31 pages • 1 hour read
Beverly ClearyMuggie Maggie
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1990A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaChapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
Over the following days, Maggie becomes renowned in her school for her refusal to write properly in cursive. While some of her classmates think that she is brave to rebel, others think she is being stupid and childish. While Maggie is concerned that the other kids will think she’s unable to write cursive, she’s too prideful to change her mind and cooperate with the teacher. She insists that she can write cursive; she simply does not want to.
One day, her teacher, Mrs. Leeper, asks the class to practice writing their signatures in cursive. Maggie decides to write her signature following her parents’ style of writing, both of which are slightly incorrect. When Mrs. Leeper corrects her writing and points out that Maggie accidentally spelled her name as “Muggie,” Maggie is very embarrassed. Her classmates give her a new nickname based on her mistake: “Muggie Maggie.”
Chapter 5 Summary
Ms. Madden, Mr. Schultz’s secretary, sends Maggie a new pen as a present. Maggie is happy to receive her gift and loves Ms. Madden since she’s never critical of her. Since Maggie is banned from using the computer, she has to print out her thank you card. Maggie realizes that her printing is not very neat, so she apologizes in the letter, and she feels pleased when she puts the finished letter in her father’s briefcase.
Maggie receives a reply from Ms. Madden, who asks why Maggie didn’t rewrite her letter more neatly. Maggie is upset by this criticism and feels that Ms. Madden is “picking on her” like everyone else (40). When her father explains that Ms. Madden values neatness because she is a secretary, Maggie decides that she will never be a secretary and would rather be an astronaut or give out parking tickets.
Chapter 6 Summary
Mrs. Leeper writes some cursive words on the board with purposeful mistakes in them. While the class giggles at the incorrect phrases, Maggie studies them and realizes that she cannot read cursive writing. Later that day, Mrs. Leeper selects Maggie to be a “Message Monitor” who will deliver notes from her teacher to the principal. Maggie is surprised that Mrs. Leeper picked her since she thinks that her teacher doesn’t like her. Mrs. Leeper hands her an unsealed envelope to take to Mr. Galloway.
While in the hallway, Maggie can’t resist peeking at the teacher’s note, but since it’s written in cursive, she cannot figure it out. Mr. Galloway replaces the note with his own, and Maggie peeks at this note, too. While most of it is a mystery to her, she recognizes her own name at the beginning. Maggie is embarrassed but also very curious about what the teachers are saying about her. She realizes that learning cursive could be useful to her, and she begins to feel defeated.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
In these passages, the author continues to create a lighthearted and humorous tone as she develops Maggie’s story. By including Maggie’s interactions with classmates, teachers, and family members, Cleary creates a familiar, realistic world. The author adds humor to her story by showing how Maggie’s exasperated teachers conspired to motivate her to write cursive by asking her to pass messages back and forth to each other. These details seek to make the character of Maggie and the story as a whole relatable and engaging in the eyes of the reader.
By discussing Maggie’s experiences at school and her friendships and squabbles with her classmates, Cleary develops the theme of The Influence of Peer Relationships on Children. Maggie’s peer relationships have a strong impact on her behavior, and she begins to second-guess her refusal to write in cursive when some of her classmates feel that she is being childish: “‘I’m not having trouble,’ Maggie whispered back, ‘I just don’t want to do it.’ Then she worried. What if others thought Gifted and Talented Maggie couldn’t write cursive if she wanted to?” (39). Even worse, Maggie’s new nickname, Muggie Maggie, is based on her cursive writing mistake. By revealing that Maggie feels insecure about her classmates’ judgment, the author shows that even someone as independent as Maggie cares about what her peers think of her and desires approval. Moreover, when all her peers understand cursive writing and she cannot read it, Maggie feels left out and begins to lose her confidence in her academics. The influence of her peers, who are all quickly learning to both read and write in cursive, becomes a main motivator for Maggie to finally learn cursive. Maggie wants to carefully curate others’ perception of her, and their unforeseen responses to her rebellion cause her to wonder if acting out is worth the cost.
In these chapters, the author also develops the theme of Children’s Expressions of Independence. By highlighting how Maggie loves to make decisions for herself without adult supervision or criticism, Cleary characterizes Maggie as willful and independent. For instance, Maggie enjoys being a “Message Monitor” because she can leave the confines of the classroom and perform a task on her own. The author writes, “Maggie lost no time in escaping to the freedom of the hall, where no one supervised her” (44). Maggie is sensitive to her parents’ and teacher’s criticism, which, ironically, makes her more contrary. Cleary emphasizes the differences between Maggie’s perspective and the adults in her life. This theme encourages the reader to see Maggie’s stubbornness as a misguided but understandable way of trying to assert her individuality and independence.
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By Beverly Cleary
