In A Glass Grimmly

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2012

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-8

Chapters 9-12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 4-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary: “The Giant Killer”

Jack and Jill climb the beanstalk into the clouds, where they find a land of giants. The giants offer a challenge of bravery for the children to become part of their band. The giants seem friendly, and wanting to be accepted and brave, Jack agrees even though they’ll kill him if he fails. The first challenge is boulder throwing. Jack can’t lift even one of the massive boulders and disappoints the giants. Before they kill him for failing, he convinces them to give him another chance. The giants are friendly again, and Jack is sure he’ll impress them. The second challenge is to break tree trunks, and Jack fails again.

The giants will kill Jack and eat him for dessert. At dinner, the giants challenge one another to an eating contest, which gives Jill an idea. She ties her blanket around herself and participates in the contest, pouring the food into her blanket so it looks like her stomach is getting big from the food. After all the giants throw up, they say Jill must have cheated. Jill challenges them to show off the food in their bellies and uses a knife to slice open her shirt so all the food pours out. The giants do the same, slicing into their actual stomachs and then dying.

The only remaining giant is a servant who congratulates Jill on her cleverness. The servant heard that the Seeing Glass was in a deep pit, so he sends the children to ask the goblins but warns them to be careful. Outside, Jack grows angrier and angrier about the giants teasing him. He runs ahead, and Jill gives chase until they reach a place where they fall out of the sky. They land and roll down a hill. Jill is fine, but Jack doesn’t move; there is “blood pooling in the green grass under his head” (110).

Chapter 5 Summary: “Where You’ll Never Cry No More”

Jill takes the injured Jack to a nearby village, where she gets them rooms in an inn in exchange for work. That night, one man tells a story of a girl lured to the sea by a mermaid’s song. She disappeared, never to be seen again. Later, Jill hears a voice singing about the place where she’ll never cry again and will be seen for who she is. The next day, Jack is a little better and Jill works all day. She hears the singing again at night and goes to the harbor, where a mermaid rises from the water. Jill and the mermaid talk all night. Before dawn, the mermaid makes Jill promise not to tell the villagers about her because one of them would harm her.

The next night, the mermaid tells of a girl from the village who wanted to join the mermaids after her mother died. When she did, the girl’s father caught and killed all the mermaids but one. Jill realizes the man who told the story is this man, and she swears she’ll keep him from hurting the mermaid. The mermaid expresses her gratitude and rises from the water to kiss Jill’s cheek, bringing a wave that drags Jill under. The mermaid’s sisters are there, and together, they pull Jill down toward the body of the man’s drowned daughter. A net comes down through the water, passing through the mermaids but catching Jill. From above, the man pulls Jill to safety, murmuring, “This time, I got ya” (141).

Chapter 6 Summary: “The Gray Valley”

After walking a long way, the children and the frog collapse from exhaustion, and the frog tells the story of how he came to talk. Three talking ravens arrive, claiming they know many things. When the children ask if they know the location of the Seeing Glass, the ravens say they do but won’t tell “because the Seeing Glass […] is not really what you seek” (152).

The ravens explain the children are “[n]ot confused. [They] are con-fused,” meaning they put their self-worth in the beliefs and opinions of others. Neither child understands what the ravens mean, but before they can ask for clarification, the ravens leave.

Chapter 7 Summary: “Goblin Market”

The Goblin Market is the grandest and most magical place Jack and Jill have ever seen. The children get separated, and Jill finds herself in a fruit market, where many goblins press around her and urge her to eat their fruit. Jill tries to fight them off, but there are too many. Finally, one shoves an apple in her mouth. Jill accidentally bites it and collapses. Jack tries to save her, but he doesn’t get there before the goblins carry the unconscious Jill deep underground.

Jack follows the goblins into the earth, where he finds a hidden market. He is mesmerized by a sword and tests the weapon, finding it perfect for him. The sword is magic and will give Jack everything he wants, but the cost is his left hand. Jack agrees, and the vendor tells him to cut off his hand. Jack hesitates as the frog tells him this is a terrible idea, and then “[t]he blade began to sing” (179).

Chapter 8 Summary: “Death or the Lady”

While she’s unconscious, the goblins apply makeup to Jill’s face and dress her in a lavish gown. When she wakes, she is gagged and bound to a throne, where goblins approach and tell her how beautiful she is. At first, she enjoys this, believing she’s finally getting what she’s always wanted. However, after a while, she’s bored and uncomfortable, and even though the goblins tell her she’s beautiful, “she did not like it at all” (187).

