The Wednesday Wars: November Summary & Analysis

November arrives with gray skies and rain. Holling and his dad prep the Perfect House for winter, and Holling's mother discovers a leak in the ceiling of the Perfect Living Room. When Holling's dad touches the ceiling to inspect it, part of the ceiling falls down on his face. Holling figures that all the rain is what inspires Mrs. Baker to assign The Tempest next, but he says that her plot to bore him failed spectacularly. The Tempest is almost as good as Treasure Island since it has storms, witches, revolutions, drunkenness, and a monster named Caliban. Holling figures that Mrs. Baker likely hasn't read it herself, because if she had, she'd never let him read it.

Holling is especially taken with Caliban's curses, which are fantastic. Holling decides to learn them all by heart, so he practices them in his bedroom every night after supper. By the second week of practicing, Holling feels he's perfected several curses. On Tuesday night, Holling's dad and mother knock on the door, but both leave when he say he's practicing a speech for Mrs. Baker. When Heather knocks on the door, Holling uses one of Caliban's curses on her. She throws the door open and tells him to be quiet. Holling decides to go to school early the next day so he can practice.

When Holling gets to the third floor the next day at school, he finds Mr. Vendleri holding a ladder with Mr. Guareschi on it, placing traps in the ceiling. As Mr. Guareschi sets the trap, it springs onto his fingers and he falls off the ladder, cursing. Holling suggests he try, "the red plague rid you!" or, "scurvy patch," but his suggestions are met with blank stares. Mr. Guareschi sends Holling to class and climbs back up the ladder.

Holling and Mrs. Baker listen to the rats scuttle in the ceiling for a moment, and Mrs. Baker swears Holling to secrecy. Holling sits at his desk and whispers curses into his lap. Mrs. Baker insists he share what he's been whispering, and finally, Holling admits that he was whispering, "strange stuff, the dropsy drown you." Mrs. Baker points out that the line doesn't appear that way in the play, and Holling admits he liked the rhythm of it. Mrs. Baker says that she does too and turns back to her grading. Holling is shocked that Mrs. Baker recognized the curses—this is proof she's read the play, which means her plot is quite devious.

Holling decides to slip Caliban curses more naturally into conversation. He curses at his sad lunch, Doug Swieteck's brother, and the smell of the boys' restroom. In Geography, Mr. Petrelli introduces a project called "The Mississippi River and You." Holling insists he's never been to the Mississippi, and when Mr. Petrelli asks if history has to center on Holling, Holling curses to himself. In Chorus, Miss Violet asks Holling to sing a soprano part. Holling curses at both Danny and Meryl Lee as he moves forward, and Meryl Lee takes great offense. She grabs Holling's arm and demands he repeat himself, but he sings as though his life depends on it. Finally, Miss Violet tells Meryl Lee that she didn't move Holling so she could flirt with him. Meryl Lee grinds her foot into the top of Holling's.

Holling's foot is very painful when he goes to Gym. As Coach Quatrini berates the students to run faster, Holling calls him a “pied ninny” under his breath. Doug Swieteck's brother hears and asks Holling what it means. Holling fumbles before saying that it means someone was stupid and ate a bunch of pies. Doug's brother thanks Holling and runs off.

In the afternoon, Mrs. Baker gives Holling a 150-question test on The Tempest. Holling listens to Sycorax and Caliban in the ceiling as he works and hands his test in with five minutes to spare. When he's finished, Mrs. Baker grades it. The first few questions are wrong, but after that, most are right. When she's finished grading, Mrs. Baker tells Holling to read the play again and review what he missed on the test. As he walks home, Holling thinks that despite this disappointment, he's had an okay Wednesday.

However, as Holling limps past Goldman's Best Bakery, he notices cream puffs in the window and remembers that he owes his class cream puffs. He decides to ask for an advance on his allowance. Holling feels he has a fighting chance when he learns his dad got the Baker Sporting Emporium contract. As his dad dances around the house, Holling asks—and his dad says no. That night, Holling dreams that Caliban is sitting on his bed and threatening him, so Holling decides that he'll stop by the bakery after school and see what he can do about getting cream puffs.

