Summary

 In the Wanderer, thirteen-year-old Sophie is the only girl on a voyage with her family across the Atlantic Ocean.   The book goes through the struggles that teenagers might face.  Sophie and her cousin Cody keep a log, Sophie because she wants to remember her adventures and Cody because it’s a school assignment.   The stories written in the journal consist of various feelings and struggles faced by Sophie and Cody.  The Wanderer combines adventure, relationships, and in depth characterization to tell a story of travels to a distant land.  Although the final destination is England to see their beloved grandfather, Bompie, they make many stops along the way to meet old friends and make boat repairs.  These times are filled with anxiety to get on with the real voyage, the one across the Atlantic.  While on land at their stops, Cody and Sophie run off and explore.  They meet interesting people and go searching for ghosts, who allegedly occupy parts of Grand Manon Island.  While on their journey on the island, Cody asks about Sophie’s real parents.  Everyone in the family knows that Sophie was adopted, but Sophie refuses to accept it.  Whenever the topic of her real parents comes up she says that her parents are in Tennessee, where their home is.  Cody inquires further on the subject and Sophie indirectly describes the situation.  Sophie’s biological parents couldn’t take care of her and didn’t want her around.  This is the first time we see Sophie open up, even if she does it indirectly.  Throughout their voyage, the relationship between Cody and Sophie becomes very close and they stand up for each other on multiple occasions.  Cody and Sophie seem to be the ones that add joy to rough days out at sea.  Along the way Sophie is introduced to all kinds of different animals, her experiences with fish are not the best.  When she sees the plankton, whales, dolphins, and birds, she is in a whole other world. Sophie thinks about things very deeply, like where the whales came from and why they follow the boat.  Sophie’s biggest aspiration is to see Bompie.  She tells “his stories” to the rest of the crew during their journey.  All the stories consist of a fear of water but the urge to keep going back in.  This gives us an insight on what Sophie really feels about the ocean.  They reach a point in their voyage where the waves are enormous and the boat is struck by a wave and the crew is shaken.  We learn here that this brings back bad memories of a big wave that Sophie was caught in at a young age.  The journey starts out as a voyage from America to England but in the end the real voyage for Sophie was internal.

Discussion Questions

What are the differences in the tales of the same stories told by Cody and Sophie?

-          Sophie has a really in depth description of her experiences while Cody looks at things literally.  Sophie will go on and on about her experiences, which makes her logs longer while Cody complains about the social problems behind everything.

Why does Cody continuously annoy his family?

-          Cody is immature and doesn’t know how else to communicate with his family.  He gets attention by causing problems and joking around all the time.

Sophie keeps having a dream of a huge wave consuming her. Do you think this is a flashback or even a vision into the future?

-          I think that the dream is a flashback of when she was young.  This is the reason she wants to conquer her fears by going out into the ocean again.  Her voyage across the Atlantic helps her get over her fears.

At what point do you realize that Sophie has not been telling the truth the whole time?

-          When Brian starts to talk about how Sophie was adopted, I can’t believe anything she said or says in the future.  I have to really analyze everything she says and wonder if it makes sense.  Her dreams tell a lot of the truth.

What would be the difference in the story if the author had written the novel as a narrative?

-          The character development of the story would be very poor.  I enjoyed the style of writing and how Creech did a double log to develop the story.

Why does Sophie tell the stories about Bompie? Did she actually hear these stories from Bompie?

-          Sophie tells Bompie’s stories so that she can verbally communicate why she is out on the ocean when she is afraid of it.  No one understands why she is telling the stories because it’s dramatic irony.  Only the reader knows why she makes up all the stories about water.

Vocab

Vocab:

Phantom (110)- a person or thing of merely illusory power, status, efficacy

Grommets (122)- a ring having a thickness of three strands, made by forming a loop of a single strand, then laying the ends around the loop.

Outhaul (122)- a rope used for hauling out a sail on a boom, yard, etc.

Halyard (136)- any of various lines or tackles for hoisting a spar, sail, flag, etc., into position for use.

Idjit (137)- a made up name for a person who is being dumb

Sump (54)- a chamber at the bottom of a machine, pump, circulation system

Holed (30)- cooped up

Sutures (233)- a sewing together or a joining as by sewing.

Cresting (187)- a decorative coping, balustrade

Leering (187)- to look with a sideways or oblique glance, especially suggestive of lascivious interest or sly and malicious intention

Character Biographies

Sophie:

Sophie is an adventurous thirteen year old girl who loves the ocean.  Her dad calls her Three Sided Sophie because she has three different personalities. Her first one is the dreamy and romantic side.  We see this one all throughout the book, for example when she sees the whales.  When Sophie sees the whales she has many questions about where they came from, where they want to go, if they’re related, and what their goals are.  She dreams about being free like them in the ocean. Her other personality is logical and down-to-earth.  Her dad says she gets this from him.  When we see Sophie being most logical is when she is sailing the boat.  She makes split decisions very fast.  She loves to compete with her cousins and prove her uncles wrong about how capable she is.  Her third side is hard headed and impulsive.  Many times we see Sophie act on impulse like when she and Cody sailed back to the bout without mapping out the currents.  Sophie doesn’t like to reveal much information about herself, making her a somewhat stubborn main character.  Throughout the book, she discovers herself through internal struggles and we get to know why she acts the way she does. She begins to tell things indirectly to Cody, dropping hints here and there.  Sophie’s fear for the sea is eventually apparent, through her dreams and stories of Bompie’s childhood.

