# I explained — So Big

> Chapter companion for So Big by Edna Ferber.

## What happens

Selina Peake, living in a boarding house with her father Simeon, visits her friend Julie Hempel. She returns home to find her father has been killed by a stray bullet in a gambling house. The chapter then reflects on Selina's childhood, her father's profession as a gambler, and her early life moving from city to city.

## Themes in this chapter

### Ambition and Self-Fulfillment

Selina's early life is marked by her father's gambling and her own independence, foreshadowing her later ambition.

### The American Dream and Disillusionment

Simeon Peake's life as a gambler and his sudden death reflect the precarious nature of the American Dream.

### Gender Roles and Independence

Selina makes decisions usually reserved for adults and is independent from a young age, challenging traditional gender roles.

## Character check-ins

### Selina DeJong

Selina Peake, the protagonist, is visiting her friend Julie and later discovers her father's death.

### Julie Hempel

Julie Hempel, Selina's chum, tries to persuade Selina to stay for dinner.

### Simeon Peake

Selina's father, a gambler, is shot and killed in Jeff Hankins's place.

### Mrs. Tebbitt

Mrs. Tebbitt runs the boarding house where Selina and her father live.

### August Hempel

Julie's father, a Clark Street butcher who later becomes a packer.

### Miss Fister

Miss Fister runs the Select School for Young Ladies that Selina attends.

### Kitty Blanchard

Kitty Blanchard is mentioned as an actress in a play Selina saw.

## Key lines

> Selina snapped the elastic holding her high-crowned hat under her chignon of hair in the back. She uttered a final and quavering groan. 'On Monday nights we have cold mutton and cabbage at Mrs. Tebbitt’s. This is Monday.'

Selina adjusted her hat and groaned, noting that Monday meant a poor meal at her boarding house.

_Shows Selina's dissatisfaction with her living situation._

> Simeon Peake had been shot in Jeff Hankins’s place at five in the afternoon. The irony of it was that the bullet had not been intended for him at all.

Simeon Peake was killed by a stray bullet meant for someone else in a gambling house.

_Highlights the randomness and tragedy of his death._

> Selina had a beautiful time. Except for three years, to recall which was to her like entering a sombre icy room on leaving a warm and glowing one, her life was free, interesting, varied.

Selina enjoyed most of her childhood except for three unhappy years with her aunts.

_Contrasts her freedom with the oppressive time in Vermont._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/so_big_se/chapters/i
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/so_big_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/so_big_se/chapters