Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm Essay, Research Paper

Text: Wiggin, Kate Douglas. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. 1903. New York: Puffin Books, 1994.

Setting: A farm in the small town of Riverboro in York County, in the late 1800’s or early1900’s.

Major Characters: Rebecca Randall ~ a girl who grows up with a vivid imagianation, and a lot of troubles. In the beginning she is ten years old, and by the end she is 17.

Aunt Miranda ~ Rebecca’s aunt who she lives with and is very strict, harsh, and demanding.

Aunt Jane ~ Rebecca’s other aunt whom she also lives with but with a much softer, and more sentimental side about her.

Summary: Rebecca Randall has six brothers and sisters and is sent by her parent to live with her two aunts. Rebecca bursts into the town with a mind of her own, not what her aunts had expected. Irrepressible and opinionated, her aunts do their best to turn Rebecca into a proper lady. Aunt Miranda is very hard and critical on Rebecca while Aunt Jane befriends her. She causes a lot of trouble and has a lot of fun. She has a very vivid imagination. When she turns 17 her mother was in an accident and Rebecca has to go home to take care of her. She never got on her Aunt Miranda’s good side before they parted ways. When Aunt Jane sent a message that Miranda died, Rebecca returns to their old brick home that she grew up in and Miranda had left it to her.

Theme: Growing Up

Supporting quotations: Rebecca wanders around her early childhood home and realizes for a moment that things are not the same anymore, “There was the spot where the Indian pipes grew; the particulare bit of marshy ground where the fringed gentians used to be largest and bluest; the rock maple where she found the oriold’s nest; the hedge where the field-mice lived; the moss-covered stump where the white toadstools were wont to spring up as if by magic; the hole at the root of the old pine where an ancient and honourable toad made his hime – these were the landmarks of her childhood, and she looked at them as across an immeasurable distance”(148).

A popular saying in this book, “Grow old along with me; The best is yet to be” (260).