Pollyanna

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1913

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-11

Chapters 12-22

Chapters 23-32

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Motor Car

The motor car that runs Pollyanna over is driven by an anonymous person and is the first vehicle of its kind mentioned in the novel. Prior to this, all the named characters, such as Miss Polly and Dr. Chilton rely on the more old-fashioned transport of horses and buggies for transport, while Pollyanna’s cross-country journey was covered by railroads. The motor car is thus an incongruous symbol of modernity in old-fashioned, Beldingsville, a place contained from outside influence. The end of 1913, the year of Pollyanna’s publication, was when Henry Ford invented the assembly line that enabled the Model T car to be mass produced, thus making his product more accessible. Prior to this, motor cars were a relatively rare sighting in small towns.

The anonymity of the vehicle, in addition to Pollyanna’s inability to judge its speed as “hurrying home from school” she “crossed the road at an apparently safe distance” before the “swiftly approaching motor car”, highlights the depersonalized, alien nature of the attack (161). It also shows that Pollyanna’s optimism means that she does not give this unfamiliar vehicle an extra margin of caution as she considers whether she can cross the road. Here, a pessimist might have let the car go past before crossing and escaped unscathed. However, the mystery around the accident, where it is emphasized that “no one” can explain what happened or who was to blame, reinforces the aversion to imply that Pollyanna’s optimism was behind the collision (161). Instead, by insisting that it was indeed an accident, the blame is laid on circumstances, almost as though there was a misunderstanding between Pollyanna’s hypothesis that it was safe to cross and the speed of the vehicle. While Pollyanna must endure the consequences, the message is that such things happen, just as misfortunes in love or sickness do, and that people must find ways of coping regardless.

The Glad Game

The glad game is a crucial motif in the novel. Although it begins with the often-told incident of when Pollyanna received crutches instead of a doll in a missionary aid donation box and learned to be grateful that she did not need the crutches, its author, the Reverend Whittier arguably lived by its principles before he introduced his daughter to the game. While he set upon a utopian future as an evangelical preacher with Jennie, the woman he loved, he met obstacles to his joy and idealism. These included the death of his children in infancy, followed by the death of his wife, the pressures of being a minister and finally the sickness that led to his own demise. He used to tell Pollyanna that “he wouldn’t STAY a minister a minute if ‘twasnt for the rejoicing texts” (154). The minister’s focus on the texts that encourage optimism and joy is arguably the precursor of the glad game, as it requires adopting a different perspective of the situation at hand.

Pollyanna, who inherits the glad game and plays it as a means of remaining close to her father, tells bedbound Mrs. Snow that the glad game is “all the more fun […] when ‘tis hard” (68). Her proposition that Mrs. Snow can be glad that others are not sick like her, makes Mrs. Snow understandably indignant. While Pollyanna senses that she has not entirely satisfied her new friend, it is not until she loses the use of her legs herself that she understands that not all circumstances are equal and that some make it especially hard to be glad. She finds that she must take her own advice and find joy vicariously through others, in addition to following Mrs. Snow’s example and making use of her hands and arms as she engages in knitting projects. Thus, as Mrs. Snow was inspired by Pollyanna to be cheerful and as active as she can, Pollyanna was inspired by Mrs. Snow to take up an activity, as both encourage each other to play the glad game as best they can. While Pollyanna introduced the game to the community, she finds that the community are the ones who help her to play when it is difficult.

Even when it appears that Pollyanna will meet a sad ending, Porter shows how the glad game proves revolutionary in the village of Beldingsville, as the villagers begin to see themselves and each other with a renewed outlook.

The Mansion House on the Hill

The two wealthiest residences in Beldingsville, belonging to Miss Harrington and Mr. Pendleton are both large, many-roomed houses that are set apart from the others by each being on a hill. The grand, imposing nature of each house, in addition to the lofty, removed hill setting is symbolic of the high social status of the owners, in addition to their social and emotional distance from the common folk who live in more accessible parts of town. To reinforce their distinction, the Harrington parents wanted their eldest daughter Jennie to marry Pendleton and live in a house that is the mirror image of their own. Instead, she does the opposite and ventures Westward into an unpredictable life of poverty.

Twenty-five years later, by the time of the novel’s main action, Jennie’s younger sister Polly is the one who remains in the hilltop homestead. When Old Tom’s introduction of the notion that stern, closed-off Aunt Polly had a lover coincides with Pollyanna and Mr. Pendleton’s friendship, a new rumor takes root. Nancy and Pollyanna, who are ignorant of Mr. Pendleton’s passion for Jennie, match him with Miss Polly, considering the hilltop home and solitary, taciturn nature of both. Both the owners of these enormous houses, filled with mysterious rooms and old-fashioned collectors’ items gain an aura of mystery, due to the owners’ lack of willingness to open them up and invite people. This in turn gives the impression that they are both harboring a secret and an easy solution to this mystery would be a secret passion for each other. However, the novel’s ethos aligns with social change, and the hilltop owners will not move to reinforce the status quo by uniting. Instead, Mr. Pendleton will offer a home to unwanted orphan Jimmy Bean, while Miss Polly marries boarding house dweller Dr. Chilton and opens her home to all who pay respects to Pollyanna. The alternative use of the big houses means that by the end of the novel the characters have moved from an aristocratic set up to a more egalitarian one.