The Wednesday Wars

by

Gary Schmidt

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Wednesday Wars makes teaching easy.
Need another quote?
Need analysis on another quote?
Need analysis for a quote we don't cover?
Need analysis for a quote we don't cover?
Need analysis for a quote we don't cover?
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
Request it
Request it
Request analysis
Request analysis
Request analysis
September Quotes

How do parents get to where they can say things like this? There must be some gene that switches on at the birth of the firstborn child, and suddenly stuff like that starts to come out of their mouths.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Holling's Dad, Holling's Mother
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:

"So, Holling, what did you do that might make Mrs. Baker hate your guts, which will make other Baker family members hate the name of Hoodhood, which will lead the Baker Sporting Emporium to choose another architect, which will kill the deal for Hoodhood and Associates […]”

Related Characters: Holling's Dad (speaker), Holling Hoodhood, Mrs. Baker
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
November Quotes

I was amazed that Mrs. Baker was letting me read this. It's got to be censored all over the place. I figured that she hadn't read it herself, otherwise she would never have let me at it.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:

"Must all history center around your own personal experience, Hoodhood?" Mr. Petrelli asked.

Related Characters: Mr. Petrelli (speaker), Holling Hoodhood
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:

Everyone—except for Caliban—is happy, and everyone is forgiven, and everyone is fine, and they all sail away on calm seas. Happy endings.

That's how it is in Shakespeare.

But Shakespeare was wrong.

Sometimes there isn't a Prospero to make everything fine again.

And sometimes the quality of mercy is strained.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Bigio, Mai Thi
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:
December Quotes

I guess it didn't matter to them that the Bing Crosby Christmas Special was on television tonight, the way it mattered to my parents, who would never, ever miss it. I guess the Hupfers thought that a Shakespeare debut was a whole lot more important than hearing "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" one more time—even though Mr. Hupfer was loosening his tie and holding his hand over a yawn.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Danny Hupfer, Holling's Dad, Holling's Mother, Mr. Hupfer
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:

When gods die, they die hard. It's not like they fade away, or grow old, or fall asleep. They die in fire and pain, and when they come out of you, they leave your guts burned. It hurts more than anything you can talk about. And maybe worst of all is, you're not sure if there will ever be another god to fill their place. Or if you'd want another god to fill their place. You don't want fire to go out inside you twice.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Danny Hupfer, Mickey Mantle
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:

"Pick it up and be glad you're getting it. You shouldn't even be here, sitting like a queen in a refugee home while American boys are sitting in swamps on Christmas Day. They're the ones who should be here. Not you."

Mai Thi took her Something. She looked down, and kept going.

She probably didn't see that Mrs. Bigio was pulling her hairnet down lower over her face, because she was almost crying.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Bigio, Mai Thi
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis:

But Doug went on in, and he came back out carrying the cardboard box for Number 166 from the Coat Room. He looked at us, shrugged, and hauled it away down the hall, staggering under its clumsy weight.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker, Danny Hupfer, Doug Swieteck, Horace Clarke , Joe Pepitone
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:
January Quotes

Doug wouldn't tell us what he said when he saw the pictures and the can of yellow paint. All I know is that he wouldn't help, and so took a black eye […] Whatever it means to be a friend, taking a black eye for someone has to be in it.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Doug Swieteck, Doug Swieteck's Brother
Page Number: 103
Explanation and Analysis:

"It's not a ridiculous idea because of why Dad thinks it's a ridiculous idea. It's a ridiculous idea because it's military school, and because the next stop after military school is Saigon."

"So?"

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Heather Hoodhood (Holling's Sister) (speaker), Holling's Dad
Page Number: 108
Explanation and Analysis:

When Mrs. Baker came back, her face was set and hard. "Your father has spoken over the phone with the nurse at the front desk. He has given approval for any necessary procedure, and says that, since everything seems under control, he will be along as soon as may be convenient."

