father) learns that teamwork, understanding, and kindness is the only way to move forward and adapt to their new normal.

Within Ethan and Julian’s arcs, both positive and negative forms of teamwork are demonstrated. The homeroom bullies band together as a group, ambushing Julian as he walks to the classroom and vandalizing his bag. The bullies also encourage each other to humiliate Mrs. Olinski, presenting the negative side of destructive “teamwork.” When Ethan chooses to help Julian, Julian sees the potential of friendship with Ethan—even though Ethan has actively discouraged this since the first day of school. Julian has a keen sense of observation but does not let the constant harassment get to him. Instead, he focuses on identifying fellow students in whom he sees good (Nadia, Noah, and Ethan) and invites them to his house, choosing to let them into his world with the hope and expectation that friendship will flourish. Julian forms the team that becomes The Souls, and through their mutual respect and friendship, they become an unbeatable force. Mrs. Olinski marvels at their “obvious pleasure in one another's company […] four sixth graders who listened to one another sympathetically, unselfishly […] they are courteous” (125), noticing characteristics essential for effective teamwork. Unbeknownst to her, The Souls had already included her in their “team.” Konigsburg’s plot implies that there is greater power in both teamwork and friendship when it is rooted in kindness and respect. Julian’s bullies are stronger and more formidable as a group, but they are immediately neutralized by The Souls’ friendship and teamwork.

Throughout the story, Konigsburg posits that both teamwork and friendship require making individual critical choices but nuances the concept by suggesting that her characters’ choices are interconnected—dependent on each other for their ultimate fate. The novel opens with a discussion of Mrs. Olinski’s reasons for choosing the members of her Academic Bowl team, with particular emphasis on her choice of Julian as the fourth team member. The uncertainty that Mrs. Olinski has over this selection, and the close call when she almost chooses Ham Knapp, introduces narrative tension and highlights the importance of her choice. However, Ethan’s choice to defend Julian against his bullies, Nadia’s choice to accept Ethan’s friendship, and Julian’s choice to invite The Souls to Sillington house were arguably equally important to the formation of The Souls. The final chapter reveals that the choice had already been made for her by The Souls, already assembled at Sillington house, and they were simply waiting for Mrs. Olinski to join them. After they have won the competition, in the calm of Sillington house, Mrs. Olinski asks The Souls, “Did I choose you, or did you choose me?” and the souls answer, “Yes!” (160).

Respecting and Understanding Differences

The View From Saturday includes characters from different generations, from marginalized racial and religious backgrounds, and with physical abilities who encounter ignorance and bigotry as a result of their “differences.” The racist and ableist comments made by Dr. Rohmer about diversity provide a stark contrast to the respect and understanding exemplified by Mrs. Olinski and The Souls. Dr. Rohmer believes he knows best because he has “completed a three-day workshop on multiculturalism for ed-you-kay-toars” (22); however, the ignorance he exhibits implies that he hasn’t done the actual work of cultivating empathy, respect, and understanding in his perspective. His superior attitude (despite having his facts wrong) reveals his intrenched bigotry. At Epiphany Middle School, Julian experiences discrimination for his skin color, his British accent, and his polite manner. The lack of curiosity and ignorance of students like Ham Knapp and the other bullies who belittle and degrade Julian make them feel threatened by Julian’s differences. Rather than treating him with respect and understanding, they try (unsuccessfully) to break him. Ethan shows Julian respect and is rewarded with an invitation to Sillington house, which transforms Ethan’s school experience. Julian shows everyone respect, even the bullies, and eventually Julian’s quiet perseverance in remaining true to himself wins him the respect of the school as The Souls take Epiphany to victory at the Academic Bowl. However, writing Julian—the only child of color among The Souls—so wholly without reproach even in the face of overt cruelty and mistreatment arguably denies him the same measure of complexity, interiority, and growth that the other characters are given and positions him squarely within the model minority trope.

While Nadia is proud of difference in herself, she is initially intolerant of it in Margaret, a conflict that forms the foundation for her arc—in learning to respect and understand difference, she also learns to accept and embrace change, another central theme of the novel. In Nadia’s arc, Konigsburg suggests, the two are inextricably linked. Nadia proudly tells Ethan of her mixed-breed dog, Ginger, whom she feels is representative of her own hybrid status: “Half-Jewish; half-Protestant” (36). Ethan’s positive response exemplifies respect and understanding, highlighting his intelligence and open-mindedness and allowing Nadia to trust him and change her initial reaction to him. However, Nadia is not willing to embrace the differences she sees in Margaret and constantly compares her negatively to her late grandmother, Bubbe. Nadia describes Margaret as a typical blond, Florida widow who “dresses atrociously.” She mocks Margaret’s healthy appetite and enjoyment of “Entenmann’s and Oreos” (39). However, unlike Dr. Rohmer and Ham, Nadia’s unwillingness to try and understand Margaret comes from a place of hurt feelings and not deep-seated bigotry. Once Nadia understands her own feelings and reassess her situation, she embraces Margaret and appreciates how happy Margaret makes her grandfather, completing her arc.

