#bruce meredith

[pureanonofficial]

I get why people are upset about the Stripey episode in Rilla of Ingleside, and of course, it is horrific and wrenching—and also, in my opinion, it makes a certain amount of sense as something a kid might do in that situation. Bruce Meredith is ten—when the war began, he was six. Nearly half of his life has been in a constant state of stress and upheaval. His siblings and their friends have been gone most of his life—how well can he even remember them? We saw how kids who grew up with the pandemic are often developmentally behind. I don't think it's out of the question to consider how the situation has impacted him. He has been surrounded by death most of his life—has heard adults talk constantly about sacrifices for a greater cause. What greater cause could there be for a young boy but to make a sacrifice to bring a loved one back? Yes, what he did to Stripey, it's not something we as adults could ever consider, and I could not see myself doing that at ten either. But I was not living through "the war to end all wars."

[roses-red-and-pink-art]

“Rilla thought she must take the boys' place in this. But before she had discovered any, Bruce Meredith came to Ingleside one twilight with his hands full of delicate pink sprays. He stalked up the steps of the veranda and laid them on Mrs. Blythe's lap.

"Because Shirley isn't here to bring them," he said in his funny, shy, blunt way.”

[abigailspinach]

An Important Poll Inspired by Rilla of Ingleside Book Club

Which one is a more unrealistic and/or grating kid? (AKA why do they act like small Victorian Ghosts?) *Said with love and affection*

Pick one!

Paul Irving

Bruce Meredith

Voting ended onJul 10, 2025

Some Quotes:

Bruce:

"and she tells me that they are really troubled over Bruce, he takes things so much to heart. He has cried himself to sleep for a week, over the starving Belgians. 'Oh, mother,' he will say to her, so beseeching-like, 'surely the babies are never hungry—oh, not the babies, mother! Just say the babies are not hungry, mother.' And she cannot say it because it would not be true, and she is at her wits' end. "

"if he was turned into a good man he would understand how dreadful the things he has done are, and he would feel so terrible about it that he would be more unhappy and miserable than he could ever be in any other way. He would feel just awful—and he would go on feeling like that forever. Yes"—Bruce clenched his hands and nodded his head emphatically, "yes, I would make the Kaiser a good man—that is what I would do—it would serve him 'zackly right."

"but surely God will send Jem back now, 'cause Stripey was the dearest thing I had. I just told God I would give Him Stripey if He would send Jem back. And He will, won't He, mother?'"

or

Paul

"Now, teacher, please sit here; and I’ll sit at your feet. May I lay my head against your knee? That’s the way my little mother and I used to sit. Oh, this is real splendid, I think.”

"“Father’s not very easy to get acquainted with,” Paul had said once. “I never got really acquainted with him until after my little mother died. But he’s splendid when you do get to know him. I love him the best in all the world, and Grandma Irving next, and then you, teacher. I’d love you next to father if it wasn’t my duty to love Grandma Irving best, because she’s doing so much for me. You know, teacher. I wish she would leave the lamp in my room till I go to sleep, though. She takes it right out as soon as she tucks me up because she says I mustn’t be a coward. I’m not scared, but I’d rather have the light. My little mother used always to sit beside me and hold my hand till I went to sleep. I expect she spoiled me. Mothers do sometimes, you know.”"

"“Yes, I will. But I hope Davy won’t be there when I go because he makes faces at me. I don’t mind very much because he is such a little boy and I am quite a big one, but still it is not pleasant to have faces made at you. And Davy makes such terrible ones. Sometimes I am frightened he will never get his face straightened out again. He makes them at me in church when I ought to be thinking of sacred things."

"“‘I always met the Twin Sailors at the Striped Rocks. The youngest Twin Sailor is very good-tempered but the oldest Twin Sailor can look dreadfully fierce at times. I have my suspicions about that oldest Twin. I believe he’d be a pirate if he dared. There’s really something very mysterious about him. He swore once and I told him if he ever did it again he needn’t come ashore to talk to me because I’d promised grandmother I’d never associate with anybody that swore."