Saturday, March 10, 2012

Why doesn't Holling complain to Mrs. Baker about cleaning erasers and straightening the classroom?

The answer to this question can be found relatively early in the chapter titled "October." Holling is giving readers a summary of all of the horrible cleaning chores that he has to do for Mrs. Baker during his time on Wednesdays with her. He has to do things like clean chalkboards, pound out chalkboard erasers, and arrange dictionaries. He tells readers that he got so good at that stuff that Mrs. Baker then tasked him with hanging up bulletin boards, clearing cobwebs, and cleaning windows. Holling then has a brilliant paragraph in which he vents about not complaining about any of the tasks that he has been doing. Right after that paragraph Holling then tells readers exactly why he didn't complain. During the first week in October, the Baker Sporting Emporium narrowed its architect choices down to two firms. One of those firms is his father's firm, and Holling is under strict orders from his dad to keep Mrs. Baker happy in order to not wreck his firm's chances of landing the contract. In fact, Mr. Hoodhood asks Holling every single night if everything is alright with Mrs. Baker. Holling doesn't complain because he doesn't want his dad to blame him in any way if Hoodhood and Associates doesn't get the contract.

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