42 pages • 1 hour read
Lois LenskiStrawberry Girl
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 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “Brown Mule”
Birdie and her father go into town to trade one of their cows for a mule that can replace Semina. Mr. Boyer trades his cow and pays a gold coin for a good mule. Birdie names the mule Kissimmee and worries that the Slaters will poison her. Essie and Zephy see the mule and Birdie lectures them not to tell anyone else, including their family, about the new mule. Essie and Zephy invite the Boyers to their house for a chicken pilau, which is a type of cookout. The Boyers are confused and surprised that they’ve been invited, given the tension between the two families. The little girls explain that their father got drunk, shot all their mother’s chickens in the head, and ran off. With him gone and the chickens in need of eating before they rot, the chicken pilau is Mrs. Slater’s way of reaching out to the community.
Mrs. Slater is so grateful for Mrs. Boyer’s help and kindness that she cries in her arms. Mrs. Slater expresses her desire to get more involved with religion.
Chapter 14 Summary: “The Preacher”
In the middle of the night, Shoestring begs Mrs. Boyer to come to his house and help his sick family members. Mr. Slater is still missing.
For days, Mrs. Boyer and Birdie help take care of Mrs. Slater and her children, who are all dangerously sick and feverish. A preacher visits while on his travels. Mrs. Slater welcomes Brother Jackson despite her fever. Shoestring spies on the preacher while he eats and sees that Brother Jackson eats all the chicken Mrs. Boyer prepared. Devastated, the children cry that the food is gone and Brother Jackson suggests that Shoestring should be beaten for his insolence and spying.
Mr. Slater returns home after a long absence. He is incensed to see Mrs. Boyer in the house. However, when he sees how ill his wife and children have been, he is grateful to Mrs. Boyer for her help.
Chapter 15 Summary: “New Organ”
Shoestring happily reports that Brother Jackson converted his father to Christianity, turning Mr. Slater into a new man. Mr. Slater quits drinking and is kinder to his family and his neighbors.
A phosphate company buys a big stretch of land nearby and fences it in. Mr. Slater sees this as bad news for his cattle, but Mr. Boyer acknowledges that Florida is never going to be open, wild land forever. Mr. Slater decides to sell his cattle and get a job with the phosphate company. Mr. Slater encourages Shoestring to go to school and get an education. Mrs. Slater decides to join the other strawberry farms and plant her own strawberry crop.
The schoolhouse is rebuilt, and the organist Miss Annie Laurie Dunnaway becomes the teacher. Birdie brings Shoestring with her to school for the first time, where he introduces himself by his real name: Jefferson Davis Slater.
Birdie’s parents buy her an organ and arrange for her to take lessons with Miss Annie Laurie Dunnaway. Birdie’s mother reveals that she once took lessons herself. The novel ends with the family gathered around the organ, singing a song.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
In the final chapters of Strawberry Girl, the resolution takes the form of a common trope of the children’s novel, the happy ending. All conflicts and tensions are resolved, resulting in a conclusion that reflects positive character development and happiness.
This conclusion is first prompted by Mrs. Boyer’s generosity and neighborly love toward the Slaters, despite their quarrels. When Mrs. Slater and her children fall ill, “Mrs. Boyer stayed up, caring for the sick woman and her children. She and Birdie snatched brief naps when they could. But Mrs. Slater did not die. She began to respond to the medicine, care, and nourishing food” (171) Mrs. Slater’s path back to health is indicative of the importance of community and helping one another out. Without Mrs. Boyer, Mrs. Slater would have died. In Mrs. Slater’s openness to Mrs. Boyer’s help, and in Mrs. Boyer’s resolve to help Mrs. Slater despite the tension between their husbands, the two women prove that being partners and companions in a rural and isolated community is good for everyone. Mrs. Boyer embodies the theme of The Importance of Being Kind.
Mrs. Boyer’s loyalty to Mrs. Slater and her dedication to her care also opens the door for the powerful influence of religion. Brother Jackson is first presented in an antagonistic tone, as he eats all of the Slaters’ chicken. But Brother Jackson is quickly revealed to be a savior figure, who uses religion to save Mr. Slater from his addiction and temper. Religion is important to the Boyer family and many other rural families because they rely on it for moral guidance and community building. By embracing religion, Mr. Slater also embraces the community around him.
Mr. Slater’s significant character development parallels the changes in Florida and highlights the theme of The Inevitability of Change. Mr. Slater’s change is a complete pivot. He goes from being antagonistic, cruel, violent, and unreliable, to embodying his own foil:
When I come home and found my wife and young uns had been lyin’ at death’s door, I begun to think. Did I not have kind, forgivin’ neighbors, they’d a been dead. Then the very next night I got sick myself, and thought I was fixin’ to die. So I decided I’d better start livin’ different. But it was Brother Jackson who pointed out the error of my ways. He told me the harm of drinkin’ liquor, and of swearin’ and backbitin’, gossip and anger. So when the spirit come upon me, I was ready. My heart was changed. I’m fixin’ to lead the good life right on (185-86).
Coming to terms with the values he places in his family and acknowledging his culpability for the harm he’s caused them and others makes Mr. Slater confront his worst qualities. By embracing the possibility of change and using religion to help ground himself in a moral code, Mr. Slater becomes responsible, loving, patient, and hard-working. Meanwhile, Florida is also changing, as rural stretches of wild land are bought up by corporations for farming. This marks the beginning of the institutionalization of Florida as a state. This poses problems for family farms, but Lenski’s novel points out that change is inevitable and usually for the better.
Lenski’s novel ends happily. Mr. Slater is reformed, Mrs. Slater finds a new purpose, Shoestring starts school, and Birdie is rewarded for her hard work and generosity with her dream organ. In children’s literature, happy endings are important because they develop a positive tone that keeps children hopeful about the future. In Strawberry Girl, readers are presented with the idea that if they work hard and remain faithful to their moral codes, then they will be rewarded with community and dreams coming true.
