Review #43: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillio

Title: DeCamillo, Kate. The Tale of Despereaux. Candlewick Press. 2003. 267 pages. Tr. $15.24. ISBN 978-0-7636-1722-6

Genre: Fiction/Fantasy
Reading Level/Interest Level: 4.5/ Grades 3-6
Awards: Newbery Medal 2004
Similar Titles: Mrs. Frisby and The Rats of Nimh by Robert C O’brien

 

The reason that I think Despereaux has become such a beloved literary character is because he is honest, he is brave, he is unconventional (for a mouse), chivalrous, honorable and determined. Despereaux wants to be the knight in shining armor, like the contraband books he has read all his life. He wants to be proven righteous and courageous, like the knights of old, and above all else, he wants to save the princess who has been locked away in the dungeon, but a misinformed and naïve half-witted girl who wants nothing more than to be a princess herself.

 

Despereaux not only overcomes the prejudice of his family, and his colony, but also of the entire kingdom, as he sets to rights the unintentional wrongs of his new rat friend, Roscuro, brings peace to the king and Princess Pea and proves himself noble and brave. But most importantly, he brings back the light by bringing back the soup, a tremendous metaphor for the defeat of prejudice and the benefit of different flavors and uniqueness in society, culture and life, that can be enjoyed, and learned from, by all.

 

I think of this story a lot in terms of World War II, though I couldn’t tell you why. The king, so stricken with grief over the accidental death of his wife, bans that which represents diversity within kingdom, which subsequently influences the light, or hope and growth , the kingdom experiences. Without the soup, the land falls into darkness, ignorance and misery putting everyone at risk and making no one happy or content. This reminds me of Hitler’s attempt at eradicating all those who were different than what he considered to be the best version of man. 

 

The soup would represent all those inventions, innovations, and diverse souls that he tried to stamp out, all those different souls and cultures to be learned from that contributed to the greater good of man, or at least had the potential to. Einstein, for example, would have been one of those metaphorical soup ingredients. And it was the beaten, bruised, and trodden upon, those who had been attacked, quite literally, that were able to defeat this blindness, this tunnel vision of sorts, that would defeat the vision of sameness that the people were told would save humanity, which instead, sought to destroy it.

 

So maybe Despereaux represents the allies, and Roscuro, the redeemed Russians, who eventually joined the battle to defeat Hitler’s regime. Perhaps the princess represented all the freedom, hope, light, love and temperance that we so long for, the positive that remains in spite of the negative circumstances we face, while the rat and mouse populations, who determine deviation from the norm is an abomination, represent the masses of people who followed Hitler’s rule, whether out of fear or design.

 

Then again, maybe it’s just the tale of a brave little mouse, who redeems a rat, survives a dungeon, forgives his parents, saves a princess and restores soup to the kingdom. Either way, it’s a great tale, thought flowery in language.