The Ogress and the Orphans

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2022

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-9

Chapters 10-15

Chapters 16-19

Chapters 20-24

Chapters 25-30

Chapters 31-36

Chapters 37-42

Chapters 43-49

Chapters 50-54

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Books and Stories

Throughout The Ogress and the Orphans, books and stories mean different things. Overall, they represent how reading expands our minds so we can share ideas to better our world. The burning of the Library was the event that brought Stone-in-the-Glen’s troubles to light. Given how quickly the people responded to the Mayor, it is likely the town had problems and was lovely despite them. The loss of the Library stopped the sharing of ideas. Without books to read and a place to congregate, the people didn’t know how to be a community. The discussions spurred by the books the Ogress and orphans deliver in the final chapters show that people don’t need a specific place to meet. As long as there are ideas to share, anywhere can be a library.

Stories also represent the culture of a place. The tales the stone knows and that Elijah hears from the wood are the history of Stone-in-the-Glen and the people in its community, including the Ogress and Mayor. The Library allowed anyone to read these stories, but once the Library burned, only a few recalled the stories. This mirrors how stories are lost to history. Without people like Elijah to continue telling stories once physical copies are destroyed, an entire group or culture could fade from the world because no one is left to remember ways of life, beliefs, and other elements that characterize a group. Elijah’s ability to hear stories from the world around him allows him to save Stone-in-the-Glen, preserve its history, and bring the stories back into the world.

The Ogress’s Gifts

The Ogress brings various gifts to the people of Stone-in-the-Glen. These are mostly food, and she often includes handmade cards with pictures she drew herself. The thoughtfulness and effort the Ogress puts into her gifts demonstrate her kind and giving nature. She doesn’t sign any of the cards she leaves because she is not seeking rewards or thanks. However, by not taking credit for the gifts, she takes away the opportunity for the townspeople to appreciate her. While she doesn’t need their appreciation, the people of Stone-in-the-Glen may have recovered from the burning of the Library sooner if they had someone to thank, rather than just a nebulous feeling of gratitude. It is possible they wouldn’t have believed the Ogress was leaving the gifts, as they were too wrapped up in their anger at her presence to believe she could be good.

For the Orphan House, the gifts are more than something nice. The Ogress leaves pies and other sweets for most of the townspeople because she knows they are surviving with what they have and that they could use something extra as a treat. For the Orphan House, she leaves boxes of vegetables because she sees how the house struggles to find enough food for all the children. The Ogress’s attention to detail and tailoring of her gifts shows how informed gift-giving is the most meaningful kind. If the Ogress had given the Orphan House treats, the children would have eaten them, but those treats would not have contained as many of the nutrients growing children need.

Skins

Long before the book’s opening, dragons used skins to live like other creatures. For most dragons, wearing skins helped them understand the struggles and advantages other creatures experience, which made dragons a more empathetic species overall. The first skin was that of an antelope, and the dragon who lived as an antelope was changed by the hungry predatory look in the eyes of a lioness. This knowledge led many dragons to eat only vegetables, a metaphor for real-life kindness shown toward animals by adopting a vegan lifestyle. While a plant-based diet is healthy and may work for most people or dragons, though, there are likely some who would benefit from sometimes eating meat, as many carnivorous animals do. Dragon empathy likely includes accepting the choices and lifestyles of others and how people should not be judged for their choices, even when we do not agree with that choice.

While most dragons became wiser through using skins to understand other creatures, a few, such as the Mayor, saw how to use the skins for their own interests. The skins are a tool used for a specific purpose, and tools are neither good nor evil. How a person uses a tool makes a tool’s application, not the tool itself, good or bad. Without the dragon to animate it, the Mayor’s skin is not good or evil—it is simply a skin like any other skin a dragon might use. The difference in how the Mayor uses the skin versus how other dragons use them shows how objects should not be blamed for how people choose to use them.