Runaway Ralph

“Up and down the hall zoomed Ralph, and the joy of speed made up for the long hours of hiding in dusty corners waiting for night to come.”

Ralph’s motorcycle allows him to experience small moments of freedom as he speeds through the hotel. Those small moments tease him into envisioning the larger freedom of running away and are the first elements of The Allure of Rebellion that he experiences at the story’s beginning. This experience also underscores the give-and-take nature of life, which helps lay the groundwork for The Reciprocal Nature of Empathy and The Relationship Between Personal Responsibility and Independence.

“Ralph was exhilarated by speed, danger, and his own daring.”

Ralph’s experience in the hotel on the motorcycle foreshadows the excitement he feels when he runs away and speeds down the highway. It also demonstrates the risky nature of rebellion and the potential danger and risk involved in his move to independence and freedom.

“‘And you’re getting fat from eating peanuts you pick up in that—that place,’ continued Uncle Lester. ‘A bar is no place for a young mouse.’”

Uncle Lester is a primary catalyst for Ralph’s rebellion. The bar itself represents a small rebellion, and Uncle Lester’s disapproval highlights the rebellious stage that Ralph is in at the beginning of the book. The risks that Uncle Lester sees, however, are minor compared to the real risk to life and limb that Ralph experiences when he arrives at camp.

“Why couldn’t his mother and Uncle Lester understand? Because they were too old to understand. Too old and too timid, that was why.”

A minor theme throughout the novel is the gulf between generations. Ralph’s rebellion is largely in response to a failure of empathy or understanding on the part of his parental figures. The suggestion here is that the older generation could temper the rebellion of the younger generation if they would practice more empathy.

“He wanted to be free—free to do as he pleased and go when he pleased on his shiny red motorcycle.”

The motorcycle is a symbol of Ralph’s freedom. The Allure of Rebellion for Ralph is encompassed in the individuality and independence offered by the motorcycle. When he rides the motorcycle, his desires are the only ones that matter, and he can ignore the commands of the older generation.

“I wish I could do the same. Just ride off into the night on a motorcycle. I always wanted a motorcycle, but I could never afford one. When I was young I had to help my folks, and then I had a family of my own to take care of. Now that my family has grown up and gone away, I’m too old for a motorcycle.”

Matt gives evidence that The Allure of Rebellion is an important part of growing up. Matt never had the opportunity to really rebel because of his financial situation and then because of his sense of responsibility. Even though Matt shows significant responsibility, he missed out on the independence of being young and rebellious, and he seems to regret it.

“The shrub was not the leafy cushion he had expected. From his perch in the center he could see that the leaves grew only at the tips of the twigs and that the bush, which had looked soft and springy from the outside, was on the inside leafless and spiky with dead twigs.”

A minor theme in the book focuses on the unreliability of first impressions. The bush appears soft and cushiony to Ralph, but when he simply trusts that and dives in he discovers the inside of the bush is sharp and hard. Similarly, Ralph makes judgments about people and other animals that he discovers are inaccurate as he gets to know them better—both positively and negatively.

“I guess I showed you, though Ralph grimly, as he mounted his motorcycle and sped off down the open road, off into the dark and scary night.”

Although The Allure of Rebellion has a shiny polish initially, this passage demonstrates that rebellion has consequences. Ralph is triumphant that he managed to independently get off the porch with his motorcycle and wants the thrill of riding down the highway. However, leaving Matt means loneliness, and the open road is found on a “dark and scary night,” so the risks are just as present as the potential rewards.

“Now he wished he had listened when his mother had tried to warn him, as she so often did, about cats, owls, people, traps, poisoned grain, and vacuum cleaners.”

Ralph’s frustration with his mother’s timidity comes in part from a lack of empathy on his part. Because he’s always been relatively safe, he has no idea how dangerous the world can be and didn’t realize his mother was trying to keep him safe. Although Ralph has largely rejected the older generation’s knowledge, his tussle with Catso shows him that some of his mother’s advice is rooted in reality.

“He was quite sure that Garf could understand, for he looked like the kind of boy who was interested in speed and motorcycles and who would know how to make a miniature motorcycle go.”

Ralph’s initial empathic intuition about Garf turns out to be right in the end. The Reciprocal Nature of Empathy is a major theme in the book, and Ralph’s frustration that he’s not understood is what leads him to the camp and Garf. Garf also feels misunderstood, which is underscored by Ralph’s sense that he and Garf share something important.

“The campers never sang this song when Aunt Jill was around, which made Ralph even more curious about the words. He was under the impression that they were not fit for grown-up ears, which of course made the song all the more interesting.”

The difference between children and grown-ups is an element of the generational gap explored throughout the book. This is an element of The Allure of Rebellion—anything that needs to be hidden from the grown-ups, the authorities, is inherently more attractive and interesting.

“Ralph’s whiskers trembled. That one word spoken by the hamster hinted at evils unknown to Ralph. Here was an animal who was wise in the ways of the world.”

Ralph, at this point, has rejected much of the wisdom of adults. Chum, however, is more like a teenager—older and wiser than Ralph, with more varied experiences, but close enough to Ralph to be convincing. Chum’s experiences and his stories broaden Ralph’s view of the world and challenge Ralph’s innocence with cynicism.

