52 pages • 1 hour read
Polly HorvathEverything on a Waffle
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Power of Intuition
From the moment her parents disappear, Primrose possesses an unshakable inner awareness that they have survived the typhoon and await rescue together on an island. This uncanny recognition of a profound truth that defies common sense is sometimes called intuition or a deep knowing. So certain is Primrose that her parents are alive that she perceives the community’s memorial service for them as being pointless and skips it. Adults in Coal Harbour assume that the loss of her parents is more than Primrose can assimilate and that she is in denial. Miss Honeycut, acting as a counselor, speaks to her class when Primrose is not present and explains that Primrose’s reaction is one of the stages of grief and that, over time, she will begin to accept what has happened. Others in the community hint to Primrose that her parents will not return. One of the things Primrose likes about her Uncle Jack is that, though he does not believe her parents are alive, he never assails Primrose’s belief that they are.
For her part, in an effort to demonstrate that she is not in denial but rather in the know, Primrose questions those authority figures around her about the sort of knowledge she possesses. She asks them in various ways the key question of the narrative: “Haven’t you ever believed in something contrary to the evidence” (36).
The only one of the adults who flatly denies awareness of the phenomenon she describes is Miss Perfidy, who goes onto admit that she now has memories of things that did not happen, and Primrose realizes she does not remember things that actually did happen. In response to her question, Sheriff Peters describes helping to convict a man of a crime even though he believed deeply that the suspect was not guilty. Asked the pivotal question, Miss Honeycut rambles, then focuses and relates that she and her sister had a sort of mutual, unspoken awareness of the other’s thoughts, such that they could answer questions before the other asked them. Although Primrose has not asked him the question, Uncle Jack relates an experience in which he possessed the uncanny knowledge of how to proceed in a real estate sale that succeeded amazingly. The most pertinent, layered answer to Primrose’s question comes from Miss Bowzer. She relates the occasion from her childhood when she pleaded with her father, a whaler, not to sail out one day with his shipmates. That day, the ship sank, losing all aboard. In discussing it, Miss Bowzer notes that had she tried to warn the other sailors, no one would have taken her seriously since there was no hint of danger.
While almost every adult admits to experiencing moments of profound, irrational awareness, none accepts the possibility that Primrose does possess actual, deep knowledge that her parents are alive. This reality becomes clear when all the main characters are at the harbor when Primrose’s mom and dad arrive, and all express disbelief except Primrose.
The Challenges of Being Isolated
As compared to other middle-grade narratives, one thematic element that sets Everything on a Waffle apart is the near-total isolation experienced by the main character. Developmentally, mid-grade tweens famously break away from their emotional ties to their parents and instead place great importance on their relationships with their friends as they move from the elementary to secondary grades. The examples and judgments of their friends supplant the guidance of the parents for mid-grade youth. Primrose defeats this literary convention by having no best friend or cluster of close friends. Horvath only mentions the girls in her class as pursuing Primrose to harass her about not accepting her parents’ deaths. Her only interaction with the boys in her class comes when two of them volunteer to carry Herman the guinea pig home for her—not explaining that they were going to the gym attached to her house anyway.
The author tells readers nothing about Primrose’s relationships with other children before the typhoon. Following the disappearance of her parents, Primrose appears to become more and more isolated, which is not unusual after such a significant loss. She avoids the girls who torment her and ignores the boys, whom she finds disgusting. Primrose cannot establish meaningful communication with Miss Perfidy or Miss Honeycut despite her real efforts to do so. Uncle Jack, who does not listen to Primrose’s entreaties and who wants her to play indoor hockey with the boys—while she is on crutches—is never in touch with Primrose and her emotional needs. The fact that so many of Primrose’s conversations with adults center on their experiences with intuition indicates that the girl is looking to find someone who relates to her experience of having such a certain feeling about something. Like the literary heroes of many narratives, Primrose grows more isolated throughout the story before she ultimately prevails. Primrose has a single priority: to take her puppy Mallomar with her to the harbor each afternoon and await her parents’ return. The characters who are most accepting and supportive of Primrose, ironically, are Miss Bowzer, Evie, and Bert, none of whom knew her prior to the disappearance of her parents.
At the conclusion of the narrative, the protagonist—despite ridicule, persecution, and isolation—prevails. Horvath portrays Primrose as newly appreciative of Coal Harbour, basking in the community she has reacquired—though the author does not reveal how Primrose relates to her classmates after the return of her parents. The death of Miss Perfidy and the relocation of Miss Honeycut banish Primrose’s antagonists and end her isolation.
Everyone Has an Agenda
The characters Horvath introduces in the novel share several common qualities. For one, they are not stereotypical. The author uses no literary clichés in detailing the citizens of Coal Harbour. Each person is not unique and quirky: from Miss Bowzer, who chain smokes as she cooks the endless waffles that accompany every entrée in her café to the hapless student Spinky Caldwater, who escapes war-torn Cambodia only to endure adoption by a hyper-controlling stepmother to foster father Bert, who describes how much he likes conversation, though he never offers an original comment.
Another commonality shared by most of the characters is an intense personal agenda. Each citizen of Coal Harbour remains focused on one key individual priority. For each, whether they recognize it or not, their agenda is obvious. Miss Honeycut’s agenda, forcing Primrose into foster care or finding a family to adopt her, only intensifies when the desirable Uncle Jack appears. Miss Bowzer strives to slake the hunger of her community one waffle at a time. Uncle Jack is intent on transforming Coal Harbor into a tourist attraction. Miss Perfidy’s cause is the restoration of the community’s lost sense of etiquette and respect.
Each of these agendas is entrenched and unyielding. Until the Squarps sail back into the harbor, there are no awakening moments, no admissions of new insights. Everyone is set in their way. Horvath reveals that not only does everyone have an agenda, but also, no one is listening to the comments and insights of others. Primrose’s question about possessing deep knowledge strikes a chord with virtually everyone she asks, though that reality has no impact on those who admit that there are truths beyond their assumptions.
The person who expresses this truth and explains the importance of it is Primrose. She describes for Jack the incident in which her neighbor, Lena, became so obsessed with making 12 perfectly boiled potatoes that she ignored the dozens of different, wonderful cookies she knew how to bake. This obsession led Lena to an emotional break. Primrose tells Jack: “That whole sad day of the boiled potatoes could have been avoided had my mother just taken my timely advice and told Lena to enter the cookie contest instead” (45). When Uncle Jack does not grasp Primrose’s meaning, she reminds him that he has ignored her “timely advice” as well. Horvath demonstrates throughout that Primrose’s isolation comes from the inattentiveness of others to what she tries to express. Indeed, Primrose’s isolation is endemic to the entire community: Everyone in Coal Harbour is so caught up in their agendas that no one is listening to anyone else.
