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 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Pippi Goes to School”
Annika and Tommy start telling Pippi about how nice their teacher is and how great it is to have summer and Christmas vacations. Their hope is to convince Pippi to attend school with them so they may have even more fun. When Pippi hears about Christmas vacation, she stands up with a start, feeling robbed of something that sounds so amazing. She decides to go to school, if only so she can experience Christmas vacation. At the school, the teacher does her best to accommodate and welcome Pippi. She tries quizzing her on arithmetic first, but Pippi doesn’t understand and finds it silly. The teacher’s attempts to show her letters only inspire Pippi to tell a story of a time she fought a snake in India. The teacher tries a drawing activity next, but Pippi decides to draw a life-size horse on the floor. An illustration shows the horse drawing taking up half the room as Pippi works and the other children watch.
When the teacher suggests singing, Pippi declines, noting, “Too much learning breaks even the healthiest” (56). The teacher decides to send the other students outside and talk to Pippi alone, and Pippi declares that she has no need for school. The teacher tells Pippi that her behavior won’t be accepted in any school, and Pippi, never having realized she misbehaved, is stunned. She tries to explain that her life has not set her up to behave in the manner needed for school. The teacher reacts with understanding and tells Pippi she can come back when she’s older. Pippi gets on her horse to leave, and the children surround her as they say goodbye. She tells them a story about how they don’t have school in Argentina and how anyone who tries to learn is punished. She rides away laughing, the horse’s hooves thumping the ground.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Pippi Sits on the Gate and Climbs a Tree”
Villa Villekulla sits on the edge of the town on the verge of the countryside. It is full of fruit trees, oaks for climbing, and all sorts of flowers and long grass. One day while Pippi, Tommy, and Annika are eating pears, a girl walks by and asks if they have seen her father. Pippi describes someone who seems to look exactly like the girl’s father and then declares she hasn’t seen any such person. She takes the opportunity to spin a lie about a Chinese man whose ears were so long he could wrap himself up in them. The man had several children, and he demanded one of his children be named Peter. When Peter’s parents asked him to eat, he refused, and the dish in question was a swallow’s nest. Peter starved and died, and a swallow moved in to use the nest Peter never ate.
The girl knows Pippi is lying, and Pippi admits as much: “I’m lying so my tongue is turning black” (67). The girl walks away in frustration, and Pippi and her friends start a new adventure. They climb up into an oak tree and sit in a crevice, and Pippi decides to turn it into a coffee party, complete with china and real coffee. Annika and Tommy enjoy the experience thoroughly, and it only gets better when Pippi discovers that the tree is hollow. She climbs down inside the tree and back up again, then encouraging the others to do the same using a ladder. The trio decides to make it their new secret hideout.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Pippi Arranges a Picnic”
Tommy and Annika have the day off school because of a “Scrubbing Vacation” day (75). Pippi feels left out and decides to make her own scrubbing day. She pours hot water on the floor, ties scrubbing brushes to her feet, and dances around the kitchen while Tommy and Annika watch gleefully. The weather outside is “one of those radiant September days that make you feel like walking in the woods” (78), and Pippi suggests doing just that. She packs a basket full of delicious food, and the trio sets off into the woods. They stop to examine mushrooms and for Pippi to move a stubborn cow out of their way. When they come across a slate of rock that hangs over the edge of a cliff, they consider it a good spot for a picnic and make their camp. After enjoying a huge and decadent meal (which Pippi learned to cook on her travels), Pippi scares Annika and Tommy by jumping down from the cliff, though she lands without injury. Meanwhile, Mr. Nilsson goes missing, and the group then must separate to find him. When she discovers he is gone, Pippi gets angry and throws her shoe in the water, which she then must fish out. Tommy is attacked by a bull during the hunt, and Pippi comes to his rescue. She pulls the bull by its tail and then breaks off its horns and climbs on its back. She tires the bull out as it attempts to buck her off, and she and the others are able to escape. Then, the kids spot Mr. Nilsson sitting in a tree above them. Annika and Tommy are so happy with the excitement of the day that they decide to sing a song about the beauty of summertime: “In the jolly summertime, We sing as we go, hol-lá, hol-ló” (88). Pippi sings her own version of the same song: “For the shoe is wet. The bull sleeps yet. And I eat all the rice pudding I can get” (88).
