ASOUE #4: The Miserable Mill
Onto another guardian! The orphans are placed into the Lucky Smells Lumber Mill where they are forced to work under harsh circumstances, despite that they are M I N O R S. (The author really has no pity for the Baudelaires, really.) Not only are the Baudelaire siblings working in a job that requires hard, manual labor but they also only receive gum as their lunch every day and eat their real meal during dinner.
Out of all of the places the Baudelaires have been to, disregarding Count Olaf’s, this is by far the worst place. The employees seem brainwashed to perform daily routines with lumber, only to be paid with coupons which can’t get them almost anything because their boss refuses to pay them with money.
Next door to the lumber mill is a peculiar place with the building shaped like an eye. Hmm...maybe like a particular someone’s tattoo on their left ankle?
I was so fed up with the adults who didn’t do anything regarding the Baudelaires’ situation because there were TWO of them that could’ve helped them - Charles and Phil.
Lastly, one thing I liked seeing in this novel that’s different from the usual pattern of almost every single book in this series is that Klaus and Violet switch “specialties”. Klaus has to learn to invent something in a short amount of time, while Violet has to research on hypnotism.
“I’m sure you have heard it said that appearance does not matter so much and that it is what’s on the inside that counts. This is, of course, utter nonsense, because if it were true, then people who were good on the inside would never have to comb their hair or take a bath, and the whole world would smell worse than it already does.”
“Optimist’ is a word which here refers to a person, such as Phil, who thinks hopeful and pleasant thoughts about nearly everything. For instance, if an optimist had his left arm chewed off by an alligator, he might say in a pleasant and hopeful voice, “Well, this isn’t too bad. I don’t have my left hand anymore but at least nobody will ever ask me whether I’m right handed or left-handed,” but most of us would say something more along the lines of “Aaaaah! My arm! My arm!”
“If you ever had a miserable experience, then you have probably had it said to you that you’d feel better in the morning. This, of course, is nonsense, because a miserable experience remains a miserable experience even on the loveliest of mornings.”
“Raisins are healthy, and they are inexpensive, and some may even find them delicious. But they are rarely considered helpful.
“This knowledge sits in my heart, heavy as a paper weight.”
“It is much, much worse to receive bad news through the written word than by somebody simply telling you, and I’m sure you understand why. When someone simply tells you bad news, you hear it once, and that’s the end of it. But when bad news is written down, whether in a letter or a newspaper or on your arm in felt tip pen, each time you read it, you feel as if you are receiving the news again. For instance, I once loved a woman, who for various reasons could not marry me. If she had simply told me in person, I would have been very sad, of course, but eventually it might’ve passed.”
