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Klages, Ellen. 2006. The Green Glass Sea. New York: Puffin
Books. ISBN 9780142411490
PLOT SUMMARY
In 1943, after Dewey Kerrigan’s grandmother has a stroke,
she finds herself on a train ride to New Mexico to live her father who performs
classified work for the government. When
Dewey is reunited with her father, she quickly discovers that she will be living
at Los Alamos, a top-secret Army base which does not officially exist. Dewey learns her father, along with other brilliant
mathematicians, physicists, chemists, and other scientists are working day and
night on a top-secret project for the war known as “The Gadget.” Introverted and gifted, Dewey, struggles to
make friends and adjust to life on the base while attending school with the
other children whose scientist and mathematician parents are also working on
the project. After an unforeseen turn of
events requires Dewey to live with Suze Gordon and her parents, Dewey suddenly finds herself once again in a precarious position, and must rely on the kindness
of others for her safety and security.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In The Green Glass Sea,
a third-person narrator utilizes a clear narrative style to tell the story of
eleven-year-old Dewey Kerrigan, the protagonist of the story. Dewey is small for her size, with dark unruly
hair, steel-framed glasses, and a brown leather orthotic shoe on her right foot
(p. 1). She is briefly reunited with her
father and mathematician, Jimmy Kerrigan, who also happens to be working on The
Manhattan Project. Although Dewey
prefers to keep her own company and work on her own mechanical projects, she
finds friendship and shared interests with thirteen-year-old classmate Charlie
and his younger brother, Jack.
The third-person narrator also tells the story of Suze
Gordon, the main antagonist of the story and Dewey’s schoolmate. Stocky and tall, artistic eleven-year-old
Suze has trouble fitting in with the other girls her age, revealing the theme
of the trials and tribulations that are part of growing up (p. 46). After Dewey is unexpectedly taken into the
Gordon household, she is befriended by Suze’s mother, Terry Gordon. Eventually,
the third-person narrator tells an intertwined story of Dewey and Suze as the
girls grow to become friends and confidants, revealing the theme of female
relationships.
The setting of the story is during World War II at Los
Alamos, a top-secret Army base in New Mexico, also known as “The Hill.” Surrounding several restricted buildings that
house the people that work for the project, the army has constructed numerous
housing sections where Dewey and Suze each live with their family. When she is not in school or visiting Jack
and Charlie at their tree house, Dewey often visits the base dump in search of
spare parts as she works on her radio.
The exposition of the story begins during World War II, on
November 15, 1943, where Dewey is living in St. Louis at her neighbor’s house
because her grandmother had a stroke and was placed in a nursing home. The theme of loss is found several times
throughout the story. Dewey experiences
personal loss when her “Nana” suffers a stroke and is placed in a nursing
home. The rising action begins when an
Army soldier picks up Dewey to take her to the train station to join her dad
who is working out in New Mexico, not Chicago as she had previously believed.
On the train ride, Dewey meets a man named Dick Feynman who knows her father
and explains that they will be neighbors on “The Hill” (p. 22).
After traveling all night, she gets off the train the next
morning, and Dewey is driven to a U. S. Army Corps of Engineers building in
Santa Fe where she meets Dorothy McKibbin to learn the rules and obtain her
pass. Mrs. McKibbin explains that while
everything is secret about her new home, the most important of all the rules is
that Dewey must not ask anyone anywhere what they are working, even when on at
the Hill (p. 27-31). Soon, Dewey is
reunited with her father. When he
finally arrives to drive her up to Los Alamos, the theme of war is revealed
when her dad reveals he is working on a top-secret project that everyone hopes
will end the war.
The rising action continues as the story picks up on August
25, 1944, where Terry Gordon and her daughter Suze are playing a game of cards at
their home in Los Alamos during Terry’s lunch break. The third person narrator now tells Suze’s
story. After Terry leaves to go back to work, Suze
reminisces about her life before Los Alamos when she lived in Berkeley,
California where her parents were professors at UC Berkeley. Like
Dewey, Suze does not have much in common with her peers and has difficulty making
girlfriends.
On March 25, 1945, the rising action resumes when Dewey’s
father informs her he needs to go out of town for a few weeks on a secret,
urgent trip related to his work on the project.
One week later, Dewey finds herself moving into the Gordon’s house. The main conflict between Dewey and Suze begins
to develop as the two girls are forced to learn to coexist as they share Suze’s
room. The theme of both death and loss is found in
the scene where President Roosevelt dies, and Dewey experiences the shared loss
of the nation with Suze and Terry Gordon.
This event also marks the turning point of the conflict between Dewey
and Suze and the beginning of their friendship.
Next, on May 8, 1945, the rising action continues as the
girls hear over the radio that Germany has surrendered, and President Truman
declared the war in Europe is over.
Then, the theme of both death and loss is found in the events of May 26,
1945, when Dewey learns from Dr. Robert Oppenheimer that her father has been
killed in an accident. After she learns
her father has died, the theme of facing reality occurs when Dewey realizes she
is now an orphan. The theme of loss occurs
again as she revisits the loss of her mother, who left her father when she was
a baby.
Dewey struggles to come to terms with her father’s death for
a couple of weeks. After some time
passes, the theme of facing reality occurs again when Dewey is finally able to
go back to her home with Mrs. Gordon to collect her remaining things and pack
up her father’s belongings. With the
packing finished, Mrs. Gordon leaves so she can say her goodbyes in
private. Alone, Dewey is finally able to
grieve for her father.