At Goldman's Best Bakery, Holling puts $2.45 on the counter and asks to buy 22 cream puffs. When Mr. Goldman reminds him he needs almost $3 more to buy that many cream puffs, Holling offers to work to make the additional money. Mr. Goldman says he can work himself, but he really needs a boy who knows Shakespeare. Holling is shocked and shares that he knows Shakespeare. Grandly, Holling recites some lines from The Tempest, and Mr. Goldman is thrilled. With this, Holling gets roped into being part of the Long Island Shakespeare Company's Holiday Extravaganza and gets 24 cream puffs for half price.

On Monday morning, Holling walks to school with a box of fresh cream puffs. Mrs. Baker says nothing, but she and the rest of the class look at the cream puffs all day. When lunch arrives, everyone eats quickly. Danny gets up and approaches the cream puffs, but Mrs. Baker insists that everyone must go outside for recess and come in early to eat the cream puffs. The class shuffles outside.

With seven minutes left in recess, everyone heads back inside. When they get to the door of the classroom, they stop: Sycorax and Caliban are in the cream puff box, covered in powdered sugar and vanilla filling. Mrs. Baker stops behind the class and screams Shakespearean curses, and the rats race into the radiators and back into the walls. Meryl Lee, Mai Thi, and Danny tell Holling he has ten days to get more cream puffs, and Mrs. Baker makes him clean up the mess.

The week before Thanksgiving is an awful week for Holling. His classmates whisper about him after the cream puff incident, and when he goes to pick up his script and costume for The Tempest, he learns he's going to play Ariel. Ariel is a fairy, and the costume includes yellow tights with white feathers in an unmentionable place. Holling tries to refuse the part, but Mr. Goldman insists. Later, when Holling tries to ask his dad for an advance on his allowance, his dad says that no son of his would ask for something so ridiculous.

The next day, when Holling complains to Meryl Lee that his dad is being a cheapskate, especially since he just got the Baker Sporting Emporium contract, she starts crying and runs away. To make matters worse, Mr. Guareschi comes into Mrs. Baker's room and asks what "pied ninny" means, since Doug Swieteck's brother is in his office after calling a teacher a pied ninny. On Wednesday, Holling's classmates are murderous when he brings in only five cream puffs. However, when the class returns from recess, there's a box from Goldman's Best Bakery filled with two dozen cream puffs. Mrs. Baker explains that Holling was playing a joke on everyone.

That afternoon, Mrs. Baker asks Holling if he thinks the ending of The Tempest is happy or not. Holling says it is, but when Mrs. Baker asks if Caliban deserves a happy ending, Holling declares he doesn't—he's a monster, so he must be defeated. Mrs. Baker wonders if it might've been possible for Caliban to get some sort of redemption, since he represents just how awful humans can be, and sometimes, that awful, defeated part can grow and become better. Holling says that defeat is just defeat; it doesn't help anyone grow. Mrs. Baker mentions that NASA is testing rockets months after losing three astronauts and puts her book away.

Holling thanks Mrs. Baker for the cream puffs, and she smiles at him. Suddenly, Mrs. Bigio enters the classroom. She leans on the doorway, trembling. Mrs. Baker asks if they found "him," and Mrs. Bigio nods and begins sobbing. Holling says he can't explain what it sounded like. Mrs. Baker embraces Mrs. Bigio and sends Holling home. The next day, Holling learns that Mrs. Bigio's husband died in Vietnam. Three weeks later, a photo of Mrs. Bigio accepting a flag at his funeral graces the front page of the Home Town Chronicle, and two days later, the paper runs a photo of the Catholic Relief Agency, where Mai Thi lives, with "GO HOME VIET CONG" spray-painted on it.

Holling explains the ending of The Tempest: everyone except for Caliban gets a happy ending, and everyone is forgiven. He says that Shakespeare is wrong, and sometimes there isn't someone like Prospero to fix things. Sometimes there is no mercy.