41 pages • 1-hour read
The Moffats
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Themes
Learning Through Everyday Childhood Adventures
In The Moffats, Rufus, Joe, and Jane have everyday experiences that help them learn and mature. By describing how the kids explore, test their limits, and encounter unexpected consequences, the author develops a theme on how daily life provides many opportunities to learn.
Estes’s work focuses on the Moffats’ regular life in the small-town US, and the children’s adventures usually begin with a realistic misunderstanding that sends them off course. For instance, when Mr. Pennypepper instructs Rufus to supervise his stubborn neighbor, Hughie Pudge, Rufus takes these instructions a bit too seriously. When Hughie runs away from school and hops aboard a nearby freight train, Rufus naively follows him onto it and tries in earnest to persuade Hughie to become an obedient pupil like himself. When the train leaves the station, however, Rufus realizes that he must think quickly or he could end up alone in Boston. This misadventure teaches five-year-old Rufus some common sense—and the importance of respecting Mama’s rule to not play in the train yard. Rufus also learns to think more carefully about his actions when he’s told to keep his Sunday suit clean. He wanders around the garden absentmindedly pocketing grapes, until he realizes that this was not the best idea: “Suddenly Rufus [becomes] aware of a damp feeling spreading down his legs. He [leaps] up! Those green grapes! All squashed! Oh! His best suit ruined!” (60). Rufus’s innocent mistakes and misguided attempts to do the right thing constantly give him opportunities to learn.
Similarly, teenager Joe enjoys the responsibility of driving a stranger’s horse and wagon, and he’s especially happy to miss Sunday School: “Probably Sunday School had already begun. They would be late. One thing he did not like to do was go in late to Sunday School. Why not drive this man to Orchard Grove instead? thought Joe” (66). However, Joe overestimates his ability to navigate detours, rough roads, and a summer storm, and he’s humbled when he loses the driver and goes pointlessly in a big circle. Mama is surprised by the children’s strange adventure: “‘What’s going on? Why don’t you come home and eat your dinner?’ ‘We can’t, Mama,’ said Rufus solemnly. ‘Can’t!’ echoed Mama, amazed. ‘No,’ sighed Joe. ‘We lost the Captain of the Salvation Army.’ ‘And now we’ve got to find him,’ said Jane sadly” (78). In realizing his overconfidence and admitting to Mama what happened, Joe learns that he shouldn’t take on such tasks by himself. When the Moffat kids reflect on their mistakes and take action to make things right, they learn all kinds of lessons during their everyday adventures.
The Impact of Financial Insecurity on Family Life
The Moffats struggle to make ends meet and live with the uncertainty of being renters at the yellow house. By describing the family’s difficult financial situation and how it affects Mama and the children, the author develops a theme on how finances affect everyday life. While the novel’s tone is lighthearted, it shows how the family’s scant financial resources put a mental burden on Mama, the family’s sole provider, and her children.
Jane reflects on how her Mama must be the “careful manager” of the family’s money so they can “make ends meet” (138). She notices how her mother parts with her money “reluctantly” whenever she has to spend it. While Mama’s income from her job as a seamstress keeps them housed and fed, the children must make do without some necessities. For instance, Jane cuts new shoe soles for herself out of cardboard when her shoes develop a hole. Mama tries her best to give the children a normal childhood and the best opportunities possible, just like the other kids in Cranbury. For instance, because she can’t afford to pay for dance lessons, Mama arranges an exchange with Miss Chichester, where Mama makes costumes for free in exchange for her children’s dance lessons: “To Mama this business exchange of dancing for sewing seemed a heaven-sent opportunity. How otherwise could she possibly afford to give her children the advantages of dancing school?” (106). Mama’s creative workaround shows her determination not to let financial limitations stop the children from receiving a cultural education and becoming well-rounded members of society.
The children notice Mama’s stress and the lengths she goes to in providing for them. Jane in particular wonders exactly how “poor” her family is and what could happen to them if they can’t pay their bills. After reading Hans Christian Anderson’s tale about the “little match girl,” Jane darkly fantasizes about having to sell matches on the street for money, clearly feeling insecure about her family’s finances and worrying about becoming a working child. She asks her mother, “Are we poverty-stricken, Mama?” (138). When her mother assures her that they aren’t “poverty-stricken” but just “poor,” the distinction reassures Jane. The novel’s realistic depiction of low-income family life in early the 20th-century US grounds the stories in realism and raises the stakes for the Moffat family without veering into tragedy.
The Importance of Familial Relationships
The Moffat family has little material wealth but vast riches in their love for each other. By showing how Mama and the children enjoy each other’s companionship in good times and bad, the novel develops a theme about how caring for one another makes all the difference in a family. Unlike many siblings, the Moffat children tend to get along well and are quite supportive of each other. Their family motto of share and share alike has sunk in: The children tend to fairly share burdens like chores as well as the rare treats they receive. For instance, all the children accept certain tasks according to their abilities: Jane takes Rufus to school, Joe manages the coal and fire, and Sylvie helps around the house. When the children want to prank their mean neighbor Peter Frost, they easily collaborate on their plan, each child performing a different task. With everyone pitching in toward their shared goal, “[t]hey [work] harder and faster than they’d ever worked before” (90), making their collaboration a resounding success. By working together, the children prove their reliability to each other and make their relationships even stronger.
The Moffats’ ability to cooperate is most helpful when times are tough. For instance, when Joe is driving the horse and wagon, Jane and Rufus are patient and supportive. Joe admits that he shouldn’t have gotten so lost in his hometown, but Jane “consolingly” tells him, “Well, things look different behind a horse” (75). When Rufus is sick, the family faces the new crisis of living under strict quarantine rules while helping him recover. Mama uses her typical positivity to look on the bright side of the situation: “Then Mama [breaks] the silence with a little laugh. ‘Well, anyway,’ she [says], ‘at least we will not have to worry about moving for a while. No one will think of buying the yellow house while there is a scarlet fever sign on the door’” (127). Mama must stay with Rufus to avoid infecting the other children, leaving Sylvie, Joe, and Jane with new responsibilities. The three older kids dutifully carry out their tasks and even enjoy each other’s storytelling and humor while doing so, having a “hilarious time keeping house” (128).
Their strong relationships help them when they eventually face the biggest challenge of all: leaving the yellow house. Despite their sadness, the kids support each other by packing up together and leaving the yellow house arm in arm on the back of their moving van. Whether they’re enjoying the triumphs of a mischievous prank, enduring a difficult illness, or making a fresh start, the Moffat family’s relationships with each other form the most important part of their lives.
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