36 pages • 1 hour read
Astrid LindgrenPippi Longstocking
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1945A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “Pippi Acts as a Lifesaver”
Pippi is enjoying a productive Sunday afternoon and decides to end it by taking her horse for a ride through town. On her way, she comes across a fire burning in a recently built three-story building. The building is seen as an atrocity by the town, but they worry that the fire is bound to catch their own homes next. When two small boys peek out the window on the top level and cry out, the townspeople panic and the firefighters are unsure what to do. Having no ladder long enough for such a tall building, they are at a loss. Pippi takes it upon herself to save the boys herself. First, she strings a rope in a tree with Mr. Nilsson’s help. Next, she takes a wooden board up the tree and pins it between the tree and the window of the building. She walks across the board like she did the tightrope at the circus, picks up the boys, and brings them safely over to the tree. One by one, she lowers them down with the rope, much to their mother’s and the rest of the town’s relief. Before coming down herself, Pippi performs some tricks and sings a song: “The fire is burning, It’s burning so bright” (142). Everyone cheers for Pippi, and she adds an extra cheer to congratulate herself on a job well done.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Pippi Celebrates Her Birthday”
Tommy and Annika wake up to find an invitation in their mailbox to Pippi’s birthday party. It is misspelled but legible, and Pippi spent most of the night working on it. She scrubbed the kitchen thoroughly in preparation for the event and brought her horse and Mr. Nilsson for the party as well. Tommy and Annika give Pippi a music box that they saved up to buy, and Pippi declares that she has gifts for them in return; after all, it is her birthday, so she gets to decide who gets a gift. Pippi gives Tommy an ivory flute and Annika a butterfly broach. The kids have dessert and then play a balancing game on the kitchen furniture. Afterward, Pippi suggests going up to the attic to see the ghosts that live there. The thought scares the siblings, but they follow Pippi. Pippi soon admits there are no ghosts at all; instead, the attic is full of more of her father’s old belongings. She finds an old white shirt of his and puts it on, scaring Annika and Tommy when they think they’ve seen a ghost. She also finds a sword, along with two pistols, and she fires them into the ceiling, noting, “Never let children handle firearms” (159). She unloads the pistols and gives one to each of her friends, remarking on how they could all become robbers now. Soon after, Tommy and Annika’s father arrives to take them home. As they walk away into the night, the light shines from inside Pippi’s house. She calls to them about her plans to become a pirate when she grows up.
Chapters 10-11 Analysis
In Pippi’s greatest demonstration of physical strength, she becomes a hero of the town. When a fire threatens the lives of two young boys, Pippi demonstrates her Strength of Body and Mind when she comes to their rescue and saves them for the simple reason that she can. She shows both resourcefulness in the way she climbs up to get them and genuine goodwill in her efforts to save them without expecting anything in return. As is normally the case for Pippi, she has a different opinion of fire than most people. At first, she is perplexed as to why the boys are upset, but because she doesn’t like to see anyone afraid and distraught, she decides to help them. Pippi’s appreciation for fire, its power and its light, is a metaphor for her own fiery spirit and fiery red hair. The illustration of this rescue scene shows Pippi swinging down from the tree with Mr. Nilsson above her and the town surrounding her as the flames blaze inside the building. She is grinning as usual, showing no fear or apprehension. When the scene concludes, Pippi sings a song to show her appreciation of the fire: “It’s burning for you, It’s burning for me, It’s burning for all who are dancing!” (142). Pippi’s songs are a whimsical expression of her gratitude for being alive and her desire to make every moment into something wonderful and worth celebrating.
In the novel’s conclusion, Pippi appropriately hosts a birthday party and invites Tommy and Annika over to celebrate, as well as her two animals, who were her only friends until two weeks ago. The anticipation of the final scene is thick, and the narrator hints at a surprise: “They had taken the money out of their own piggy banks, and on the way home from school had run into the toy shop on Main Street and bought a very beautiful—well, what they had bought was a secret for the time being” (146). The party begins at dusk on a November day, and the evening atmosphere adds to the mysterious mood. Tommy and Annika reveal their gift to be a music box, a symbol of their appreciation for their new friend and all the adventures they have had together so far. Pippi feels the same way and offers each of them two gifts because her birthday is a day where everyone gets a gift as a show of her generous nature. The mysterious atmosphere continues when Pippi takes the children upstairs to see ghosts in the attic. Although there are no ghosts, she manages to frighten them while wearing an old shirt of her father’s and by shooting two pistols into the ceiling. Pippi then gives the pistols to Annika and Tommy, but not before ironically reminding them, “Never let children handle firearms” (159). Pippi is no ordinary child, of course, and she gives the pistols that her father owned as a signifier that she believes in the courage of her friends. The final image of the novel is memorable and symbolic: Pippi stands on her doorstep, surrounded by the light of Villa Villekulla amidst the dark night. She waves a temporary farewell to her friends, knowing there are many more adventures to come. What she wears also carries symbolic meaning: “There she stood with her stiff red braids, dressed in her father’s nightshirt which billowed around her feet. In one hand she held a pistol and in the other the sword. She saluted with it” (160). The pistol and sword represent Pippi’s Strength of Body and Mind, as well as her adventurous spirit and desire to be just like her father—a great explorer of the world.
