Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

“The most remarkable thing about Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is her house, which is upside down. It is a little brown house, and sitting there in its tangly garden it looks like a small brown puppy lying on its back with its feet in the air. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle says that when she was a little girl she used to lie in bed and gaze up at the ceiling and wonder and wonder what it would be like if the house were upside down. And so when she grew up and built her own house she had it built upside down, just to see. The bathroom, the kitchen and the staircase are right side up—they are more convenient that way. You can easily see that you could not cook on an upside-down stove or wash dishes in an upside-down sink or walk up upside-down stairs.

In the living room of her house is a large chandelier and instead of being on the ceiling it is on the floor. Of course it is really on the ceiling, but the ceiling is the floor and so it is on the floor and the children turn on the lights and then squat around it pretending it is a campfire.”

MacDonald uses detail and simile in this passage to characterize the setting of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s house as whimsical. The imagery of the chandelier on the floor and the house looking like a puppy on its back create detailed visual images of what it is like to spend time in her home. One of the novel’s themes is The Creation of Everyday Magic. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s house is both an important setting and an example of something that is possible in reality, but it is also whimsical and magical if experienced with a childlike spirit.

“When I wash dishes, Mary Lou, I pretend that I am a beautiful princess with long, golden, curly hair (Mary Lou’s hair was jet black and braided into two stiff little pigtails), and apple-blossom skin and forget-me-not blue eyes. I have been captured by a wicked witch and my only chance to get free is to wash every single dish and have the whole kitchen sparkly clean before the clock strikes. For, when the clock strikes, the witch will come down and inspect, to see if there is a crumb anywhere. If there are pots and pans that have been put away wet, if the silverware has been thrown in the drawer, or if the sink has not been scrubbed out, the witch will have me in her power for another year.”

This passage helps describe Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and how she relates to children. The passage characterizes intergenerational friendship; Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle talks to Mary Lou as an equal despite their age difference. Rather than being instructional or pedantic, she talks to Mary Lou about her own experience. She describes how she likes to make doing the dishes fun rather than telling Mary Lou she should try to make the experience enjoyable.