Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Going into reading Mary Poppins, I vaguely remembered the storyline; I knew there was a nanny who came into the picture because of some distant parents, and she was basically the children’s hero! I imagined the film I watched when I was little where Mary Poppins was a living, breathing angel. The book could not be farther from my expectations.
Mary Poppins is full of herself and not at all sweet or caring. Of course, she is entertaining, magical, and full of interesting tricks. However, she is openly rude to her children. In her eyes, “Everything Jane did was bad, everything Micheal did was worse” (104). The book is filled with hints of her know-it-all attitude and egotism. Yet she is the one who the Starling says will never forget how to talk to the wind and moon. All other grown ups, and eventually Jane and Micheal (which they do at the end of the chapter) will lose this power as they mature, but for whatever reason, Mary Poppins is the exception! It doesn’t seem to make sense why she is the special “exception” to every rule. Jane and Micheal consistently try to wheedle information out of her since she seemingly knows all, yet she never confides in them. I wonder why she is presented as a role model when she has little to no connection to the kids other than yelling at them.
Not only is she openly rude, but the children also somehow look up to her. There is such an interesting dynamic between the children and Mary Poppins because of the constant flux between loving and fearing her. Mary Poppins does not tolerate any misbehaving, and kills their imagination and creativity whenever possible - yet she simultaneously seems to be the magical leader who brings them into these magical adventures. Therefore she externally presents herself as rude and cocky, but cares about making the children experience life? I’m not quite sure! I wonder what PL Travers’ childhood was like (I hope we learn more about this in class) because I feel that she has a skewed view of what motherhood or maternal role models should look like.
I found the last three chapters to be particularly interesting because they are the culmination of all the disparate stories in the beginning of the novel! I thought it was very interesting to write about not just middle-aged men imprisoned in cages in the zoo, but children as well. This scene is extremely dark, since all the humans are starving, greedily looking for food. I love when Jane asks, “Why it might have been John and Barbara - or any of us” and the Lion ignored her. I love how sometimes it is children who, because of their purity, have a more wholesome and comprehensive view of what is “normal” and what is right and wrong. Oftentimes society clouds our judgement and morphs us to think a certain way, but kids are the least impacted by society’s influence! The fact that she has empathy for the humans in the cages shows her ability to question the norm. In addition, when Mary Poppins leaves after the wind changes, the children sob as they fear what things will be like without her. Mary Poppins is no better than their parents, one second she is there, the next she is gone. I did like how Mary Poppins’ caregiving had lasting effects on the children - since their mom has to go out after Poppins leaves, Jane tucks Micheal in “just as Mary Poppins used to do” (143); even though Mary Poppins wasn’t the traditional sweet and caring nanny, she has a lasting effect on the children that make them more considerate for each other.
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