How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
[Following Pippi's first tale of her grandmother's maid, Malin]: Pippi looked around and smiled pleasantly. "Yes, that was Malin for you," she said and twiddled her thumbs. The ladies acted as if they had heard nothing. They continued to talk. (9.35-36)
This is where it gets painful—these ladies find Pippi's behavior so out of line they won't even acknowledge her. In their eyes, she's doubly out of place, breaking two societal rules at once: the one that dictates appropriate behavior at a ladies' coffee party, and the one that says children shouldn't speak until they're spoken to—or, if you prefer, children should be seen, not heard.
Pippi can't win here. Because she's trying to fit with the ladies, she can't take her place with her friends, and because she's a child (and because she's Pippi), she can't take her place with the ladies. What's a true individual to do?
Quote #8
Pippi looked at her in astonishment and her eyes slowly filled with tears. "That's just what I was afraid of," she said. "That I couldn't behave properly. It's no use to try; I'll never learn. I should have stayed on the ocean." (9.49)
The ocean again. It seems to be the only place where Pippi has really belonged in her life, which is interesting, because the ocean is kind of an in-between place. Most people cross the ocean on their way to land—they don't stay there—but for Pippi, the in-between place, the place where no country's rules and laws apply, is the only place she seems to fit.
Quote #9
Presently she noticed the little boys up in the attic. To her astonishment they looked as if they weren't enjoying the fire at all. That was more than she could understand… (10.13)
That's how far away Pippi is from what most of us would consider a "normal" perspective. She's just as unable to understand the boys' point of view as the crowd is unable to understand what seems to be callousness on her part. But Pippi isn't being callous, she isn't looking up at the boys in the burning building and sneering, "What's their problem?" She really doesn't get it.
What is terrifying for everyone in the crowd—and the boys in the building—looks like fun to Pippi. Is it any wonder she has trouble finding her place in society?