Cody:

Cody is Sophie’s cousin and best friend on the trip.  He and Sophie get to know each other the best out of all the people on board.  Cody is not very serious about surfing and always jokes about serious matters.  Most of the time it’s pretty funny, but the whole family gets annoyed that he isn’t taking the trip as serious as he should.  He jokes around too much.  Cody enjoys annoying his dad by giving things names that aren’t actually their names.  Cody is the one character that can break down Sophie.  He does it slowly so that he doesn’t ruin their friendship but gets just enough information to lull his curiosity.

Brian:

Brian is Cody’s older brother and seems to be rather pessimistic about everything.  He makes lists all day long about what needs to be done.  He is very driven, with a one track mind.  Brian is not willing to let things to go differently than he planned.  This separates him from Cody and Sophie, while his age separates him from the adults.  This makes Brian one of the most lonely characters.

 

Uncle Mo:

Uncle Mo is Sophie’s uncle who is aboard the ship with her.  He works as a data processor but would secretly like to be an artist. He paints all of the pretty sights that are seen while aboard The Wanderer. His real name is Moses.

Uncle Dock:

Uncle Dock is a mysterious character because halfway through the book we learn about this love affair that he had when he was younger.  Dock used to love this girl named Rosalie, but she married another man.  In the beginning of the book, the ship makes stops at multiple cities along the coastline.  The kids think these stops are to make repairs and what not but they’re really so that Dock can look for his long lost Rosalie.  Dock’s real name is Jonah, but he believes that name is bad luck because of the “Jonah in the Whale” tale.

Uncle Stew:

Uncle Stew is the father of Brian and Cody.  He and Cody do not have the best relationship and often fight about how Cody isn’t serious enough.  Cody continues to joke around once his dad gets annoyed.  Uncle Stew got his name because he stews a lot when he is mad.

Bompie:

Bompie is the grandfather of Cody, Sophie, and Brian.  They are going to see him at their final destination.

Symbols, Motifs, and Themes

·         The wave dream Sophie continuously has is a motif.  It represents her fear for the ocean.

·         Bompie’s stories are a motif because they keep being brought up and are actually part of Sophie’s character development.  She explains her reasoning for wanting to overcome her fears through Bompie’s stories.

·         The boat, The Wanderer, is a symbol for lost souls

·         Uncle Dock’s real name, Jonah, is a symbol of the superstition that goes along with important and dangerous events

·         Dreams are a big theme within the story.  Sophie’s character is very guarded and we learn more about her through her dreams since she doesn’t reveal much verbally.  Throughout the novel dreams are what help Cody and Sophie become more relaxed.

 

 

Important Quotations

“Every night I dreamed of a wall of water, towering, black, crept up behind me and hovered over me and then down…” – Sophie (2)

This dream is a reoccurring event throughout the story.  It represents her fear of the ocean and reminds her of what she’s out there to do, conquer her fears.  This also maintains the theme of dreams in the novel.

“Sophie put away your sailing book and takeout your math book!” – Teacher (11)

Sophie cares much more about the sea and would rather study her sailing books, than math, even if the time is inappropriate.

‘I guess you could clean something” – Uncle Stew (17)

This comment angers Sophie because she wants to do more than clean something.  She is faced with sexism because she is the only girl.  This makes it difficult for her to get the jobs she wants to do but she eventually proves herself worthy and overcomes the sex barrier.

“Cody calls them Darlings, Here dolphin darlings! Over here!” – Sophie (56)

This shows how Cody gives names to everything he sees.  He never calls them by their proper names because that’s not what he thinks of them as.  This annoys some of the other characters.

“Got yelled at for breathing” – Cody (60)

Cody gets in more trouble than he regularly would because most of the people on the boat assume the worst of him. He gets treated much more harshly than anyone else because of his continuous mistakes.

“She can take the smallest thing, get right up close to it, and have a million questions about it, then she wants to draw it and touch it and smell it…” – Cody (81)

This gives us insight into what Sophie’s personality is like.  We learn that she’s very analytical.

“Nothing happened to them, they’re back in Kentucky” – Sophie (97)

Sophie pretends that her adopted parents are her real ones.  This shows that she is a very conservative character and doesn’t like to reveal anything about her life, especially about her biological parents.