In the book The Wednesday Wars, Holling Hoodhood is a seventh grader at Camillo Junior High in suburban Long Island during the school year 1967-1968, with the entire book set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Holling's teacher is Mrs. Baker, whose husband is in Vietnam; Mrs. Baker teaches Holling while Mr. Baker fights for him. Holling learns a lot from Mrs. Baker in many ways, from social advice to Shakespeare. In the book The Wednesday Wars, the conflict between Holling and Mrs. Baker teaches him life lessons that he uses to overcome boundaries later in the book. Holling's conflict with Mrs. Baker leads him to learn lessons about his friends and family that he uses later in the book. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay As one of her most important ideas, Ms. Baker conveys to Holling the deep importance of family. Holling uses this lesson later in the book when his sister is stranded and she calls him from Minneapolis. He chooses to do everything in his power to help her, against his father's wishes, thus showing his extreme value of family, as taught to him by Mrs. Baker. This lesson is reinforced by Mrs. Baker when Holling sees the deep emotional connections and pain of separation between Mrs. Baker and her husband, Lt. Tybalt Baker, who is serving in Vietnam. Holling uses this to good effect with his love interest, Meryl Lee Kowalski. Two objects that represent this are strawberries and roses respectively. Strawberry picking is when Lieutenant Baker is supposed to return home, and the rose shows the relationship between Holling and Meryl Lee as she holds a rose for him during the cross country competition, a crucial point in their growing love . one for the other. Second, Mrs. Baker teaches Holling the great importance of friends, like Danny Hupfer and Doug Swieteck. Mrs. Baker explains to Holling what a friend is; loyal, supportive and kind, as he had never had a true friend before. Holling gains his first real friends as the book progresses, as shown by how all of his friends and their families come to his cross country meet to support him, even though his family doesn't, as well that Doug Swieteck defends him in front of his brother, and gets a black eye for his troubles. Holling learns that friends will always be there for you, and he tries to use this new knowledge with his friends, as evidenced by how he helps Danny each day at lunch with his Hebrew for his bar mitzvah. Baker also shows Holling that friendship can triumph over boundaries, like Romeo and Juliet (love and friendship are opposite sides of a coin). Another example is Holling's friendship and love for Meryl Lee, even though there are conflicts between the two families, Mr. Kowalski and Mr. Hoodhood, who are rival architects in the town. Finally, Mrs. Baker teaches Holling that family is not just genetics, but also who cares about you. In this definition, at the end of the book, Mr. Hoodhood would not be Holling's family and Mrs. Baker and Holling's friends would be, which is the feeling the reader gets in the penultimate and final chapter of the book. Holling's conflict with Mrs. Baker makes him realize that he is insignificant in the whole/world at large; Holling realizes that there are things bigger than any one person and that difficulties are relative (through other characters). At the beginning of the book, Holling only thinks about himself and his problems. He doesn't think about the bigger conflicts inthe world (in Vietnam). This comes to a head after school, when Holling tells Ms. Baker, "It's not like that's your picture in the hallways, or that you have that much to worry about," I told him. . Mrs. Baker's face suddenly went white. She opened the bottom drawer of her desk, put her copy of Shakespeare in, and closed it. Strong. "Go sit down and correct the mistakes on 'I took my Macbeth exam,' she said. I did. We didn't say anything else all afternoon. Not even when I'm gone (Schmidt, 110). Holling experiences many first world problems at the same time other people experience - changing struggles, but Holling irrationally says he's the one getting the little one. End of the stick This causes animosity between Mrs. Baker and Holling for a short time, but this is resolved quickly (relatively speaking) as Holling begins to realize that he is insignificant. things (values/ideals) that are more important than any one person He realizes this in two ways, from his sister trying to be a flower girl and from his parents uniting under their nationalist views. , in the October chapter, Heather comes to dinner with a flower painted on her face. She tells Mr. Hoodhood, "A flower child is beautiful and doesn't hurt anyone," my sister said. . "We believe in peace, understanding and freedom. We believe in sharing and helping each other. We will change the world. . . . "I want support to believe in something bigger than myself." (36-37) All of these words have positive connotations and are words used to represent great ideals/values ​​The second way Holling achieves this is through a similar interest of his parents: patriotism. March, Holling's parents, who are normally so estranged, hold hands for a common cause, America. This really shocks Holling, because Heather parading around the house like a left-wing radical is not too uncommon in the. Hoodhood house, but Holling's parents, although male and female, actually show affection for each other? This alerted Holling, because he had previously ignored this fact throughout the book. Holling with Mrs. Baker leads Holling to learn lessons about independence; that he is his own person and can decide his own destiny, as well as the fact that he can do anything if he really puts his mind to it. At the beginning of the book, Holling does not know how to be his own person, as shown in one of his conversations between him and his sister, "My name is Holling Hoodhood." She said, "Isn't it comforting to think that? But when I look at you, you are simply the son who will inherit the status of Hood and his associates." He replies: “It’s the same thing” (37). Another example of this is in January, in the book where Holling goes to ask his parents if he can go to the Alabama Military Institute after death threats from his classmates, but when his father got the contract for the new school, he stopped even considering the idea. However, Holling learns from Mrs. Baker how to become her own person, through Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice, and specifically the character Shylock. At the very end of October, they discuss, via the play, how to become what you are meant to be. Holling shows that he has learned this lesson and decided that what his father wants him to be is not what he is supposed to be through a conversation between Holling and Mrs. Baker in class Wednesday after school: " This, Mr. Hoodhood, is ridiculous," she said. "Mrs. Baker?" . . . "Couldn't you call me 'Mr. Hoodhood? It sounds like you're talking to my dad." . . . "I just don't want to be him already." "But you want to decide by,.