Samuel Joseph, P. L. Travers' Mary Poppins

Coming into reading Mary Poppins, I was expecting a nice, kind lady with an umbrella that flew places. The latter was correct; unfortunately, the former wasn't. (I do remember that Mary Poppins was briefly mentioned in Guardians of the Galaxy 2.)

My first impression of Mary Poppins aligns with the agreed view in class, which is overly vain and self-interested, which is evidenced by Poppins' excessive mirror usage and outfit planning. When thinking about Mary Poppins as a witch, I can't bring myself to wrap my head around that idea because it doesn't seem like she has an intent to harm. I do agree that the magical powers may bring some to believe she is a witch, but she doesn't want to destroy the children or anything of the sort. At the beginning of the novel, Poppins was giving the children some sort of sweet remedy to put them to sleep, and I can’t help but imagine that this is some sort of hallucinogenic drug causing them to believe everything they’re seeing.

Based off Poppins’ life, and the whole fiasco with her father and mother being absent and she was acting like the mother figure for her little siblings, I believe I can see Travers as a Poppins in real life. The whole pessimistic and dark attitude of Poppins comes from Travers’ negative outlook on life; however, she still needed to be imaginative to take care of the children and help them enjoy their young lives. When thinking about why Poppins seemed to put down the notions that anything magical had occurred at the end of every chapter, it seems odd – but certainly, this must tie into the whole idea of the traumatic events of her childhood, and how maybe she doesn’t like remembering what happened? It is interesting to see Travers’ portrayal of children and adults in the story; the adults, for the most part, are completely absent in the children’s’ lives, similar to Travers’ life, and the children are the ones who seem to be learning and getting smarter. It’s interesting to me that the parents have no clue what the children are doing… which makes me wonder whether they even leave the house at all (maybe it is hallucinogens).

I believe the worst parts of the novel are when Poppins just up and leaves the household, leaving them for the worst. I wonder if she understands that when she leaves, the house becomes completely dysfunctional, without any hope of remedy. It’s interesting to me that even when she leaves, the children still want her to stay, which points me to believe that Poppins has some sort of good nature about her, even though it’ not entirely apparent. Sometimes it seems as though she is the one shutting down the fun that the children are having, when in fact it is her who is the one bolstering their joy and providing them with a source of happiness. Although I had mentioned that Poppins was a very self-interested figure, it seems pretty apparent that she was doing a wonderful job of parenting the children, even in the absence of their biological family.

I somewhat enjoyed both books – in the second book, the chapters got longer and longer, and there was room for more detail, but I feel like if a father or mother is reading a chapter a night to their children, the first book would be better. My favorite chapter was probably Robertson Ay’s story, but it did feel a tad dragged out. Overall, my final impressions about the novel were mostly positive. It is a wonderful book for children to read, aside from the rude and dark nature of Poppins.

Alexa Rooney, P.L. Travers Mary Poppins

The first time I watched Mary Poppins sticks out to me quite clearly in my early childhood memories. I hadn’t watched many musicals yet, and I was still in the stage where my older brother’s opinions deeply swayed mine. He was anti-musicals; my dad was very intent on expanding our film knowledge, especially the “classics” (basically anything Julie Andrews). I expected Mary Poppins to be boring and historical. I was wrong, and delighted by the magic Mary Poppins brought- especially the scene with the flavor and color changing delicious medicine.

Reading that scene last week filled me with warmth and transported me immediately back to my basement, sitting on the red couch with my dad. I adored the film then and I adored the book now, both times surprising myself with how much I was taken by Mary Poppins. Of course, being 10 or so years older, I picked up on more plot lines, themes, metaphors, jokes, et cetera than I did when I was younger.

Primarily, Mary Poppin’s vanity and attitude that verges on rudeness sticks out in the story. She is magical, mysterious, and whimsical, but the reader is struck by her self-absorption. She stops in every mirror to admire herself and adjust so that she is perfect, she never explains anything or tells the children what is going on, and she often treats the children as if they are annoying little pests. She seems to represent a few typical adult tropes for children during the time period, perhaps even modelled off of adults in P.L. Travers’ life. Children are often curious, and in awe of the world around them- so even trivial things could seem magical. Perhaps there was an adult in Travers’s life that regarded her as mischievous, annoying, or perstering, and treated her the way Mary Poppins treats Jane and Michael: never answering her questions, making her feel small, shushing her, and more.

Yet the children adore Mary Poppins, regardless of what she does or says to them. They are taken by the magic she brings to their lives, ever curious of all of the fantastic events that seem to follow Mary Poppins around. I have always loved the laughing gas scene, which seems so full of pure, innocent, and untouched joy. It is just one example of a seemingly crazy thing that happens to the children when they are with Mary Poppins. It is representative of a phenomenon where children will always look up to their caretakers- there is a sense of unconditional love and admiration that could verge on problematic in certain adult-child relationships.

Travers plays the long-accepted concept of adult-child relationships, where adults have the power, authority, and upper hand. In terms of the admiration of Mary Poppins and the way she treats the children, Travers likely drew on personal experience and typical relationship and power dynamics. But there are occasions where the children become the caretakers, and the adults become foolish, annoying, curious, or admiring. The laughing gas scene, as I mentioned above, is a great example, as well as some of Mr. and Mrs. Banks’ decisions. The children show levels of responsibility and caring for eachother in ways that the adults surrounding them seem unable to do.