Talk:What Katy Did

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Twelve-year-old Katy Carr lives with her widowed father and her five brothers and sisters in a small midwestern town called Burnet. Her father, a doctor, is very busy and works long hours. The children are therefore mostly cared for by their Aunt Izzie, who is very particular, and something of a scold. Under these circumstances, Katy, a bright, headstrong, hasty girl, can hardly avoid getting into mischief almost daily; however, she is unfailingly remorseful afterward. She dreams of someday doing something "grand" with her life - painting famous pictures, saving the lives of drowning people, or leading a crusade on a white horse. At the same time, she wants to be "beautiful, of course, and good if I can." When her mother died four years before, Katy promised to be a little mother to her siblings; however, although she leads them into all sorts of exciting adventures, she is sometimes impatient and cross with them. It can also be argued, however, that maturity inevitably entails the loss of childhood freedom, an acceptance of adult responsibilities and, often, the abandonment of unrealistic dreams. The younger Katy is never exactly sure what she wants to do when she grows up: one minute she wants to be a crusader, the next a sculptor. Whatever her latest ambition, though, she assumes that to become someone worthwhile one has to do the sort of great deeds that get written up in history books. Her illness and the example of Helen teach her that small kindnesses and conscientiousness about day to day responsibilities are in their own way just as important as grand, heroic acts.

This is a big lump of editoralizing with no citations. Yes, it can be argued that the book means that, but why does someone's opinion go in an encyclopedia article? Is it part of a well-known critical analysis? If it is, please cite. If it isn't, it really doesn't belong in Wikipedia. 75.170.63.150 (talk) 08:34, 11 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Trivia[edit]

British indie-rock band The Libertines have a song titled What Katy Did on their eponymous second album.Fox in sand 22:01, 24 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Katy, Pollyanna, and invalidism[edit]

In some ways, I think Coolidge offers an optimistic, progressive view of invalidism. I recently read "Pollyanna" (1913), where the title character's spinal injury ends her useful life. All the "glad girl" can do is look back and be thankful that she once could walk around helping people with their problems; she has nothing to look forward to but a useless life of misery. I found it rather disturbing. In "What Katy Did", by contrast, Katy finds a way to live a rich, full life even though she's confined to one room.

But Pollyanna goes to a special hospital to get better. :( --79.66.111.200 (talk) 17:37, 5 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]