The rising action builds as the tension on the Hill begins
to increase as the work on the project reaches the critical point where the
gadget is ready to be tested. Mr. Gordon
and several other scientists leave the Hill and travel down to the desert to
the testing zone known Trinity. On July
16, 1945, the scientists of Los Alamos celebrate the successful test of the
atomic bomb they created.
Now that their work on the
gadget is finished, over the next several weeks, everyone on the hill begins to pack their belongings in
preparation to leave and go back to their homes. As Suze’s birthday approaches, Dewey and the
Gordon’s find themselves in a holding pattern until they are given the
clearance to leave and go home. When
the Gordon’s secretly plan a surprise vacation to celebrate Suze’s birthday, Dewey
misinterprets their actions. The theme
of self-preservation occurs when Dewey runs away to prevent from being hurt
when she mistakenly believes the Gordon’s are moving back to California and
leaving without her.
Suze quickly realizes Dewey is gone and tracks her down, finding
her hiding in Charlie and Jack’s treehouse.
Suze tells Dewey her parents planned a two-day vacation for the family,
including her. After talking the
situation through, Dewey and Suze reestablish their relationship. Suze suggests that when the Gordon’s move
back to their old house California, Dewey could have her own room there too. The next day, Dewey and the Gordon’s leave Los
Alamos for their vacation.
The day after Suze’s birthday, Dr. Gordon drives them out to
Trinity, to see ground zero and the new, massive, green glass sea created by
the heat from the explosion of the bomb.
There, Dr. Gordon tells Suze her real birthday present was to see the
Trinitite, the first new mineral created on Earth in millions of years. Dewey rightly guesses that the gadget created
the Trinitite and Dr. Gordon allows Suze and Dewey to keep a few pieces of the
green glass (p. 312-314).
As they drive away from the site, the climax of the story
occurs as Dewey holds her piece, thinking the Trinitite is “One last present
from Papa, a piece of the beautiful green glass sea” (p. 318). The resolution of the story occurs as Suze
asks to turn the radio on. Although Dr.
Gordon warns Suze she may not have any reception that far away from town, from
the radio:
“a man’s voice came through, soft but
clear: ‘…. onto the Japanese city of Hiroshima this morning….’ She turned past
it to more static and shook her head. ‘Nothing but war news,’ she said,
clicking the radio off. ‘We can always get that later’” (p. 318).
Unbeknownst to Dewey and the Gordon’s, the United States
government has used the gadget to end the war when it drops the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima.
The authenticity of the story is addressed in the Author’s
Note beginning on page 320. Klages reveals,
although Dewey, Suze, and their families are fictional, the characters of Dorothy
McKibbin, Robert Oppenheimer, and Richard Feynman were real people who worked
on “the Manhattan Project” (p. 320). Klages also provides several suggested
titles to learn “more about the history of nuclear physics, the development of
the bomb, or life on ‘the hill’” (p. 320).
In the Acknowledgements section, Klages shares that as part
of the writing process for this book, she personally visited the Trinity
site. She thanks Erich Draeger of
the University of Arizona who sent her a sample of the trinitite. She expresses her thanks to the “dozens of eBay sellers who provided vintage period material-LIFE
magazines, New Mexico postcards, out-of-print books” (p. 322) that helped bring
the period alive for her.
There are several items mentioned in the story which add to
the authentic feel of the 1940’s. For
example, Woolworth’s and Marshall Field’s are two iconic department stores that
are no longer in business. Likewise,
when Dewey returns to collect her father’s personal belongings, she mentions
that his clothing smells like the Brylcreem he used for styling his hair.
Similarly, Dewey looks for her father’s Studebaker, a classic vintage car style
that was popular during this period.
Reading was a favorite pastime for many people during the 1940’s. In the story, Dewey and Suze spend quite a
bit of time reading vintage comic titles such as Captain Midnight, Captain
Marvel, Captain America, Superman, and Wonderwoman. Dewey spends
her free time reading The Boy Mechanic. There are several mentions of the popular
vintage magazine, LIFE magazine.
During WWII, the U. S. provided food ration coupons for
American families. Dewey mentions that
when she lived with her neighbor, her meat ration coupon only allowed for them
to purchase Chicken on Sunday (p. 11), which help readers understand what food
rationing meant for households during this time. Similarly, the mention of the various food and
drink items such as Lemon NEHI, Ovaltine, and the Clark candy bar help to
inform the reader of favorite items during this period.
Finally, Klages acknowledges her gratitude to the curators
and librarians at the Los Alamos Historical Museum, the Tularosa Basin
Historical Society in Alamogordo, the New Mexico State Library, and the
Cleveland Public Library system for their “knowledge and invaluable assistance”
(p. 323) in the creation of this book.
What began as a short story, finally evolved into Dewey and Suze’s story
which includes the incredible reenactment of the people who created one of the
most terrifying weapons of mass destruction in history.
REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Winner of the 2007 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction
From Horn Book: “An
intense but accessible page-turner, firmly belongs to the girls and their
families: history and story are drawn together with confidence.”
From Publisher’s
Weekly: “Klages makes an impressive debut with an ambitious, meticulously
researched novel set during WWII.”
CONNECTIONS
Collect other Ellen Klages books to read such as:
- White Sands, Red Menace. ISBN 9780142415184
- Out of Left Field. ISBN 9780425288597
Collect other Historical fiction books to read such as:
- Curtis, Christopher Paul. Elijah of Buxton. ISBN 9780439023450
- Cushman, Karen. The Midwife’s Apprentice. ISBN 9780547722177
- Larson, Kirby. Hattie Ever After. IBSN 9780375850905
- Paterson, Katherine. Jacob Have I Loved. IBSN 9780064403689
- Williams-Garcia, Rita. One Crazy Summer. ISBN 9780060760908
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