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Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories Gertrude McFuzz, Lines 62 – 69 Summary

Take Off… or Not 

  • Yep, here we have it, Shmoopers. Gertrude's ultimate irony.
  • You see, Gertrude is a bird. Birds fly. Feathers are meant to help birds fly.
  • And yet, the very gifts Gertrude has received from nature—the ones she felt an unstoppable need to improve upon—now can't do what they were designed to do. More than that, they're preventing her from doing much of anything at all. She can't fly. She can't run. She can't rock.
  • All she can do is sit there and yelp until good old Dr. Dake can come to the rescue. Yes, the very same Dr. Dake who told her so.
  • How do those feathers feel now, Gertrude? How about that vanity?