49 pages • 1 hour read
Louis SacharSideways Stories from Wayside School
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1978A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
The School Building
In the Introduction, the speaker clarifies that the builder misunderstood the blueprints and constructed Wayside School “sideways.” That is, instead of a single-story building with 30 classrooms, the building is 30-stories high with a single classroom on each floor. The building error provides the groundwork for the strangeness that ensues within Wayside School. Although there is nothing innate to a 30-story building that would cause illogical circumstances, this premise is presented without question. However, a classroom on the 30th floor creates conflict for several students, as the task of climbing so many stairs plays a role in their respective dilemmas. For example, Dameon misses the movie while traveling between the playground and 30th floor to relay questions, and Deedee cannot obtain the best ball at recess because students on lower floors claim them before she can reach the playground.
The building’s literal 30 stories (floors) are made symbolic by the 30 stories (tales) contained in the book. Each student, in turn, warrants his or her own story because each student faces a unique challenge. This kind of playfulness is carried into the individual chapters, permitting the unreal and fantastical circumstances that ensue. Ultimately, the students of Wayside come to regard its unusualness as not quirky or exceptional but as the norm. When they are told stories of “normal” students at “normal” schools, they regard them as impossible and unbelievable. The idea that the fantastical and nonsensical are preferred over “normal” supports the theme of Absurdity Versus Reality.
The Discipline List
Very quickly upon her arrival on the 30th story, Mrs. Jewls establishes a method of tracking (and thus deterring) bad behavior: the discipline list. When a student breaks a rule, their name is written on the chalkboard. A second offense warrants a checkmark placed next to his or her name. On the third and final offense, the student is forced to leave school early by riding home on the kindergarten bus.
Mrs. Jewls is consistent in following this practice, but it does not necessarily generate the results she wishes. Although intended as a warning to deter future bad behavior, the system fails to do this in some cases, such as that of Paul, who pulls Leslie’s pigtails twice each day but avoids the punishment of early dismissal by stopping at twice. Mrs. Jewls is susceptible to manipulation and often punishes the wrong students for bad behavior, such as Joy’s framing of Allison, Calvin, Jason, and Deedee for stealing Dameon’s lunch. In this way, the discipline list underscores the shortcomings of rule-based logic.
Although the discipline list symbolizes order, it ironically provides students with reprieve from school. The final punishment is not so much an effective way of correcting the problem or circumstances that warranted discipline, but rather a means of ignoring the problem altogether. By removing the student, Mrs. Jewls removes the problem. Similarly, though there is shame involved in being forced to ride the bus with the kindergarten students, arguably being “forced” to leave school early would be considered a reward by many students rather than a punishment. On the contrary, the discipline list serves as an opposite approach to Mrs. Gorf’s discipline system of turning students into apples. Mrs. Gorf metes out punishment upon a student’s first offense with no opportunity for the student to correct the ill behavior. Mrs. Jewls’s implementation of “fair” system positions her as a foil to Mrs. Gorf. The discipline list, though logical on its surface, furthers the book’s absurdist elements and thematically supports Problem Solving and Learning.
Apples
Mrs. Gorf threatens to turn students into apples for misbehaving or for answering a question incorrectly. The archetype of a student gifting his or her teacher with an apple is apparent when, upon seeing the apples on her desk, Louis believes Mrs. Gorf to be a well-liked teacher. In fact, the opposite is true (in keeping with the absurdist nature of Wayside School) and Mrs. Gorf is hated and feared. This signals that Wayside is in every way unlike a traditional school. Similarly, Mrs. Gorf dislikes teaching and is happy when she has rid her classroom of all students, subverting the norm of an archetypal teacher. Likewise, the bananas that Mrs. Jewls offers to give to students will later contrast the apples, thus highlighting the ways in which the two teachers differ.
Mrs. Gorf’s apples are children in disguise. The student apples retain their ability to think and speak, but based on Louis’s assessment, they appear to be “normal” apples. As apples, the students band together to overcome Mrs. Gorf and collectively convince her to turn them back into children. This key moment introduces the theme of The Importance of Community and Social Norms. The chapter’s absurdity is extended when Jenny uses a mirror to trick Mrs. Gorf into turning herself into an apple, thus subverting the teacher’s power. It is significant that Louis eats the Mrs. Gorf apple and not any of the children. In this way, the opening chapter grounds the bizarre Wayside School in the reader’s reality, in which wrongs are righted, and good triumphs over evil.
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By Louis Sachar
