35 pages • 1 hour read
P.L. TraversMary Poppins
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1934A 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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BetaChapters 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “Full Moon”
One day, Mary Poppins rushes around in a bad mood. Jane and Michael hide behind the sofa and count the money in their money boxes to avoid her ire. Michael explains that he is saving his money to buy an elephant, and when he offers to take Mary Poppins for a ride on his elephant, “she was not quite so cross as before” (118). Michael wonders out loud what happens “‘in the Zoo at night, when everybody’s gone home’” (118). That night, Mary Poppins puts Jane and Michael to bed quickly and “went away as hurriedly as though all the winds of the world were blowing behind her” (119). They soon wake up to hear a voice telling them to dress, and they rush to find their clothes and go out to the lane where they find themselves led by something they cannot see.
The children arrive at the zoo, where “Special Visitors are allowed in free” (120) according to the bear giving out tickets. Michael recognizes the bear and asks him why he isn’t in his cage, and the bear explains that “when the Birthday falls on a Full Moon” (121), he is able to be free. Jane and Michael wander through the zoo, seeing all kinds of animals running around free and talking about someone’s birthday. They also see “a very large, very fat old gentleman” (122) on all fours with eight monkeys riding on his back, and a seal complaining about being asked to “dive for a bit of orange peel [it doesn’t] want” (122). After Jane and Michael receive recognition as special guests, Jane bumps into a friendly lion who escorts her and Michael to a great hall filled with animals. Jane and Michael are amazed to find that the cages are full of human beings of all ages and backgrounds, and the animals are gawking at the humans, feeding them, and teasing them. Jane loses track of Michael but soon finds him “talking to a Penguin who was standing in the middle of the path with a large copybook under one wing and an enormous pencil under the other” (128). The penguin is writing “a poem for the Birthday” (128) addressed to someone named Mary.
The bear from the entrance guides Jane and Michael to the snake house, where all of the snakes are out of their cages, and there, they see Mary Poppins. Suddenly, the presence of a hamadryad snake whose “face was smaller and more wizened than anything they had ever seen” (131) commands everyone’s attention. The hamadryad, whom the bear describes as “the lord of our world—the wisest and most terrible of us all” (131), welcomes Jane and Michael before making a speech in honor of his cousin Mary Poppins whose birthday it is. He gives her a birthday present of one of his own skins and writes a greeting on it before an announcement sounds for “the Grand Chain and Finale” (133) to take place in the square in the middle of the zoo. The hamadryad speaks with Jane and Michael while all the other animals gather around Mary Poppins. Jane wonders how natural enemies are able to get along so well, and the hamadryad explains that “‘it may be that to eat and be eaten are the same thing in the end’” (135). As the hamadryad speaks, Jane and Michael grow sleepy.
The next morning, Jane and Michael discuss their dreams. They excitedly discuss the fact that they both had a dream where they “were at the Zoo and it was Mary Poppins’s birthday” (137), and while comparing details, Jane asks Mary Poppins if she was at the zoo the night before. Mary Poppins denies it, but Michael points out to Jane that Mary Poppins is wearing a belt of golden snakeskin.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Christmas Shopping”
While Christmas shopping with Mary Poppins, Jane and Michael marvel at all the toys while Mary Poppins admires her new gloves and her overall appearance as reflected in the shop window. The children select presents for family members and for the household staff, while Mary Poppins argues with Father Christmas over soap. As they resist Mary Poppins’s instruction to head homeward, a commotion distracts them, and they see a “running, flickering figure of a child” (142) wearing only “a light wispy strip of blue stuff that looked as though she had torn it from the sky” (143). The child spins inside the rotating door to the department store until she lands in the shop and runs towards Mary Poppins. She introduces herself to Jane and Michael while reminding Mary Poppins that she is Maia, “the second of the Pleiades” (144).
Maia has been observing the Banks family from the sky, so she knows who they are, and she has come down to go Christmas shopping for her six sisters. As Maia selects presents, Mary Poppins, Jane, and Michael cannot take their eyes off her. When Michael expresses concern over how Maia will pay for the toys, she explains that Christmas isn’t about money but the giving of things, and the shopkeeper assistant agrees. Maia leads the children out of the shop, followed by Mary Poppins, and Jane notices that Maia doesn’t have a present. Mary Poppins gives Maia her new gloves, and Maia kisses her before “standing poised on tiptoe, lift[ing] up her arms and [springing] into the air” (149). The crowd comments as Maia returns home and a policeman shakes his fist at her, which only makes her laugh. Mary Poppins scolds the policeman, and Jane and Michael notice that she may be shedding a tear. Jane, Michael, and Mary Poppins go home, and when Mrs. Banks laments the loss of the new gloves, Mary Poppins replies, “My gloves are my gloves and I do what I like with them!” (151).