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
As Pippi gets to know the town and her new friends, Tommy and Annika, she also becomes curious about what else there is to offer and is even coaxed into attending school for a day when she hears about the prospect of Christmas vacation. Pippi’s response to school is mixed, but she is not quite ready for a place with such strict rules. Pippi’s experiences in places with behavioral norms and expectations tend to lead her only to disappointment because she finds it impossible to conform. Conformity is impossible for her because, most of the time, she doesn’t even realize that she is misbehaving. The exception to this rule is Pippi’s lies that she tells about the people she has met around the world. She admits to knowing that she is lying, but her reasons for doing so eventually become clear the more of these stories that she tells. Pippi speaks her mind constantly, does not mind whether others react with irritation to her unconventional behavior, and criticizes the teacher for giving out lessons that she finds pointless and confusing: “There should be some rhyme and reason to things even in school” (53). When the teacher’s patience comes to an end, Pippi has an important conversation with the teacher, and they come to an understanding with one another after Pippi explains that she has “a mother who’s an angel and a father who is a cannibal king” (58); in other words, Pippi’s life has not been conventional in the least, and thus it is nonsensical to expect her to adhere to social conventions such as school. Pippi also feels that she gets along well enough without knowing things like “pluttifikation tables” (41). When Pippi leaves school, she first makes up a story about how school is forbidden in Argentina. Pippi despises school, and she tells this story as a fantasy of good fortune. Her impact in a single day is symbolized by the way she rides out of the school grounds “so wildly that the pebbles whirl[] around the horse’s hoofs and the windowpanes rattle[] in the schoolhouse” (61). Wherever Pippi goes, people are sure to notice her and to remember that she was there.
When Pippi takes Tommy and Annika on an adventure, there is always an opportunity for Pippi to demonstrate her strong moral character and real-world skills that keep her alive and well. When Tommy is attacked by a bull, Pippi immediately steps in to save him, sarcastically telling the bull, “Forgive me for breaking up the party” (84), and breaking off its horns. In doing so, Pippi makes a true show of both her physical strength and her love and concern for her new friends. Pippi is always doting on them, giving them precious gifts, preparing meals for them, and planning exciting adventures for them to undertake together. Because they admire Pippi’s cooking skills (which she learned at sea), bravery, and grit, Tommy and Annika keep them coming back to visit Pippi day after day. Pippi’s humor is a constant in her dialogue as well, and she relies on humor to communicate her ideals and perspectives on the world. In reference to the money she wins while fighting the Mighty Adolf, Pippi says, “That thing! What would I want with that old piece of paper. Take it and use it to fry herring on if you want to” (102). Pippi’s sense of adventure rubs off on Tommy and Anika, who belt out a song about summertime and the importance of experiencing its joys: “Our song will swell, Through wood and dell, And up to the mountaintop as well” (88).
Pippi’s use of wordplay is a source of humor. When Pippi tells the story of the snake she wrestled with, she makes a sound that is spelled out as “uiuiuiuiuiuiuiuiitch” (55). She enjoys making up new words and using onomatopoeia to imitate the rich sounds she hears in the world around her. Another day, Pippi’s shoes and dress get wet, and she takes delight in the “klafs, klafs” sound that her dress makes (83). Ever the optimist, Pippi shows Strength of Body and Mind in every unfortunate situation. Along with Pippi’s wordplay are rich descriptions of the scenery that the children enjoy as they continue Living Every Day as a New Adventure. When they climb up into an old oak tree to have a coffee party, the visual imagery is clear: “A few feet above the ground the oak divided into two branches, and right there was a place just like a little room. Before long all three children were sitting there. Over their heads the oak spread out its crown like a great green roof” (68). The beauty of Villa Villekulla is regularly emphasized this way.