Related Characters: Mrs. Baker (speaker), Holling Hoodhood, Holling's Dad, Mr. Guareschi
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:
February Quotes

[…] right then a whole series of low chords sounded from the piano in the Perfect Living Room below us, followed by a roar and crash as the entire newly plastered ceiling fell, smashing down on top of the baby grand piano, ripping the plastic seat cushions, flattening the fake tropical flowers, tearing the gleaming mirror from the wall, and spreading its glittering shards onto the floor, where they mixed with the dank, wet plaster that immediately began to settle into the carpet to stain it forever.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Holling's Dad, Heather Hoodhood (Holling's Sister), Holling's Mother
Related Symbols: The Perfect House
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis:

And that's when something changed. I suddenly wondered if my father was really like Shylock. Not because he loved ducats, but because maybe he had become the person that everyone expected him to become. I wondered if he ever had a choice, or if he had ever felt trapped. Or if he had ever imagined a different life.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Holling's Dad
Page Number: 154
Explanation and Analysis:
March Quotes

You know things are bad when the United States Marine Corps is using stethoscopes and divining rods.

Still, the White House announced that the enemy offensive was running out of steam, that casualties at Khesanh were light, that we would never give up the marine base there.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Holling's Dad, Heather Hoodhood (Holling's Sister)
Page Number: 156
Explanation and Analysis:

It also didn't help that Mrs. Baker kept wiping at her eyes during her grading. She'd told us that she had a terrible cold, but she hardly needed to tell us. Her eyes were mostly red all the time, and the way she blew her nose could be pretty impressive. Sometimes while sitting at her desk, she'd just stop doing whatever she was doing and look somewhere far away, like she wasn't even in the classroom anymore.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker, Lieutenant Tybalt Baker
Page Number: 161
Explanation and Analysis:

I was glad he was running for president.

And so maybe, after all, I had done something to make my father mad. Just not out loud.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Holling's Dad, Heather Hoodhood (Holling's Sister)
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis:

"It was for the women's four-by-one hundred relay. Don't look so surprised. You didn't think I'd spent my whole life behind this desk, did you?"

And I suddenly realized that, well, I guess I had. Weren't all teachers born behind their desks, fully grown, with a red pen in their hand and ready to grade?

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker (speaker)
Page Number: 161
Explanation and Analysis:
April Quotes

"The whole world is going crazy," my father said, "and no place is crazier than college. You'll stay at your job and be safe."

Related Characters: Holling's Dad (speaker), Holling Hoodhood, Heather Hoodhood (Holling's Sister)
Page Number: 201
Explanation and Analysis:
May Quotes

For supper, my mother set only three places. She did not cook lima beans. She did not say anything while my father swore up and down […] Didn't she realize that this didn't help his business reputation or his chances for the Chamber of Commerce Businessman of 1968, which that creep Kowalski was trying to steal from him?

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Holling's Dad, Heather Hoodhood (Holling's Sister), Holling's Mother
Page Number: 214
Explanation and Analysis:

"Would you mind not calling me 'Mr. Hoodhood'? It sounds like you're talking to my father."

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker, Holling's Dad
Page Number: 219
Explanation and Analysis:

That's when I knew for the first time that I really did love my sister. But I didn't know if I wanted more for her to come back or for her to find whatever it was that she was trying to find.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Heather Hoodhood (Holling's Sister)
Page Number: 226
Explanation and Analysis:
June Quotes

I could tell that Mrs. Baker was wanting to try it. It was probably getting hot on the open rocks above the falls, with the sun coming straight down now […]

It's got to be hard to be a teacher all the time and not jump into a pool of clear water and come up laughing and snorting with water up your nose.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker
Page Number: 253
Explanation and Analysis:

"You think that's how you become a man, by chanting a few prayers?"

"You think you become a man by getting a job as an architect?"

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Holling's Dad (speaker), Danny Hupfer, Heather Hoodhood (Holling's Sister), Holling's Mother
Page Number: 253
Explanation and Analysis:
No matches.