This post was written as a Master's course
assignment for Texas Woman's University.
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Klages, Ellen. 2006. THE GREEN GLASS SEA. New York, NY: Penguin Group. ISBN 0670061344
2. PLOT SUMMARY
Dewey Kerrigan is a little different from other eleven year old girls. She reads books like THE BOY MECHANIC because "they didn't make one for girls." Her father is a bigwig in with the government in 1944, which means Dewey has plenty of time for building her gadgets and gizmos out of little mechanical scraps. Her math skills are several grades ahead, which explains why she likes rules and things to proceed as expected. Except there are no good reasons to explain why bad things happen to good people, including young Dewey.
Her mother left when she was a baby, she has a hard time making friends with girls, her relationship with her father is precious but limited, and there are secrets beyond her control, and even her imagining, that threaten Dewey's entire sense of well being. As Dewey becomes close with a classmate, Suze, and her family, the creativity flows and Dewey has a chance to create something unlike anything she's ever made before. But the war looms heavy overhead, and Dewey worries that she will be left, yet again, without a place that feels like home.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Ellen Klages gives the reader a clear picture of life on "The Hill" in Los Alamos, 1944. Her writing includes visceral sounds and smells, like the "chukka-chukka-chukka" sound of the train, and Suze's father's pipe smoke scent: "smelling like sweetish-sour burning leaves. The Daddy smell." The reader feels immersed in this strange, sparse, truly militaristic scene, with stopgap housing and "army-green everything."
The language portrays the ultimate seclusion and secretiveness of everything occurring on The Hill. Even professions are disguised: physicists are "fizzlers," chemists are "stinkers," and "the computers are women who ran big adding machines." The women on the hill rarely wore makeup and the common tongue of the setting is math, science, and Greek, literally. Klages gives a great sense of atmosphere: the genius, academic minds wander around everywhere, working at all hours, speaking always in code, with excitement.
The theme of growing up motherless weighs heavily on Dewey. Perhaps because of her father's frequent leaves of absence to go away and work, Dewey thrives on rules and certainty. Her analytical, organizational mind is countered perfectly by her friend Suze's risk-taking, artistically creative mind.
Klages alludes to the relationship of math to music through the wisdom of Dewey's father: "music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting (Leibniz)." Klages also expresses the idea of math as its own language through Suze's father's eyes: "math is the language we use to describe patterns." Several scientists on the hill are fluent in Greek letters, prompting a curiosity in Suze to learn more about the mystical symbols and their ultimate power.
The author provides many heartwarming moments, frequently supplemented by warm, comforting beverages in thermoses: ovaltine, hot tea with milk and honey, cocoa. The palpable scent of cigarette smoke is ever-present, even in the children's bedrooms, increasing the authentic feel of the work. Klages adds depth to the sparse scenery by allowing the characters to engage in emotional exchanges, and raises the difficult question of what it would be like to be present during the creation of the mysterious "gadget," which we learn is the first atomic bomb.
The language portrays the ultimate seclusion and secretiveness of everything occurring on The Hill. Even professions are disguised: physicists are "fizzlers," chemists are "stinkers," and "the computers are women who ran big adding machines." The women on the hill rarely wore makeup and the common tongue of the setting is math, science, and Greek, literally. Klages gives a great sense of atmosphere: the genius, academic minds wander around everywhere, working at all hours, speaking always in code, with excitement.
The theme of growing up motherless weighs heavily on Dewey. Perhaps because of her father's frequent leaves of absence to go away and work, Dewey thrives on rules and certainty. Her analytical, organizational mind is countered perfectly by her friend Suze's risk-taking, artistically creative mind.
Klages alludes to the relationship of math to music through the wisdom of Dewey's father: "music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting (Leibniz)." Klages also expresses the idea of math as its own language through Suze's father's eyes: "math is the language we use to describe patterns." Several scientists on the hill are fluent in Greek letters, prompting a curiosity in Suze to learn more about the mystical symbols and their ultimate power.
The author provides many heartwarming moments, frequently supplemented by warm, comforting beverages in thermoses: ovaltine, hot tea with milk and honey, cocoa. The palpable scent of cigarette smoke is ever-present, even in the children's bedrooms, increasing the authentic feel of the work. Klages adds depth to the sparse scenery by allowing the characters to engage in emotional exchanges, and raises the difficult question of what it would be like to be present during the creation of the mysterious "gadget," which we learn is the first atomic bomb.
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
*SCOTT O'DELL AWARD FOR HISTORICAL FICTION
*SCOTT O'DELL AWARD FOR HISTORICAL FICTION
Review from SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "Clear prose brings readers right into the unusual atmosphere of the secretive scientific community, seen through the eyes of the kids and their families."
5. CONNECTIONS
*Readers may enjoy other books written about this time period, such as HIROSHIMA, A NOVELLA, by Laurence Yep, ISBN 9780590208338.
*See also the Newbery Honor Book BOMB: THE RACE TO BUILD- AND STEAL -THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS WEAPON by Steve Sheinkin, ISBN 9781596434875.
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