Freaky Friday

“[L]ook who’s already gotten stuck with the brown eyes. Me. The sister of the only blue-eyed ape in captivity.”

Annabel’s preoccupation with her looks—having brown eyes in particular—is typical of her era, when women’s worth was generally judged more by their looks than their accomplishments. Blue eyes were prized in women, which reflects a cultural bias of the time. This comment of Annabel’s about her eye color versus Ben’s hints that her dislike of her little brother stems at least in part from jealousy. Her metaphorical claim that he is “the only blue-eyed ape in captivity” suggests that, from her perspective, he does not belong—he is a wild animal and does not have the same rights as a fully-human person.

“‘Why don’t you just let me be responsible for myself?’ I asked.

‘You will be, soon enough,’ she said.”

Chapter 1 concludes with an ominous warning from Ellen that, at the time she makes the statement to Annabel, Annabel does not fully understand. Given the structure of the chapter, however, which begins with Annabel waking in her mother’s body, the reader is aware of what Ellen means, creating dramatic irony. Ellen’s comment foreshadows the later revelation that, just as Annabel suspects, she is responsible for causing the body swap. This moment also helps to introduce the theme of The Responsibilities That Come with Adult Freedoms.

“Instead of punishing me for rudeness, or crying phony tears like some mothers I know, she was just going to let me find out for myself.”

Annabel’s respect for her mother shows clearly as she contrasts Ellen’s practical, empathetic, and honest response to the situation with the punitive and manipulative responses she sometimes sees in her friends’ parents. Ellen’s respectful and thoughtful approach to parenting reflects changes to cultural norms around parenting taking place in the early 1970s. She shows respect for her children’s individuality and autonomy in ways that would have shocked most parents of earlier decades, making it ironic that Annabel sees her as strict and old-fashioned.

“My mother is always saying ‘Her father and I think Annabel looks like her very own self.’ You know why I think she says that? Because it’s insulting to her to say I look like her.”

Annabel’s preoccupation with looks is clear as she goes about putting on makeup and admiring herself in the mirror; her insecurities show in her willingness to believe that her mother is insulted by the notion that she looks like her daughter. She clearly still has some growing to do related to Learning to Value and Understand Oneself. At this stage, she cannot see that her mother’s response—saying that Annabel looks “like her very own self”—is more about respecting Annabel’s individuality than anything else. This illustrates one of the ways in which Annabel needs to grow in her ability to understand others’ perspectives.

“‘But these are Annabel’s […] She’ll kill me if I eat up her cereal,’ he said anxiously. What a worrywart.”

Annabel’s unsympathetic and dismissive response to Ben’s concerns reveals more about her than she realizes. She has portrayed Ben as spoiled and selfish, but even when he believes his mother is giving him permission to eat Annabel’s cereal, he does not want to do it—instead, he tries to do the right thing and refuse. This not only shows that Annabel misjudges people: It shows that she intimidates her younger brother, whose strong diction—“She’ll kill me”—indicates a real fear of Annabel’s anger. At this moment, it is obvious how much Annabel has to learn about Appreciation for Family Bonds.

“Then a grotesque thought came to me. He was waiting to be kissed and I was going to have to do it.”

Annabel’s bluntly amusing tone in this passage is characteristic of her narrative voice. The hyperbolic diction of “grotesque” shows both Annabel’s comical tendency to exaggerate and her intelligence, as “grotesque” is a sophisticated word choice for a 13-year-old. The parallel structure of “He was waiting to be kissed” and “I was going to have to do it” sets up an amusing antithesis in which an innocent child waits for his mother to kiss him goodbye and a disgusted older sister is revolted by the entire idea.

“Ordinarily I hate peace and quiet; it’s boring. But today…”

Early in the day, Annabel’s attitude has already begun to shift. The ellipsis in the final sentence indicates that she is still coming to terms with her changed perspective: She knows that suddenly peace and quiet is more welcome, but she cannot—or is not ready to—articulate what this means about the difference between her mother’s world and her own. This indicates that Annabel is still struggling to understand The Responsibilities That Come with Adult Freedoms and what a burden these responsibilities can be.

“‘Just think about it for a minute,’ he said, in the same voice he uses on me-Annabel when I can’t do a math problem—patient/impatient.”

Bill speaks to Ellen condescendingly, as if she is a child. This is in keeping with gender expectations of the era. It is, however, Annabel’s first encounter with the idea that her mother’s life is also constrained by rules and expectations that Ellen does not create.

