“Stop that!” Shouts a sibling, “why should I?” Demands the other. If you’re like most people, conflict is part of your daily life, even if it’s with co-workers rather than siblings and kids. Well, conflict is a central part of books too. I’m going to examine three interesting conflicts in The Gammage Cup. Nation against nation, society against a group, and self against self. These relatable conflicts make The Gammage Cup outstanding.
In The Gammage Cup the Mushrooms attack the village of Slipper-on-the-Water. The village is nestled between mountains, so the Mushrooms drill through a mountain to get into the valley. The Mushrooms have poisoned spears and are larger than the Minnipins. The Minnipins also are not trained for war. This conflict is short but urgent. It is completely in the end of the book, and also helps solve the other conflicts. Carol Kendal really adds tension and urgency with the poisoned spears and Mingys capture.
This conflict is solved at the end of the book. They kill all the Mushrooms. There is a happy feeling at the end even though others could attacking them the same way again. They have a ‘we will deal with that when it comes’ attitude, and it makes them seem overconfident although it gives a nice feeling to the end of the book.
The Mushrooms attack because of greed. They want gold, and the Minnipins have it. The Minnipins are living peacefully in their village when the Mushrooms invade after hundreds of years on leaving them alone. They always return because of the gold, which the Minnipins do not mine anymore because they don’t want it. This time, returning backfires on the Mushrooms.
The second struggle is against society. Muggles, Mingy, Sir Walter the Earl, Curley Green and Gummy group together against society’s requirements. Where they live green cloaks and doors are the only acceptable color, your house must be tidy, you should be married, you should have a willow tree in your yard, you should have two children, leaders are not to be questioned, and if you aren’t a leader your should humbly accept that you’re “simple.” They are non uniform in a world of uniformity.
Their narrow-minded neighbors complain, and even paint one of their doors, which is not painted green, in the middle of the night behind their backs. Eventually they are essentially kicked out of the village. While they are out of the village this struggle pauses, continuing in points throughout the rest of the book to be fully resolved in the end. After they are saved from the Mushrooms because of the group’s bravery, they admit they were wrong and have a change of heart, greeting the returning villagers with a rainbow of doors and cloaks, symbolizing their acceptance of differences.
In the third conflict Carol Kendal really hits home. Muggles, the main character, has inner conflict with herself. She has to struggle past who she thinks she is, who others think she is, and her own fear to truly be herself. Carol delicately deals with fear and identity in a way everyone can indentify with. This problem is solved early on, after Muggles decides what to do she makes her stand. She starts to say what she thinks, rather than what she thinks she should think, and she stands up for the others.
Before deciding she wavers as she deals with her fears and doubts and struggles past things she thought were true. She’s afraid of what others will think, of being different, and not being liked. She’s also afraid of the leaders punishment. She doesn’t want to be different, but she can’t be the same.
She also discovers things about herself she never would have otherwise. She finds she is thrifty, has good common sense, is brave and a natural leader. All the things the leaders told her she was not. In the end she proves them all wrong. She goes from being a slightly off Minnipin to a celebrated leader looked to for guidance.
The Gammage Cup is a good book because it relates with people. Warring, social standards, fear and identity. It addresses real life. Readers feel for the characters because they indentify with them. All because of Carol Kandal’s use of conflict in a believable way. While fights still go on in the real world, and are not always resolved so tidily, readers leave feeling they are not alone.
