So Big · Chapters
Chapters explained
Chapter companions for So Big by Edna Ferber.
Each chapter has a companion in the reader — open a free preview to see notes beside the text.
Chapter 1
I
Selina Peake, living in a boarding house with her father Simeon, visits her friend Julie Hempel. She returns home to find her father has been killed by a stray bullet in a gambling house. The chapter then reflects on Selina's childhood, her father's profession as a gambler, and her early life moving from city to city.
Chapter 2
II
Selina Peake travels to High Prairie to begin teaching at the Dutch school, accompanied by Klaas Pool. She marvels at the beauty of the cabbage fields, comparing them to jewels and Persian patches, which amuses Klaas. The chapter introduces her background, her friendship with Julie Hempel, and the influence of August Hempel in securing her position.
Chapter 3
III
Selina arrives at the Klaas Pool farmhouse in High Prairie, meeting Maartje Pool and her two daughters, Geertje and Jozina. She is shown to her bedroom, where Maartje reveals a centuries-old Dutch bride's chest containing a bridal gown, cap, and wooden shoes. Selina feels a pang of homesickness for her father and Chicago, but also a sense of adventure.
Chapter 4
IV
Selina endures the harsh winter mornings at the Pool farm, refusing to dress behind the kitchen stove like the others. She battles the cold, the frozen water, and her icy corset, even drawing a demon face on the parlor stove drum. At school, she struggles with the stove and the wind. She finds solace in Roelf Pool, reading to him while he carves, and is enchanted by his crude but striking sketch of the Haymarket. A trip to Chicago to visit Julie Hempel ends in disappointment when Mrs. Hempel turns her away; Selina defiantly treats herself to a lavish luncheon at the Auditorium Hotel, then buys presents for the Pools and returns gratefully to the farm.
Chapter 5
V
Selina attends church and a box social, where she first notices Pervus DeJong and the Widow Paarlenberg. She bids on and wins Pervus's basket, leading to a conversation in which she offers to teach him arithmetic and reading in exchange for his help with the schoolhouse fire.
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