Chapter 7: AmyÂ’s Valley of Humiliation

Summary

Meg performs a kindness for Amy by giving money she needs to participate in a school fad, but the deed backfires, leaving Amy too humiliated to return to the school.

Pickled limes are the current fad. The girls treat each other to them and trade off pencils and various trinkets for a lime to suck on. AmyÂ’s predicament is that she has accepted limes from other girls but has not had the means to pay them back. Meg gives her a quarter which is more than enough to buy a dozen limes.

Amy takes the limes to school and hides them in her desk, but canÂ’t resist flaunting them a little before tucking them away until recess. The word gets around and a certain Miss Snow who has treated Amy badly suddenly becomes very polite in hopes of getting her share. When Amy tells her that she wonÂ’t get any, Miss Snow finds a way to report the limes to the teacher, Mr. Davis, who has declared the limes a contraband article and vowed to punish any girl caught with them. Amy is forced to take her limes to the teacherÂ’s desk, then toss them out the window. After that, Mr. Davis slaps her hand with his ruler, then makes her stand on a platform until recess.

Too humiliated to finish the day, Amy goes home and reports the incident to her mother. Marmee is not entirely sympathetic with Amy as she believes Amy should not have broken the rules. However, she does not agree with Mr. DavisÂ’s method of correction either. Jo goes to the school to get AmyÂ’s things and wipes the mud off her boots onto the floor mat before leaving. Marmee agrees to let Amy have a temporary vacation from school as long as she studies each day with Beth.

The limes seem like a truly harmless fad; Mr. Davis is domineering and enjoys his power over a class of girls. The girls do not pass the limes during class, so one must assume that he forbids them just because he can. It is something the girls like, so he can exert power over them by forbidding them to have any. The narrator hints that he regrets his harshness, but is determined to follow through with the entire punishment routine once he has started. The punishment does not fit the crime however; it should have been enough to make her toss them out the window without also striking her with his ruler as well as making her stand in disgrace before the front of the class. Marmee seems a little helpless in this incident. One might expect her to go to the school and speak to Mr. Davis himself, but it is left to Jo to go back and get AmyÂ’s things. Amy herself will not have to attend school until her father gets home to find a new school for her.

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