“I know you love Annabel and you want her to be happy. And you know I love Annabel and I want her to be happy, too, but what about us being happy together?”

When Bill voices this concern, Annabel is shocked at the idea that her own choices—to not keep track of her possessions, to insist on being allowed to go to camp—might cause her family to have to sacrifice other things. It is an important moment in her journey toward Appreciation for Family Bonds. She has always been shielded from adult concerns about money and is still childlike enough to believe that money is somehow unlimited; this is the first time she realizes that resources are finite and that when she uses them all up, her family suffers. This lesson is particularly powerful, as it comes couched in an affirmation that both of her parents love her and want her to be happy.

“‘[S]he’s much nicer now than she used to be,’ I said.

‘I’m sure she is,’ said Boris amiably, ‘but Mrs. Andrews, to be perfectly frank, that’s not saying much.’ Thud. Long silence.”

The sentence fragments “Thud” and “Long silence” convey the abrupt change in Annabel’s feelings. The word “Thud” uses onomatopoeia to mimic the sound of something dropping, metaphorically suggesting that Annabel’s heart has “fallen.” She has been hoping to persuade Boris to see her charms, unaware of what a low opinion he has of her. The conversation with Boris is eye-opening, making Annabel aware of how people outside her family view her sometimes objectionable behavior. It is a significant moment in her journey toward Learning to Value and Understand Oneself.

“Ellen Jean, this is your mother. Who in blue blazes did you think it was?”

Annabel’s grandmother’s use of Ellen’s first and middle name, combined with charged diction like “blue blazes,” shows how free her grandmother feels to show irritation with Ellen. This indicates that the power dynamic between mother and child does not change much even when the “child” is a middle-aged woman. This is yet another illustration for Annabel of the limits on her mother’s autonomy.

“Would you be interested in knowing how long it took me to get the washing-machine-repair number to answer? Fifteen minutes.”

Annabel asks a rhetorical question that she immediately answers herself—a technique called hypophora. This passage conveys the witty and slightly sarcastic tone of her narrative voice and also shows how surprisingly frustrating she is finding the realities of adult life.

“‘Oh, beg pardon,’ she went on in this smarmy tone, ‘we don’t call her a pig, do we? We call her “a little thoughtless” or “a little forgetful.” Well I call her a little pig!’”

Mrs. Schmauss metaphorically compares Annabel to a pig, a comparison that is meant to demean Annabel and suggest that she is a filthy animal—a common misunderstanding of the nature of pigs. Her “smarmy” tone is exaggeratedly and insincerely polite: She is trying to get away with implying that Ellen is a lazy parent who excuses Annabel’s bad behavior when she should not. Hearing yet another person outside her family speak critically about her is difficult, but for Annabel, it represents a key step toward Learning to Value and Understand Oneself.

“You liberal folks are the ones turn out all the troublemakers in this country. She’ll be on drugs before you know it.”

Mrs. Schmauss’s nonstandard grammar—“are the ones turn out”—conveys her working-class background. Her comments represent a conservative ideology that disapproves of the changes in American culture taking place in the late 1960s and early 1970s, considering those opposed to older norms to be “troublemakers” and evidence of a decline in civilization. Her assertion that Annabel will soon be using illegal drugs just because she is allowed to be messy at home is an example of the logical fallacy known as the “slippery slope,” and is evidence of Mrs. Schmauss’s comically flawed thinking. The combination of her nonstandard grammar and her ideas suggests that those with more conservative values lack the broader perspective that comes with genuine understanding of the world around them.

“If I’d had any idea what was going to happen next, I would just as soon have not carried them. I would, in fact, be better off dead.”

The first sentence in this passage foreshadows the embarrassing confrontation between Annabel and the police over her supposed abandonment of Ben. Direct foreshadowing like this creates an intimate connection between a narrator and a reader, as if the narrator is aware of the reader and speaking right to them. This increases empathy for the narrator’s character and heightens tension over what will happen next—as does Annabel’s hyperbolic claim that she would be “better off dead” rather than face what is about to happen.

“Oh boy, if he starts crying again, I’ll kill him! I thought to myself.”

