65 pages • 2 hours read
Patricia MacLachlanSarah, Plain and Tall
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1985A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
The dogs like Sarah and sleep near her bed. She shows Anna and Caleb her collection of sea shells and explains how to hold them up to their ear to hear the ocean sounds. Though Anna and Caleb can see that Sarah misses her home near the sea, she takes the children to collect flowers to dry for the winter, and Caleb interprets this to mean she is staying. One of the flowers is called “Bride’s Bonnet” and one is called “wooly ragwort” (23), which Caleb thinks is humorous and causes him to break out into a silly song. Sarah makes stew and Papa makes bread; everyone likes the meal. When Papa compliments her stew, Sarah says, “Ayuh,” which means “yes” where she comes from. Caleb and Papa try out the unfamiliar word.
After dinner, Sarah says that her brother has a boat named Kittiwake, a type of sea bird. Caleb wonders if William looks like Sarah, and she says he is also plain and tall. Sarah cuts Caleb and Papa’s hair and scatters the cuttings into the wind for the birds to use in their nests. She ties Anna’s hair with a ribbon, and as they stand looking in the mirror, Anna thinks she resembles someone who could be Sarah’s daughter. Sarah sings them a song called “Sumer Is Icumen In” (26) and asks to see the sheep the next day. Though she has touched slippery seals, Sarah has never touched a woolly sheep. She demonstrates how seals bark like dogs. Caleb wants to touch a seal, and Sarah says she wishes she could touch one now. Instead, she begins singing the summer song again.
Chapter 5 Summary
Sarah loves the sheep and is sad when she finds a dead lamb in the field. She angrily shoos away the buzzards and stays until Papa buries it. Later that day, Sarah draws pictures of the prairie to send home to Maine. When she draws a windmill, Caleb tells her that was his first word. Anna’s first word was “flower” and Sarah’s was “dune,” which she explains is a sand formation near the sea: She and William enjoyed sliding down them into the water. Caleb says they do not have dunes, but Papa disagrees and takes them out to the barn where he has piled the hay and covered it with a tarp. He puts a ladder near the haystack, and Sarah climbs it and slides down, inciting laughter. Caleb asks if she likes it, and Sarah says, “It is a fine dune” (30). After everyone slides down the “dune” and goes inside to wash up, Sarah draws more pictures for William, including drawings of Caleb and Anna. Sarah also sketches the field but declares something is not quite right with it. Nevertheless, in her letter to William she calls the hay dune “our dune,” which makes Caleb happy.
Chapter 6 Summary
During the hot summer days, Papa teaches Sarah how to plow the fields with the horses, Jack and Old Bess, but she most enjoys sitting in the field with the sheep. As the family relaxes in the meadow once work is over, Sarah asks the family to tell her about winter on the prairie. The children explain that they attend school in the winter. When they tell her about the snow, Sarah is excited. Caleb says the snow gets so high sometimes that they must dig their way out and use a rope to find the barn. Anna loves the coziness of winter, especially when snowstorms keep them home from school. Sarah asks if there is wind in the winter, and Caleb runs around to mimic the wind blowing across the land.
Sarah is hot and wants to go swimming, but the children don’t know how. She takes them to the cow pond and dives into the water. Anna struggles to float, but Caleb learns quickly and makes waves like the sea. After the lesson, they happily lie on the banks to dry in the sun, and Sarah compares the prairie to the rolling waves of the ocean.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
The middle section of the novel focuses on Sarah’s assimilation into life on the prairie, establishing the theme of Finding Comfort and Connection in Nature. Though the flat expanse of the prairie is far different from the seaside landscape of Maine, Sarah brings her deep connection to the natural world with her. She bonds with the animals first and finds her way naturally into the rhythms of homesteading life. Spending time with the animals eases her homesickness and helps her find her place within the family structure, but it also opens her eyes to the hardships the family endures. She grieves the loss of the lamb and comes face to face with the tenuousness of life and death on the plains. Her toughness and resolve emerge when she fights off the vultures, proving herself strong enough to withstand the physical and emotional demands of the rugged lifestyle. Still, it takes Sarah longer to appreciate the prairie itself. After the pond swimming lesson, Sarah recognizes the beauty in the shimmering flatness of the landscape and compares it to her beloved sea, expressing her newfound love for the topography.
At times of rest, Sarah shares stories about her life in Maine and asks the Whitings questions about the prairie. Besides helping the characters get to know one another, such conversations about place develop the depiction of home. Jacob explains the harsh conditions that come with winter and the importance of preparing in advance for dangerous weather like high winds and snow (foreshadowing the later storm). However, Anna’s interior monologue reveals her love for the winter, and this fondness for the most brutal season reveals her love for family and the rituals of being home together. Jacob’s hay “dune” likewise symbolizes his desire to make his home a place Sarah could love just as much as the seaside, and the event serves as a bonding experience as the Whitings make their first memory with Sarah.
The family thrives in Sarah’s presence, as symbolized by song finally returning to their home. Sarah teaches them an old folk song celebrating the coming of summer. Singing the tune with its strange words is joyful for the children—particularly Caleb, who has missed song the most. The song’s theme also foreshadows Jacob and Sarah’s potential wedding in the summer. Summer is the season of fruitfulness and bounty, where people reap what they have sown in the spring. Similarly, the Whitings are hopeful the seeds of family they have sown with Sarah will bloom in the summer, making their family whole again.
All three Whitings seem keen for this to happen, although they otherwise differ in their responses to Sarah’s presence. When Sarah feeds the family—stepping into the role she would have as Jacob’s wife—Jacob adopts her Maine dialect to affirm the deliciousness of her food, symbolizing his acceptance of her identity as a Northeasterner. Caleb attaches to Sarah instantly and incessantly questions her about the sea, keenly searching for clues that Sarah might stay. He hopes, for example, that scattering the hair for birds indicates that she plans to see the nests the birds build. Anna remains comparatively withdrawn; she sees Sarah’s letters to William and her collection of seashells as evidence that she misses home and will return to Maine, so she guards her heart and maintains an emotional distance. Nevertheless, she cannot help growing close to Sarah. Arranging hair is an intimate act that would normally be done by a mother and daughter, so when Sarah braids Anna’s hair and ties the ribbon, she seals the bond between them. The moment allows Anna to let down her guard and envision herself as Sarah’s daughter.
