A Long Way from Chicago

Joey and Mary Alice change quite a bit during the six summers they spend with their grandmother. Both individually and as a unit, the siblings discover who they are and who they want to be, gaining help from both internal and external sources. By following their character arcs across the multiple stories in A Long Way From Chicago, the book explores the myriad ways in which children find their own paths to adulthood.

As individuals, Joey and Mary Alice paradoxically grow both apart from each other and closer together as the summers pass. In the early chapters, the siblings spend time together at Grandma’s house simply because there is little else for them to do. While spending time together may not be their first choice, the situation is tolerable, and whether they realize it or not, being around each other helps them both to grow. In Chapter 7 when Grandma and Mary Alice insist on joining Joey for his driving lesson, Joey doesn’t want them there because “learning to drive was kind of a sacred thing, and you don’t want your kid sister and your grandma along” (118). Despite this initial aversion to his family’s presence, the lesson goes well, and Joey is still able to grow as an individual, even with his family in attendance. Thus, within the umbrella of The Supportive Power of Family, he and Mary Alice are able to become strong-willed individuals with their own hopes and dreams. In the early chapters, both children find their grandmother’s antics to be strange, and they are amazed by her ability to employ whatever tactics are necessary to achieve her goals in life. This frequent demonstration of strength and willpower allows Joey and Mary Alice to develop similar traits, but while Joey tends to conform to society’s expectations, Mary Alice shows a greater willingness to rebel. For example, Joey often questions Grandma’s habit of lying and bending the rules, as is shown by how he enjoys the free plane ride but is uncomfortable with how Grandma made it happen. By contrast, the confidence that Mary Alice learns from her grandmother makes her bold enough to take the kitten home in Chapter 7 and not worry about whether she’ll be allowed to keep it because she knows she can talk her way into getting what she wants.

Grandma’s influence also affects Joey and Mary Alice as a unit. While the siblings complete the journey of Coming of Age and grow to be individuals with their own characteristics and personalities, they also leave their summers with Grandma with a similar understanding of how the world works. After watching Grandma take care of those in need, bend the banker and the sheriff to her will, and twist the truth to get what she wants, Joey and Mary Alice realize that in order to succeed in life, they must take control of their own world. Watching Grandma maneuver her way through life forces them to realize that although things might fall into place of their own accord, it Is more often the case that only careful planning will allow events to proceed in the most desirable fashion. Both siblings put this lesson to work in the later chapters, with Joey disguising himself as the phantom brakeman and Mary Alice winning the talent show. In the final chapter, Joey uses the larger events of World War II as a vehicle to achieve his own dreams of becoming a pilot, suggesting that he and, by extension, Mary Alice have learned to apply Grandma’s lessons in their own lives.

While Mary Alice and Joey do most of the growing and changing throughout the book, their grandmother also learns from them, though in less obvious ways. Having lived a long time, Grandma is already quite set in her ways. She knows what she wants and isn’t shy about taking it, but Joey and Mary Alice’s influence convinces her to try things that she may not otherwise have considered. In Chapter 4, for example, Grandma tries to fly in the plane despite knowing that it wasn’t built to lift someone of her size; years of hard work have made her bulky and muscular. In earlier chapters, Grandma appeared reluctant to accept changes in the world, and her acceptance of riding in the plane symbolizes how Joey and Mary Alice’s own desires can influence her actions and change her attitudes toward the world. Their desire to experience life and try new things makes Grandma wonder about the future and what it might be like to fly. Even though the plane never makes it off the ground with her inside, Grandma’s willingness to give it a try shows that she has changed and demonstrates that even people who claim to be set in their ways are capable of making new adjustments. Thus, the characters of A Long Way From Chicago demonstrate that change doesn’t happen in a vacuum; instead, people grow and change as a result of multiple encounters with the myriad others—family, friends, and strangers—whose actions and lessons drastically shape their lives.

A Long Way From Chicago features many family dynamics that offer the characters strength in different ways, allowing everyone to grow and change as the years pass by. Through Joey and Mary Alice’s relationship as siblings, their relationship with Grandma, and the arduous journey of the two errant lovers in Chapter 6, the book explores the many ways in which families give strength and teach hard lessons to the children they raise.

The strength that Joey and Mary Alice offer each other as siblings is different from how they grow as individuals or as a unit. Especially in the early chapters, both are stunned by the brazenness of their grandmother’s actions. In particular, Mary Alice claims that the incidents with Shotgun Cheathham’s corpse and the half-naked men of the town are traumatizing. Still, these events don’t keep her from going back to visit Grandma each summer, and this dynamic is at least partly due to the strength and support that Joey’s presence offers her. While Grandma’s actions are sometimes unsettling, the siblings always have each other to lean on. As they get older, their shared strength allows them to view Grandma’s actions as less frightening or threatening, something they may not have been able to do if they didn’t offer each other strength when they were younger.

In addition to Joey and Mary Alice’s practice of helping each other in life, their joint relationship with their grandmother offers all three of them a sense of strength and belonging that they would not be able to achieve alone. Although it takes a few summers for Joey and Mary Alice to really understand how their grandmother lives, they are always a strong team. Grandma takes the lead in the earlier chapters, orchestrating things like feeding the drifters and catching the Cowgill boys, but later on, the three work together to fulfill Grandma’s wild schemes, preparing pies for the county fair and winning contests at the Centennial Celebration. Combining their strength and cunning allows them to be more successful and to accomplish a great deal in a short amount of time. In addition, the three draw upon one another even when they aren’t aware of it. In Chapter 6, for example, Joey doesn’t want Grandma and Mary Alice to tag along to watch his driving lesson, but once they are all there together, his family provides a sense of comfort and does not diminish the quality of Joey’s experience.

While the joint actions of Joey, Mary Alice, and Grandma often exemplify how family can come together to be stronger, the lovers in Chapter 6 show how individuals can gain strength despite the toxic actions of harmful families. In this chapter, the serving girl’s mother is quickly established as an abusive and controlling figure who dictates every move her daughter makes. This pattern is exemplified when she thwarts the girl’s attempts to squirrel away money to escape with her love, telling her daughter, “You don’t have no needs, except I say so,” (83). While the boy’s family members are not nearly as threatening, their closed-minded ideas of who is and is not an acceptable partner stifle his need for individual growth. Both young lovers therefore struggle to be free of the baleful influence of families that want to own them rather than to support them. Finally, they forge a new family in each other and find the strength to escape together. Rather than offering strength through a bonded closeness, the toxic nature of these two families inspires both children to find their inner strength and escape unbearable situations. Thus, Richard Peck’s novel demonstrates that families bestow strength in many different ways, some of which are more positive than others, but whether the familial experiences that teach inner strength are good or bad, they will always have a profound effect on how individuals choose to pursue their adult lives.