logo

65 pages 2 hours read

Patricia MacLachlan

Sarah, Plain and Tall

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1985

A 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.

Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 7 Summary

Matthew, Maggie, and their two children, Rose and Violet, come to help Papa plow the field for corn. The children bring three chickens as a gift for Sarah. She immediately takes to the chickens, and Anna knows they will never eat them. As Maggie and Sarah work together to prepare a meal to share after the plowing, they each talk about missing home, which Anna does not like to hear. Maggie has also brought Sarah flowers for a garden, so the women and Anna plant them together. Maggie offers to teach Sarah how to drive the wagon so she can visit her.

After the meal, Rose and Violet fall asleep, and Papa helps Matthew carry them to the wagon. The neighbors leave, and as Sarah is considering what to name the chickens, Papa brings her some newly bloomed roses.

Chapter 8 Summary

Sarah wears overalls and demands that Papa teach her to ride Jack and drive the wagon. At first, he disagrees that she should ride Jack, but she insists. A storm is brewing, so Papa says they will have the lesson tomorrow: He must fix the roof quickly before the rain arrives. Sarah insists on helping since she is a skilled carpenter. They work until the storm arrives, and Anna and Caleb quickly gather all the animals into the barn. Sarah runs out at the last minute to save her chickens and find her shells, and Papa goes with her to help.

Everyone sleeps in the barn overnight, listening to the storm pound the barn with hail. Sarah explains that they have similar storms in Maine called “squalls,” and when Caleb asks her what color the sea is during storms, he realizes she has no pencils in those shades. The next morning when the family emerges outside, hailstones cover the ground.

Chapter 9 Summary

Papa and Sarah must replant the fields. Afterwards, he gives her a riding and wagon-driving lesson. Caleb worries Sarah is preparing to leave, and tries to think of ways to make her stay. Sarah leaves in the wagon the following day wearing the dress and bonnet she wore the day she arrived. She kisses everyone, including Papa, before going. Watching Sarah drive away in the wagon reminds Anna of the day her mother’s body was taken away in the wagon. Caleb is upset, worrying that Sarah left because he asks too many questions. Anna distracts herself by watering Sarah’s plants and feeding her chickens. She comforts Caleb by telling him that Sarah would not have left Seal.

With hope, Anna sets the table for four. Caleb suddenly shouts that he sees “[d]ust, and a yellow bonnet!” (56). Sarah returns with blue, gray, and green pencils—the colors she needs to draw the ocean. She also purchased candles and flower seeds. In a final journal entry, Anna explains that Papa has told the children that he will marry Sarah in the fall. Anna looks forward to their life together as a family.

Chapters 7-9 Analysis

The visit from Matthew, Maggie, and their children is an important event in Sarah’s trial time with the Whiting family, as she experiences the power of community and meets another mail-order bride like herself. Maggie extends graciousness and hospitality to Sarah and empathizes with her situation. She permits Sarah to grieve her past life but also encourages her to embrace The Beauty of New Beginnings. Maggie’s statement about always having something to miss nudges Sarah to see loss as an inevitable fact of existence, no matter where a person moves. The novel depicts human experience as a constant circle of endings and beginnings, much like the natural world. Flowers, for example, symbolize new beginnings throughout the work; here, Maggie brings Sarah flowers to start a garden. The chickens that the neighbors’ daughters give Sarah are likewise something of her own to care for and another reason to stay. Sarah’s love and devotion to the chickens also mirror how she is learning to mother Caleb and Anna.

Maggie’s visit emboldens the already feisty Sarah, and she strides outside in overalls and demands Jacob teach her to ride a horse and drive the wagon. Her “unwomanly” (for the era) behavior shocks Caleb, but he also fears she is making her move to leave them. The scene provides a glimpse into Jacob and Sarah’s developing relationship, the brewing storm a metaphor for a potential argument between the couple. However, Sarah proves her carpentry skills by successfully repairing the roof. It holds through the storm, and Sarah’s work becomes emblematic of how she might repair the Whiting family after the metaphorical storm they have endured. As the family hunkers down in the barn, they create another memory and endure their first trial together as a family.

Surviving the storm appears to seal the bond between Sarah and the Whitings, but when she hitches the horses and wagon and dons her signature yellow bonnet, Caleb and Anna fear the worst. The moment triggers a painful memory in Anna of her mother’s body being taken away, and Caleb becomes convinced he is the reason Sarah has left them. Their anxieties underscore A Child’s Desire for Security and Stability; having briefly dreamed of this with Sarah, the siblings now feel hopelessly abandoned and without any assurance of a better future. Papa, however, seems unmoved and appears to have a better understanding of why Sarah is leaving: Sarah must reassure herself that Jacob will allow her to maintain her independent spirit if they marry. The trip is a test, and Jacob is confident that she will return if he allows her the freedom to explore.

When Caleb spots Sarah’s yellow bonnet—an image that has come to symbolize security for him—the family knows Sarah has chosen them. Her purchases represent her intention to stay with the Whiting family on the prairie. Now that she has the colors of the sea with her, she can make her peace with leaving the physical ocean behind, instead immortalizing her love of the ocean in her drawings and sharing that love with the children. Sarah fills her art supplies with the missing colors of the sea, but she also fills the hole in the Whiting family who have been missing the love and care of a wife and mother. Candles bring light to dark places, and their flames represent the home hearth and thus family gatherings. Purchasing the flower seeds signifies Sarah’s desire to plant her life with the family and remain to watch it germinate, bloom, and blossom.

The narrative comes full circle in its final paragraphs, which, like the book’s opening, feature Anna’s introspection. In a journal, Anna reflects on the journey and looks toward the future. For most of Sarah’s visit, Anna has not felt confident she would remain. Her thoughts now reveal that she can allow herself to hope for a future with Sarah as a part of her family. In her musings, she walks through all four seasons to come, noting how Sarah will become a part of their circle of life. 

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text