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Chapter 9
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Growing Up
Adventure, Mystery, and Secrets
Family
Independence, Capability, and Creativity
Art, Beauty, and Wonder
Summary
Analysis
That night, Jamie and Mrs. Frankweiler play cards while Claudia records their story into the tape recorder. (Jamie wins.) Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid call (Saxonberg apparently told them the children were here). It’s all Mrs. Frankweiler can do to convince them to let the children spend the night; Mrs. Kincaid keeps asking questions about the children’s condition, and Mrs. Frankweiler figures she’s read too many newspaper stories about lost children. While Jamie takes a turn recording his part of the story, Mrs. Frankweiler gives Claudia a tour of the house, and they have a pleasant talk.
The Kincaids’ parents are brought into the loop at last, connecting back to the beginning of the story when running away was Claudia’s biggest concern. Mrs. Frankweiler’s remark about Mrs. Kincaid’s fears is arguably a bit insensitive, but it suggests that at the time the book is set (the 1960s), it was more common kids to have some level of independence from their parents. The kids’ recorded account presumably becomes the basis of Mrs. Frankweiler’s written account.
Active
Themes
Early the next morning, Sheldon drives the kids home to Greenwich. Mrs. Frankweiler encloses a copy of Sheldon’s report for Saxonberg’s amusement. Sheldon reports that Jamie spent the first part of the drive pressing every button in the Rolls-Royce’s backseat. At one point he presses the button for the intercom, which lets Sheldon hear the kids’ conversation. They mostly speculate about why Mrs. Frankweiler sold Angel in the first place. Claudia figures she did it because she wanted people to know she had a secret.
As they finally journey home, Jamie’s madcap button-pushing provides a pretext for Sheldon hearing and sharing the kids’ conversation. Even though the kids have now met their goal of learning Angel’s story, some things—like Mrs. Frankweiler’s motivations—remain a mystery.
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Themes
The kids plan to pool their money (Jamie won 34 cents at cards last night; Claudia has cornflake money coming) to visit Mrs. Frankweiler again. After thinking a bit, Claudia wonders if Mrs. Frankweiler meant what she said about motherhood. Jamie doesn’t know, but he thinks they should visit her every time they save up enough money—it can be a secret. Claudia adds that they can “adopt” her—they don’t have a living grandmother, after all. That way, Mrs. Frankweiler can become “the only woman in the world to become a grandmother [without] becoming a mother first.”
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Themes
Sheldon delivers the children to their address in Greenwich. He sees a man and woman waiting by the window, and he thinks he sees Saxonberg as well. A younger boy (Kevin) rushes out of the house as the kids get out of the car. In closing, Sheldon notes that the children failed to thank him.
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Mrs. Frankweiler tells Saxonberg that this is why she’s leaving the angel sketch to “your two lost grandchildren that you were so worried about.” Since Saxonberg is already their grandfather, and she’s going to become their adopted grandmother, that makes the two of them—well, Mrs. Frankweiler doesn’t want to think about it.
Mrs. Frankweiler tells Saxonberg to rewrite her will with a clause about the drawing. She figures she should probably donate her bed to the Metropolitan as well. She doesn’t really like donating things—after all, everyone gets the things after she’s dead. She will sign the will at the museum restaurant; Saxonberg must take her there. Sheldon and Parks will serve as witnesses.
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Themes
Mrs. Frankweiler wonders if Claudia and Jamie will come to visit her again. She wouldn’t mind that, and she’s also got an “edge”—the secret that Saxonberg, their grandfather, has been her lawyer for 41 years.
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Themes
Mrs. Frankweiler heard on the radio that the New York City Parks budget has been cut because of the need for extra security at the Metropolitan. Mrs. Frankweiler has Sheldon talk to his friend Morris the guard to find out what’s going on. Morris reports that a violin case was discovered in a sarcophagus, followed by a trumpet case two days later. The cases are full of gray laundry and a transistor radio. These items are sitting in the museum’s Lost and Found, and nobody has claimed them.
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