“‘I have some rights,’ said Chum. ‘If I let Lana pick me up, I never would have any peace.’”

Chum introduces Ralph to the concept of self-ownership. Even though Chum lives in a cage and is reliant on Lana for food and hygiene, he refuses to accept everything she wants from him. Although he’s willing to show off for treats, as is shown later, he insists on maintaining his autonomy.

“‘No,’ said Garf suddenly. ‘Because I’m going to run away, and nobody is going to stop me!’ Aunt Jill appeared to take this news calmly, but for some reason Ralph did not. He felt a shock of excitement. Don’t do it, boy, he wanted to squeak. It won’t get you anyplace.”

In the discussion with Aunt Jill about breaking the craft shop rules, Garf is in the same rebellious position that Ralph is in at the beginning of the book. The narration reflects surprise in and around Ralph’s reaction here—he has learned that running away and rebelling can have undesired consequences.

“‘Remember, Garf,’ said Aunt Jill, ‘it is possible to be alone in your thoughts even when there are others around.’”

Aunt Jill, unlike most adults, understands that children need their space just as much as adults do. Here, she offers Garf empathy and a solution to the problem he’s trusted her with—he doesn’t have to have solitude to feel secure in his mind.

“The bars of Ralph’s cage enclosed a very small area, and no matter how fast he ran on his wheel, he remained in the same place. He began to sit motionless for long periods of time while he thought more and more about the freedom he had enjoyed back at the Mountain View Inn.”

The irony of the cage is that Ralph ran away to find freedom. However, when he reaches his destination, he finds danger and then is caged. What seems at first to be a safer and more comfortable life than the searching and occasional lack he knew at the hotel turns out to be small, lonely, and painfully dull.

“He did not want to spend the rest of his life in a cage, and he certainly did not want to be kept alive on a few cast-off alfalfa pellets only to starve at the end of the summer. There was just one answer. Ralph had to escape.”

While Ralph decided to run away because he was forced to share his motorcycle and feels misunderstood, his decision to escape the cage is more nuanced. His dependence on Garf has led to hunger and the knowledge that even the most comfortable life isn’t worth the loss of independence and freedom that the cage represents.

“I wouldn’t leave if I could. I’ve lived in a cage all my life, and I’m too old to start scrounging. Besides, I rather enjoy trying to bite the hands that feed me.”

Two major elements of Chum’s personality are revealed here. First, he has acclimated entirely to his cage and a life of dependence. Second, his personal rebellion is a constant—rather than growing into an independent individual, Chum is stuck in a middle ground of maintaining rebellion while accepting dependence.

“‘I am sure you didn’t take it,’ said Aunt Jill calmly, ‘but don’t forget that you wanted to be the only one to feed your mouse. He is hungry and his cage needs to be cleaned.’”

Aunt Jill empathizes with Garf and provides him with solutions throughout his stay at camp. However, like Matt with Ralph, she also insists that Garf accept and meet his responsibilities as well as the consequences of his choices.

“Ralph could not help being pleased by this compliment, and a little sad, too. Of course, he was a good mouse. He had known that fact all along, but hearing himself spoken of in the past made him feel that the world would have been a sadder place without him.”

Ralph’s time at Happy Acres is fraught, but when he is presumed dead following his escape, he discovers that Garf thought well of him. Even though, up to this point, he’s been frightened by Garf’s choices of song and questions whether Garf is the right kind of boy to understand him, Garf’s sadness shows Ralph that he can trust Garf. Garf has demonstrated that he did understand Ralph, even without talking to him directly.

“‘You should have thought about things like that before you ran away,’ chided Garf. ‘I should, but I didn’t,’ said Ralph coldly. ‘You don’t have to sound like a grown-up.’”

This exchange highlights the middle ground of childhood that both Ralph and Garf inhabit. Garf knows that decisions have consequences and, like a parent, tells Ralph he should have known better. Ralph’s accusation shows that Garf and Ralph are both on their way to adulthood, but both should aim to be more like Aunt Jill and Matt than their unempathetic parents.

“Ralph’s life passed before his eyes—his family mouse nest back at the Mountain View Inn, his mother and Uncle Lester and all his brothers and sisters and cousins, the boy who had given him the motorcycle that had changed his life, the cage in the craft shop, Chum, Garf—”

When Ralph’s life is threatened by Catso for the final time before his rescue by Sam, he finally recognizes what’s most important to him. The first thought is his home, his family, the very family that he ran away to escape. At the most terrifying moment, he remembers home first, which reinforces the validity of his decision to make his way back to them.

“‘Why don’t we give him to Garf?’ suggested Aunt Jill. ‘I’m sure he misses his mouse, and I know his feelings were hurt because some people thought he had taken the watch.’”

Aunt Jill consistently models reciprocal empathy. Here, she acknowledges that Garf has been hurt by the suspicion he endured and encourages the other campers to show that same empathy by replacing the mouse everyone believes he’s lost. She both sees his pain and guides the kids to provide Garf understanding instead of judgment.