Granny Torrelli Makes Soup

Rosie’s stubbornness is further exemplified in these chapters through the situation with the guide dog. Despite being clearly told by Bailey himself that he could not have a guide dog at this stage of his life, Rosie decided to take matters into her own hands and obtain a dog herself. This effort goes all wrong. Rosie is unable to take care of the dog, much less to train it to become a guide dog, and in the end, she realizes it was not even a stray dog in the first place. The theme of The Importance of Forgiveness emerges here, albeit due to Rosie’s limitations. Rosie is unable to admit her mistakes just yet. Her recollections do not include apologizing to anyone here, not to the boy whose dog she accidentally stole; not to her own mother for the state of the garage; not even to the dog, which must have suffered while locked up in the small space. Rather, her memory succinctly ends “[a]nd that was the end of the secret guide dog business” (43).

In addition, toward the end of the same recollection, Rosie uses the phrase “Tutto NON va bene,” or “All is NOT well” (43), in reference to her grandmother’s more positive conclusion at the start of the chapter regarding the soup: “Tutto von bene” (38). This small element of parallel structure calls to the theme of The Power of Storytelling. Rosie is not only realizing, within the context of the memory, that things are not well. She is starting to realize, thanks to her grandmother’s dog-related story, that all is not well in relation to her own perspective or approach toward Bailey. Significantly, it is now finally time to eat. This transition relates to the use of Meals as a symbol; among the many things that meals represent in the novel, one is growth, or the culmination of much patient internal work.

The symbol of meals also helps to emphasize the strength of the bonds that participating in storytelling together builds. Before eating the soup, Granny Torrelli explains that many of her family members have died. Worse still, they passed away after she had moved to the United States, so she never saw them again. When Granny Torrelli describes a pasta party in heaven, however, she demonstrates how those relationships continue. When Granny Torrelli passes on, she will be welcome at that pasta party too. Current and past generations are all connected by the act of sharing meals, and death is only a matter of stepping from one table to another. Within that shared bond, though, Rosie is still her own person. Rosie’s uniqueness is apparent just as much as her similarities with Granny Torrelli. For example, Granny Torrelli is Catholic, and as such, she makes the Sign of the Cross before meals; Rosie is not Catholic, so she does not share this practice with her grandmother. These differences, in turn, help to emphasize that Rosie has her own story to live.

The different psychological challenges that people face at different parts of their lives are explored in the conversation the grandmother and granddaughter have in “Tangled Head…”. Rosie is young, and as such, her life contains many unanswered questions. Like many children, she is concerned with what will happen to her in her life and if her dreams will come true. She thinks her grandmother is lucky because her grandmother has those answers to her own questions. Granny Torrelli, however, sees life from the other side of youth, and she believes that Rosie is lucky because she does not have the tangled web of memories that Granny Torrelli holds. Life experience answers some questions, but those answers come at the expense of innocence. To Granny Torrelli, life is complicated in a way that Rosie cannot understand, and Rosie is lucky to be where she is in life. Granny Torrelli likely can understand a little of how Rosie feels because she was young once herself. Rosie, however, does not have the advantage of seeing life from her grandmother’s perspective, and as such, can only see the world through her own limited gaze.

Rosie is still upset at Bailey at this point in the novel, but their history demonstrates that they have been willing to sacrifice for each other and put their harsh feelings to the side when necessary. Rosie demonstrated this willingness when, after Bailey hit her, she still went to bed smiling because he was safe. She was able to look past her own feelings and see that the worst did not come to her friend, and she was happy for that. Bailey demonstrated his loyalty to Rosie when he confronted her bullies even though he could have been seriously hurt. Through relayed memories such as these, Creech is able to flesh out the relationship between the two friends and show the reader part of the shared history that made them the good friends that they are.