Chapter 12 Summary: “West Wind”
On the first day of spring, Mr. Banks loses his black bag, and Jane and Michael come downstairs to eat breakfast for the first time. Mr. Banks finds his bag, and as he leaves the house for the City, he notes that the wind is blowing from the west. Jane and Michael overhear him, and they both have “a thought in each of their minds that they wished was not there” (153).
The day progresses as usual until Michael interrupts Jane, who is gardening, to tell her that Mary Poppins has just given him her compass. This kind gesture is proof to the children that something is wrong, because “Mary Poppins never wasted time in being nice” (154). All afternoon, Mary Poppins is quiet, and Michael begs her to be cross. The wind intensifies, and by evening, the children can hear it whistling loudly. After they have supper, Mary Poppins leaves the nursery with her shoes, and though she tries to reassure the children, they know something is about to happen.
Jane and Michael hear the front door shutting and look out the window to see Mary Poppins with her bag and her open umbrella. The wind lifts Marry Poppins over the cherry trees. Jane and Michael get the twins so they too can see her leave, which makes the twins cry. The children hear their mother approaching the nursery, and she is upset at Mary Poppins’s sudden departure. When Jane and Michael ask if Mary Poppins gave any indication of a plan to return, Mrs. Banks exclaims that she won’t allow Mary Poppins to return, causing Jane and Michael to burst into tears.
Mrs. Brill helps the children get ready for bed and finds a little wrapped object under Jane’s pillow. The parcel contains a framed picture of Mary Poppins painted by Bert and a letter from Mary Poppins explaining that Michael had received the compass, so the picture is for Jane. The letter ends with the phrase “Au revoir,” and when Mrs. Brill translates the phrase as “To meet again” (161), the children feel relief knowing that Mary Poppins “always does what she says she will” (161).
To soothe Michael, Jane gives him the portrait of Mary Poppins to hold as he falls asleep, and she tucks him in as Mary Poppins used to.
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
The final chapters of the novel provide more detailed insight into Mary Poppins as a character. Though Travers doesn’t explain all of her confusing mood swings, the mere fact that Mary Poppins feels a certain kind of stress on the day of her birthday is meaningful. For some reason, she is experiencing stress on a day that most children agree should be a very happy day. As evidenced by the full moon birthday celebration at the zoo, and how she “went away [from the children] hurriedly” (118), Mary Poppins’s birthday is a pressured event; she must make an appearance in her own honor, in front of a large audience, and though she is vain and likes to look at herself, this kind of focused attention from others is difficult for her to sustain.
Mary Poppins’s motivations also seem to change, or at least deepen, in these chapters, thus linking her character with an important message about life and society. Mary Poppins includes Jane and Michael in the birthday festivities, presumably for their benefit. Not only are Jane and Michael fascinated and amused by what they see, they also learn something very important from the hamadryad (another name for a king cobra) about the interactions between the members of any society, animal or human, when he repeats to them: “we are all one, all one” (136). This trip to the zoo, like the trip around the world on Michael’s bad day, is as educational as it is entertaining. Mary Poppins presents the children with an experience and then leaves them to deduce its meaning; she chooses not to guide their thinking but to let them digest new knowledge independently.
The role reversal that takes place at the zoo is undeniably symbolic. As the animals gawk at the humans trapped in their cages, Jane and Michael cannot help but experience a feeling of empathy for the animals who must re-enter their cages and live under the gaze of a human audience. By giving the animals voices to air their resentment at forced performance and living according to principles that violate the laws of nature, Travers calls attention to the cages inherent in a rigid class system in which people are live in figurative cages, limited by restricted access and finances.
Mary Poppins’s unexpected thoughtfulness towards Maia, the star who comes down from the night sky to go Christmas shopping for her sisters, also suggests that her character is more complex than appearances indicate. At the end of her shopping trip, Mary Poppins gives Maia her beautiful fur-lined gloves, a gesture that proves that Mary Poppins is not entirely cold-hearted, but generous and kind in her own way. When Mary Poppins leaves the Banks home, abruptly popping out as abruptly as she popped in, she leaves gifts for the children, as well as a promise to see them again; Mary Poppins knows that this promise will mean more to them than even the gifts, again reflecting a thoughtful sensitivity disguised by an often stand-offish exterior.