The benefits of intergenerational relationships are explored throughout the narrative. Ethan, Nadia, and Noah all learn and grow from interactions with their grandparents, and all four Souls benefit from knowing Mrs. Olinski. In turn, Mrs. Olinski is willing to learn from her sixth graders despite their youth, and The Souls help Mrs. Olinski gain back her confidence and joy of teaching. Each relationship in the narrative is enhanced by and benefits from a respect for and an understanding of the experiences and characteristics that make them different. The Souls’ ultimate victory at the Academic Bowl symbolizes the triumph that respect and understanding can enable, but Konigsburg emphasizes that The Souls’ true victory is their lasting friendships.

Accepting and Embracing Change

Nadia’s character arc centers on learning to accept and embrace change, but not without first moving through her own grief and sense of confusion over the circumstances that necessitated it. Change is difficult, especially when it involves major life transitions during the teenage years. Nadia’s parents’ divorce before she begins sixth grade, and her mother moves from Florida to New York. Nadia is angry about the divorce and the upheaval in her life. Needing somewhere to focus her anger and resentment, her main targets become her father and Margaret. As Nadia dwells on her feelings of displacement, she becomes more withdrawn, making it harder for her father to connect with her. Nadia interprets his attention negatively, saying, “[H]overing at low altitudes seems to be my father’s new best thing” (27). Nadia’s feelings of isolation and insignificance are compounded when she discovers that Ethan knows more about the details of her parents’ divorce than she does and that Ethan’s grandmother helped Nadia’s mother find a job in New York—which Nadia sees as Margaret “interfering.” Nadia despises Margaret for marrying her grandfather and “moving” her mother away from Florida. Nadia even resents Margaret “moving” the turtles:

Margaret Diamondstein […] helped [her] mother move to New York. She moved turtles from one nest to another. She moved Grandpa Izzy out of Century Village […]. Margaret Diamondstein […] was an interfering person. [Nadia] did not need Margaret interfering with [her] life (47).

Nadia’s resentment toward both Margaret and her father is an attempt to regain some sense of control in her life and emotions in the midst of major change. It takes a near tragedy with the turtle hatchlings to help Nadia recognize her own grief and shift her perspective. When her father gently compares their situation to the turtles’ lifecycle, Nadia suddenly sees things objectively. Her anger lifts, and from this new, accepting perspective, Nadia understands that this tumultuous time will pass. Nadia is finally able to see the good in Margaret and understands that her father needs her kindness and support as much as she needs his.

Mrs. Olinski also experienced a tragic life-changing event, the car crash that completely altered the course of her life. Like Nadia, Mrs. Olinski is still processing her grief and the dramatic changes in her circumstances. In Mrs. Olinski’s case, the changes are permanent. She has come to terms with being a paraplegic and made the brave decision to return to teaching. However, students have also changed over the years she was absent, and some are openly rude and hurtful, making her question her decision to return to teaching and deepening the bitterness she feels about her situation. Mrs. Olinski has not only lost the ability to walk, but she also lost the ability to have children—both painful losses that require time and care to grieve. When Mrs. Olinski sees her old friends greet their grandchildren, she is so overcome with jealousy that she feels nothing but anger and resentment. It takes Mr. Singh’s calming manner and a soothing, ritualistic cup of tea to start her on a journey toward acceptance. The Souls help Mrs. Olinski overcome her grief-induced insecurities and boost her confidence as a teacher, and Mr. Singh helps her to see life as a journey in which every moment moving forward—“every cupful”—is to be relished, even something as simple as taking time for a cup of tea.

Konigsburg begins Julian’s narrative with a stark contrast between his former life and the life he is beginning in Epiphany—moving from a place where he experienced acceptance and kindness on the cruise ships to a place of relentless “spite and malice” from the students of Epiphany (157). Unlike Nadia and Mrs. Olinski, Julian accepts everything that happens to him with unfailing dignity and cheerfulness. He’s able to accept change as a part of life. Julian’s remarkable objectivity, positivity, and patience allow him to ride out negative experiences without seeking revenge or getting sucked into depression. Instead, Julian finds a way to change the negative situation using kindness. However, by positioning Julian as the only central character that doesn’t experience internal change in their arc, Konigsburg makes him less of a fully realized character and more of an idealized example to follow.