Literary Devices in A Long Way from Chicago
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
The title of the book, A Long Way from Chicago, gives the reader some sense of the setting already—you know the dang thing is set somewhere that is, um, a long way from Chicago.But where? Hawaii?...
Narrator Point of View
The entirety of A Long Way from Chicago is told from Joey Dowdel's point of view. Through Joey's eyes, we get to see each subsequent visit to Grandma Dowdel's house and the hijinks that she leads h...
Genre
Coming of AgeEach chapter of A Long Way from Chicago represents a different year in which Joey and Mary Alice spend a week with their grandmother during summer vacation. Because the book starts wit...
Tone
Considering that A Long Way from Chicago is set in the midst of the Great Depression, it would be easy for the book to take on a super serious, depressing—no pun intended—tone. But instead, the...
Writing Style
Just like the tone of the story is 100 percent country charm, the writing style also backs up the setting in that it reads like someone telling an old family story. The style is honest and upfront,...
What's Up With the Title?
A Long Way from Chicago sets up the reader for the idea that, although Joey and Mary Alice Dowdel are just going to another town in Illinois to visit their grandmother during the summers, they're a...
What's Up With the Ending?
The book doesn't end with one of the kids' visits to their grandmother but instead with a more grown-up Joey (or Joe, as he's called in his adulthood) passing through Grandma Dowdel's town on a tra...
Tough-o-Meter
A Long Way from Chicago tells the story of two kids going to see their grandmother, so a lot of the language is simple and easy to follow. The "novel in stories" format of the book is also simple t...
Plot Analysis
To Grandmother's House We Go The premise of the book is that Joey and Mary Alice Dowdel (who live in Chicago) are being sent to rural Illinois to stay with their Grandma Dowdel for one week every s...
Trivia
Turns out that Richard Peck knows a thing or two about living in Illinois but still being a "long way from Chicago." He grew up in the little town of Decatur, about three hours from Chicago. (Sourc...
Steaminess Rating
There isn't any sex or steaminess in A Long Way from Chicago, but the book still deals with themes of growing up—which sometimes means that the sticky truths of adolescence show up. For example,...
Allusions
St. Valentine's Day Massacre Al Capone Bugs Moran Jesse JamesAnnie Oakley The Civil War Charles Lindbergh The Great Depression Franklin Delano Roosevelt John Dillinger Abraham Lincoln Mexican-Ameri...