Finally, one goblin begs Jill to take him as her husband. A casket is brought forth with two slips of paper—one for “the lady” and one for “death.” The goblin will get whichever paper he chooses. He selects “death” and is killed. Every goblin who asks to marry Jill after that also selects “death,” so Jill wonders about the fairness of the test.

Meanwhile, Jack does not cut off his hand and instead concludes that he doesn’t want or need the approval of others. He retraces his steps to find Jill until he goes to her throne prison and declares his intention to marry her. When the casket is brought out, he takes a paper and eats it. The remaining paper says “death,” and Jack takes this to mean he chose “the lady.” He frees Jill from her bonds, and the goblins surround them, weapons drawn.

Chapters 4-8 Analysis

Chapter 4 continues Gidwitz’s retelling of “Jack and the Beanstalk” and departs from the original tale. Instead of finding a castle and a family of giants to steal from, Jack is drawn in by the band of giants because they represent a bigger and better version of the village boys. Jack wants to believe that being accepted by the giants means he is better than the village boys, so he participates in the giants’ challenges even though he knows he cannot possibly accomplish them. Jack’s failure is inevitable because he still searches outside himself for something that can only be found within. Jill’s cleverness in the latter half of the chapter shows how the children work together to help each other. Jill does not feel threatened by what the giants represent, so she can see their behavior for what it is—empty boasting. The giants are obsessed with showing how great they are, and Jill uses this to her advantage by offering a challenge they can’t refuse—a chance to show how much better they are at eating than a waiflike girl. Jill’s cleverness frees her and Jack from the giants and shows she can think more clearly when her insecurities are not triggered.

Chapter 5 reverses the character struggles from Chapter 4. Jill feels insecure, but Jack uses cleverness and wit to save her. The mermaid and her song represent temptation and the lure of perfection. To Jill, the mermaid is everything she wants to be—beautiful, admired, and confident. The song promises Jill a life without tears and a place to be seen as she is, things she desperately yearns for after having been ignored by her mother. Jill is vulnerable to the mermaid’s lies because she wants to believe them and struggles with The Importance of Self-Trust. Jill becomes obsessed with what she thinks she wants. She pulls away from those who truly care about her, puts herself in danger, and acts like she wouldn’t normally, such as harming the fisherman. Jill’s near drowning represents how she almost gives in to lies. The net passing through the mermaids shows how insecurities and lies cannot be caught and stopped. Instead, with some help, Jill pulls herself free of the insecurities (mermaids) that trap her and up from the depths of her self-loathing. Jill’s character arc is far from over, but this first step in her journey sets her up for more growth once the goblins capture her.

Chapters 7 and 8 take place at the Goblin Market, which Gidwitz partially borrows from Christina Rossetti’s poem of the same name. In the poem, two sisters are tempted by the market’s fruit, much as Jill is in Chapter 7. More broadly, the market is a metaphor for temptation and decisions. The fruit draws Jill because the goblins promise it will make them love her. Similarly, Jack is tempted by the sword because the goblins promise it will make him feared and respected. Jack initially thinks giving up his hand is a small price to pay for everything he’s always wanted, but when faced with actually chopping his hand off, he realizes what he would be giving up for something he doesn’t truly want. Jack’s progress with The Importance of Self-Trust here allows him to save Jill and outsmart the goblin challenge in Chapter 8. Similarly, Jill realizes The Difference Between Wish and Want in Chapter 8. At first, she is swayed by the goblins’ words about her beauty, but the more she hears them, the more she realizes they are fake. The goblins tell her what she wants to hear, but they are insincere. Jill realizes that being told she is beautiful matters less than finding her own inner beauty.

Chapter 6 is a transitional chapter that explores how What We Seek Is Inside Us. The three ravens appear in all three books of Gidwitz’s series, and they represent the voices of reason, as well as the past, present, and future. Here, the birds offer insight both to the reader and the characters. For the reader, the ravens are a sign that the characters will figure out their troubles and realize what they truly want. For the characters, the birds are a hint along the journey. The idea of “con-fusion” aligns with how What We Seek Is Inside Us. Jack lacks self-confidence, and Jill can’t acknowledge that she is beautiful and strong in her own way. Both still seek validation from others, but the ravens’ wisdom sets them on the path to understanding who they are. The ravens’ proclamation that the children don’t truly seek the Seeing Glass foreshadows that they’ll figure out what they do seek. The external quest is for the glass, but it holds no mythical ability to bring the children what they want, either on its own or through dealing with the Others. Instead, the glass ultimately allows the children to look at themselves for who they are, something they truly do not need the glass to do.