THE HUNDRED DRESSES I & II (First Flight)

 By EL BSOR ESTERN

Colours are used to describe feelings, moods and emotions. Match the following ‘colour expressions’ with a suggested paraphrase.

(i) the Monday morning blues – sadness or depression after a weekend of fun

(ii) go red in the face – feel embarrassed/angry/ashamed.

(iii) look green – feel very sick, as if about to vomit.

(iv) the red carpet – a special welcome

(v) blue-blooded – of noble birth or from a royal family

(vi) a green belt – land around a town or city where construction is prohibited by law

(vii) a blackguard – a dishonest person with no sense of right or wrong

(viii) a grey area – an area of a subject or a situation where matters are not very clear

(ix) a white flag – a sign of surrender or acceptance of defeat; a wish to stop fighting

(x) a blueprint – a photographic print of building plans; a detailed plan or scheme

(xi) red-handed – in an unlawful act; while doing something wrong.

(xii) the green light – the sign or permission to begin an action 

Character sketch of Peggy.

Peggy was a rich, pretty American girl. She was intelligent, good at studies and scored good marks. She loved fun and enjoyed teasing Wanda because of her faded blue dress. She kept asking her mockingly how many dresses she had.

Character sketch of Maddie.

Maddie was a kind and compassionate American girl. She joined other girls in teasing Wanda. But she really didn't like teasing others. She wanted to stop Peggy from teasing Wanda.

Character sketch of Wanda.

Wanda patronski was a Polish immigrant girl who came from Poland. She belongs to a poor family and always wore one blue colour faded dress which did not fit her properly. She did not have any friends and lived on the boggins height.


1. Where in the classroom does Wanda sit and why?

Usually Wanda sat in the seat next to the last seat in the last row in Room Thirteen. She sat in the corner of the room where the rough boys who did not make good marks sat, the corner of the room where there was most scuffling of feet, most roars of laughter when anything funny was said, and most mud and dirt on the floor. Nobody knew exactly why Wanda sat in that seat, it may be because she came all the way from Boggins Heights and her feet were usually caked with dry mud. But no one really thought much about Wanda Petronski, once she sat in the corner of the room.

2. Where does Wanda live? What kind of a place do you think it is?

Wanda lives at Boggins Heights. It seems that it is a place far away from the school and the fact that her shoes are covered in mud gives an idea that Boggins Heights is not a developed area, more likely, it could be like some unplanned colony or a slum area.

3. When and why do Peggy and Maddie notice Wanda’s absence?

The reason Peggy and Maddie noticed Wanda’s absence was because Wanda had made them late to school. They had waited and waited for Wanda, to have some fun with her, and she just hadn’t come. They often waited for Wanda Petronski — to have fun with her.

4. What do you think “to have fun with her” means?

It is human behaviour to enjoy by making fun of things/human in their own ways. However, in the given statement, Wanda Petronski is the girl who is made fun of by her classmates. So here 'to have fun with her' meant that her classmates liked to tease and nag at her ways.

5. In what way was Wanda different from the other children?

Wanda didn’t have any friends. She came to school alone and went home alone. She always wore a faded blue dress that didn’t hang right. It was clean, but it looked as though it had never been ironed properly. Unlike other children she didn’t have any friends, but a lot of girls talked to her. She did not maintain a close relationship with any of her classmates.

6. Did Wanda have a hundred dresses? Why do you think she said she did?

Wanda did not have a hundred dresses because she was poor and wore the same faded dress to school every day. The other children of her class used to make fun of her poverty, and would have laughed at her whatever excuse she would have made. Peer pressure and the want of acceptance by peers would have forced her to exaggerate everything.

7. Why is Maddie embarrassed by the questions Peggy asks Wanda? Is she also like Wanda, or is she different?

Sometimes, when Peggy was asking Wanda those questions in that mocking polite voice, Maddie felt embarrassed. As for Maddie, this business of asking Wanda every day how many dresses and how many hats, and how many this and that she had was bothering her. Maddie was poor herself. She usually wore somebody’s hand-me-down clothes. She wasn’t as poor as Wanda, perhaps, but she was poor. Of course she would have more sense than to say she had a hundred dresses. Still she would not like for her classmates to begin on her the way they nag Wanda. She wished Peggy would stop teasing Wanda Petronski.

8. Why didn’t Maddie ask Peggie to stop teasing Wanda? What was she afraid of?

Maddie tried to tell Peggy to stop teasing Wanda by writing a note to her. She knew she would never have the courage to speak to Peggy about this matter. As she was writing the note, she pictured herself in the schoolyard as a new target for Peggy and the girls. She thought Peggy might ask her where she got the dress she had on and she would have to say that it was one of Peggy’s old ones.

9. Who did Maddie think would win the drawing contest? Why?

Maddie thought that Peggy would win the drawing contest because Peggy drew better than anyone else. She could copy a picture in a magazine, or some film star’s face so well that one couldn’t spot the difference.

10. Who won the drawing contest? What had the winner drawn?

Wanda Petronski won the girls’ medal. This one girl actually drew one hundred designs — all different and all beautiful. They were all drawn on great sheets of wrapping paper. Each design was unique and beautiful. The judges thought any one of the drawing was worthy of winning the prize.


THE HUNDRED DRESSES -2

1. What did Mr Petronski’s letter say?

Mr. Petronski wrote a letter to the school teacher saying that Wanda will not come to school anymore because they are moving to a big city where no one will ask about their funny names.

2. Is Miss Mason angry with the class, or is she unhappy and upset?

When Miss Mason came to know that the students were making fun of Wanda having a long name she was very unhappy and upset. She was disturbed when she came to know of such incidents happening in her classroom.