Annabel expresses a shocking lack of empathy for her young brother, which seems to show that she still has little Appreciation for Family Bonds. Ironically, however, when Ben actually does start to cry, a few minutes later, Annabel’s reaction is relatively kind. She dries his tears, helps him blow his nose, and asks about his feelings. This demonstrates that Annabel does not really hate Ben as much as she tells herself she does and causes her to begin to reckon with the complexity of her own emotions.

“‘You’re one terrific surprise after another,’ I snapped into the phone.”

Up until this point, Annabel has always mentally defended the father she worships, seeing his behavior as uniformly positive even when he is actually being dismissive or inconsiderate. Her sarcasm and irate tone at this moment indicate that she is finally beginning to see her father with more nuance, as someone who—like all people—is less than perfect.

“‘I want you to let him think that your room is Annabel’s room and Annabel’s room is your room.’

‘Why?’ he asked in a tone of whispery horror.”

Ben’s theatrically horrified whisper as he asks why he would allow someone to think that Annabel’s room was his room conveys how very embarrassing Annabel’s room is to him. This comical moment supports the book’s generally lighthearted tone, and Ben’s reaction—a simple question rather than an outright refusal—helps to characterize Ben as a much more compliant child than Annabel.

“Annabel, old sock, wherever you are, I certainly hope you’re being careful with yourself! Don’t even walk through the park.”

Annabel’s reference to her own body and whomever is occupying it with the unusual term of endearment “old sock” is comical and ironic—two hallmarks of her narrative voice. At this moment, her worry about something happening to her body while she is not occupying it causes her to think more seriously about the risks she often takes and surfaces fond feelings for herself that she often hides, supporting the themes of The Responsibilities That Come with Adult Freedoms and Learning to Value and Understand Oneself. Her shift in perspective allows her to see her own behavior more objectively and suggests that, once she occupies her own body again, she will take better care of it.

“Have you ever seen anyone jump from the lotus position to a standing position in one move? Not in velvet pajamas you haven’t and you never will, It can’t be done without falling down.”

Annabel’s fall in the principal’s office is typical of the physical comedy used to demonstrate how unprepared she is to function like a true adult. The seriousness of the meeting juxtaposes sharply with her odd attire, seating position, and sudden fall, showing that Annabel is not taking adult responsibilities seriously. Her lighthearted use of hypophora and the absurdity of both her rhetorical question and its answer heighten the humor of the moment and underscore her lack of seriousness.

“I always wondered what they meant when they said ‘Her heart was in her mouth’ […] Well, in case you’re interested, a mouthful of heart is something like a mouthful of captured frog.”

Although Annabel is characteristically funny as she explains her feelings after learning that Ben has disappeared—explaining a well-known idiom with a graphically unpleasant simile—she also makes it clear that she is genuinely terrified about what may have happened to him. This is a distinct change from her feelings about Ben at the beginning of the story and demonstrates that she has grown in both her Appreciation for Family Bonds and her understanding of The Responsibilities That Come with Adult Freedoms.

“I think right then my whole brain went into the deep freeze. I could hear a clock ticking, but time slowed down. Stopped, for a second. Then, one by one, little green giant words began to defrost.”

As Annabel first considers that she might be the beautiful girl that Boris was talking about, her intense desire for this to be true and her fear that the thought is ridiculous scare her so much that she metaphorically compares the feeling to her brain being frozen solid. Time seems to slow and then stop—an idea reinforced by the descriptive detail of the clock ticking in the background. The abrupt-sounding sentence fragment “Stopped, for a second” brings the passage to a temporary halt that mimics Annabel’s experience. The passage starts up again gradually, just like Annabel’s thoughts, with the interrupted sentence “Then, one by one, little green giant words began to defrost.” The phrase “little green giant words” alludes to a then-popular commercial character, Sprout, a miniature green giant who was part of a campaign to sell Green Giant brand frozen vegetables. Her metaphorical comparison of her thoughts to frozen vegetables reinforces the earlier depiction of her brain being in “the deep freeze.”

“‘She looks pretty, don’t you think?’ Oh, Ape Face! You are a loyal and kind person.”

Ben’s affirmation that Annabel looks pretty and his attempt to help her make a positive impression on Boris are very meaningful to her, because she has struggled with her self-image and her crush on Boris throughout the text. The italics used in “You are a loyal and kind person” emphasize the idea that it is Ben, not Annabel, who is loyal and kind. This demonstrates Annabel’s new understanding of both herself and her brother and shows an important way in which she has grown.