The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-7

Chapters 8-15

Chapters 16-22

Chapters 23-27

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

The Connection Between Love and Loss

Two intertwined themes throughout the novel are love and loss. Edward doesn’t understand true love until he has known true loss, and in this way the novel comments on the intrinsic link between love and loss. Edward begins the novel living in luxury and wealth. Although he is greatly loved by Abilene, the little girl who owns him, he is unable to return her love. During this time, he is best described as self-centered, thinking only of his comfort and vanity. It’s only when he is separated from Abilene and loses everything that he has that he begins to understand what it means to love.

For Edward, learning to love is a lengthy process. Although loss is the catalyst of that process, the various people he encounters kindle his awareness of what it means to love. When Edward lived with Abilene, he didn’t think deeply about her or his life. Instead, he was constantly distracted by his possessions, his clothing, and his own appearance. However, once he is separated from Abilene and his possessions, he begins to question the purpose of his existence for the first time.

Much of his questioning goes back to Pellegrina’s story about the princess who couldn’t love and was turned into a warthog as a result. At first, he can’t understand why the witch would turn the princess into a warthog; that is, he couldn’t see anything wrong with the princess’s inability to love, and he also couldn’t understand the moral of the story: that life without love is pointless. However, after he is rescued by each of the different people he meets, his gratitude for them turns into affection. By the time he meets Sarah Ruth, he realizes that the affection he feels is love, and once he loses her, he fully understands the meaning of Pellegrina’s story. After losing so many of the people that he loved, he feels that life truly is pointless without love. Although Pellegrina’s story was trying to urge him to love in the first place, Edward takes it to the other extreme: he no longer wants to love because it’s turns into pain.

By the end of the novel, Edward realizes that his life is pointless without love. As the antique china doll points out, Edward should either end his life or let himself love again. Edward chooses to love again, and the novel comes full circle with him ending back with Abilene via her daughter, Maggie.

Having a Voice Through the Power of Story

The power of story is another central theme throughout the novel. Many of the characters that Edward meets during his journey can be considered poor, ostracized, or in some way disenfranchised. While Edward doesn’t change the situations of the people he meets, his presence does offer comfort and gives them a voice. Edward becomes a listening ear for those around him, allowing them talk about their experiences and, in some instances, find closure.

This idea is first seen through the characters of Lawrence and Nellie. Lawrence, a fisherman, and Nellie, his wife, are considerably less wealthy than Abilene’s family. They live in a quaint fishing town near the water, and their house is small. Nellie dresses Edward in simple clothing, quite the opposite of what he wore while with Abilene. On top of this, Lawrence and Nellie lost a child at a young age. Once they meet Edward, they treat him like the son they lost: Lawrence places Edward on his shoulder and teaches him about the constellations, and Nellie dresses him in child’s clothing and puts him in a high chair during dinner. Both Lawrence and Nellie talk to Edward like he’s their lost son, and this helps them work through their pain. In other words, Edward gives Lawrence and Nellie a voice for their pain.

This idea can be seen again through the vagabonds that Edward meets while with Bull. The vagabonds privately tell Edward their life stories and repeat the names of those they left behind. In this way, Edward becomes like a counselor for the vagabonds, giving them a listening ear to work through the tragedies of their experience. While so many people that Bull and the vagabonds meet treat them like less than, Edward doesn’t judge them, but instead feels empathy. This same thing happens again with Bryce and Sarah Ruth. While they are arguably the poorest people that Edward has lived with, he ends up loving Sarah Ruth the most. While she can’t speak much due to her illness, Edward gives her comfort, and in a sense, dignity, in her dying days. Even while her own father basically abandons her during her hours of need, Edward is there.

Love as the Meaning of Life

Pellegrina’s fairytale is the precursor to Edward’s journey of self-discovery. When Pellegrina recognizes that the china rabbit does not return his mistress’s affections, the grandmother tells him the tale of the loveless princess who gets turned into a warthog. The story functions as a warning to Edward, who does not fully comprehend why Pellegrina then tells him that he “disappoint[s]” (33) her. This sentiment is repeated throughout the narrative, illustrating that Edward’s life has no true meaning until he understands the weight behind this disappointment.

During his travels and various encounters, Edward becomes a more empathetic character capable of genuine love. Throughout his different interactions, Edward adopts different roles, subsequently fulfilling a purpose in the lives of those who have taken him in. His purpose is most recognized when he brings comfort and companionship to a dying little girl, Sarah Ruth. Through Sarah Ruth, Edward identifies the value of love—in his own life as well as in the lives of others.

After Edward has lost all those he has loved throughout his life, he acquiesces to apathy. An antique china doll confronts him while they are on display in the doll shop, many years after Edward was separated from his first loved one, Abilene. The china doll echoes Pellegrina’s former statements to Edward: “You disappoint me greatly” (199). The doll remarks this to Edward after he expresses the desire to never have another home and to never love again, resigned to live the remainder of his life alone. The doll continues: “If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless” (199). She then encourages Edward to end his life if he indeed feels this way. Edward deflects this, saying he would if he could, and the doll offers to aid him in his self-inflicted death. Her commitment to the idea that without love, one should simply cease living resounds the concept that love is the meaning of life. Edward muses on this, and shortly after, his “heart stirs” (200) with the hope that maybe one he will again love and be loved.