3. How does Maddie feel after listening to the note from Wanda’s father?

Maddie had a very sick feeling in the bottom of her stomach. True, she had not enjoyed listening to Peggy ask Wanda how many dresses she had in her closet, but she had said nothing. She had stood by silently, and that was just as bad as what Peggy had done. At least Peggy hadn’t considered they were being mean but she, Maddie, knew very well they were doing wrong. She could put herself in Wanda’s shoes.

4. What does Maddie want to do?

Maddie wanted to tell Wanda she hadn’t meant to hurt her feeling. She thought of going to Wanda’s house along with Peggy to congratulate her on the success of her winning the contest and tell her that they very much liked all the hundred dresses.

5. What excuses does Peggy think up for her behaviour? Why?

Peggy said that she never did call her a foreigner or make fun of her name. She also added that she never thought that Maddie had the sense to know that they were making fun of her anyway. She thought she was too dumb and she was not talented enough to win the competition.

6. What are Maddie’s thoughts as they go to Boggins Heights?

She hoped to meet Wanda. She wanted to tell her that they were sorry they had picked on her, and how wonderful the whole school thought she was. She also wanted to request her not to move away and promised that everybody would be nice with her. She also wanted to tell her that she and Peggy would fight anybody who was not nice with Wanda.

7. Why does Wanda’s house remind Maddie of Wanda’s blue dress?

The house and its sparse little yard looked shabby but clean. It reminded Maddie of Wanda’s one dress, her faded blue cotton dress, shabby but clean.

8. What does Maddie think hard about? What important decision does she come to?

Maddie thought for a long, long time and she reached an important conclusion. She was never going to stand by Peggy if she involves her in nagging someone again. If she ever heard anybody picking on someone because they were funny looking or because they had strange names, she’d speak up. Even if it meant losing Peggy’s friendship. She had no way of making things right with Wanda, but from that moment she decided that she would never make anybody else unhappy again.

9. What did the girls write to Wanda?

On Saturday Maddie spent the afternoon with Peggy. They wrote a letter to Wanda Petronski. It was just a friendly letter telling about the contest and telling Wanda she had won. They told her how pretty her drawings were. And they asked her if she liked where she was living and if she liked her new teacher. They had meant to say they were sorry, but it ended up with their just writing a friendly letter, the kind they would have written to any good friend, and they signed it with lots of X’s for love.

10. Did they get a reply? Who was more anxious for a reply, Peggy or Maddie? How do you know?

Weeks went by and still Wanda did not answer. Peggy had begun to forget the whole business, and Maddie was unable to sleep at nights thinking about how Wanda was insulted. Everyday Maddie was thinking about Wanda and she wished that Wanda forgives her for her wrong doings. The incidents in their classroom was haunting the mind of Maddie and she was upset that Wanda did not reply.

11. How did the girls know that Wanda liked them even though they had teased her?

On the last day of the school before Christmas vacation the teacher showed a letter that Wanda has written to the school. In that letter she wished everyone in the classroom Happy Christmas. She offered all the hundred dresses to everyone in her classroom. She has mentioned that the blue one is for Maddie and the green one is for Peggy. This shows that she loved all of them although they teased her always.

12. Why do you think Wanda’s family moved to a different city? Do you think life there was going to be different for their family?

Wanda's family moved to a different city because the girls in the school had been teasing her bitterly for her funny name and dress. Yes, life there in a different city was going to be different because people there do not bother about the names and their dresses.

13. Maddie thought her silence was as bad as Peggy’s teasing. Was she right?

Maddie was right when she thought that her silence was as bad as Peggy's teasing because even though she felt bad about it and never teased Wanda herself, she did not say anything to stop it.

14. Peggy says, “I never thought she had the sense to know we were making fun of her anyway. I thought she was too dumb. And gee, look how she can draw!” What led Peggy to believe that Wanda was dumb? Did she change her opinion later?

Peggy believed that Wanda was dumb as she could not understand why Wanda said she had a hundred dresses, even when everybody knew that she was poor. She knew everybody was laughing at her. Even then, she kept giving the same answer. She even described the dresses she said she had. That is why Peggy thought Wanda was dumb. She changed her opinion later when she saw a hundred dresses Wanda had talked about. She saw the drawings and was highly impressed by their beauty. She realized that Wanda was a very good artist.

15. What important decision did Maddie make? Why did she have to think hard to do so?

Maddie made an important decision that she would take a stand if she ever heard anybody picking on someone because they were funny-looking or because they had strange names. She did not even mind losing Peggy’s friendship over it. She knew she could not make things right with Wanda. However, she had decided that in the future, she would never make anybody else unhappy again.

She was unhappy that she could not find Wanda at her home. She felt guilty for not saying anything when everybody else was teasing Wanda. It was her guilt that made her think very hard and arrive at the important decision.

16. Why do you think Wanda gave Maddie and Peggy the drawings of the dresses? Why are they surprised?

Maddie and Peggy had written a letter to Wanda. Though it was a friendly letter, Wanda must have understood the emotions behind the writing of that letter. Therefore, Wanda’s request that two of her drawings be given to Maddie and Peggy could be her way of telling them that she had forgiven and forgotten.

When Maddie and Peggy did not receive a reply to their letter for a long time, they felt that perhaps Wanda was still hurt and angry. Therefore, they were surprised when they came to know that Wanda had asked Miss Mason to give them two of her drawings.

17. Do you think Wanda really thought the girls were teasing her? Why or Why not?

Wanda was very much aware that the other children were teasing her. That is the reason why she left school and shifted to another city. Also, she exaggerated about owning 100 dresses because she knew no matter what she says they were going to tease her. 

Click for the poem included in Unit 6 of First Flight.