Symbolism in Pippi's painting?

January 8, 2023 4:17 PM

I just finished reading Pippi Longstocking (1950, translated into English by Florence Lamborn) to my daughter, and in the next-to-last chapter (Chapter 10 "Pippi Acts as a Lifesaver") the following passage appears in the middle of the 2nd paragraph: "Next she had gone into the parlor and painted a large picture on the wallpaper. The picture represented a fat lady in a red dress and a black hat. In one hand she held a yellow flower and in the other a dead rat. Pippi thought it a very beautiful picture; it dressed up the whole room."

I was struck by the specifics there, and was wondering if anyone had any idea if it meant anything, maybe to current events in the 40s or 50s, world-wide or in Sweden? Or is it an allusion to some kind of nautical or sea-faring culture (a tattoo reference, for instance?) Or a version of the exaggerated tales Pippi tells throughout the rest of the book about the peoples of the world?

I was not able to find the original Swedish, which would (I think) be helpful here. I did manage to find some scholarly work about how Swedish culture was depicted through translation, but nothing about red dressed-women with a flair for flowers and rats.

Thank you.

posted by AbelMelveny to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Response by poster: I should note that where I say "the exaggerated tales Pippi tells throughout the rest of the book about the peoples of the world," I do not mean to gloss over depictions and language that occasionally verges into outright caricature. I'm aware of the justifiable complaints of how people can be othered in literature of this vintage. I understand the 3rd book in the series is the main offender in that regard, though this one definitely had some wince-worthy moments. Just a note...
posted by AbelMelveny at 4:33 PM on January 8, 2023

Best answer: I hate to oversimplify, but by genteel standards the picture sounds absolutely hideous, plus she ruined the wallpaper. That specificity reflects the random concreteness of children's creations. I don't know that it's anything beyond that.
posted by praemunire at 4:34 PM on January 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

On a rudimentary maid-mother-crone level red is synonymous with mother, black hat is wise elder/crone. Women keep things clean and dispatch unpleasantness/prevent pestilence (often) which would be the dead rat, but often need to lead with the bloom of a flower, not its fruit, seeds, foliage or roots.

Just my musing…IIRC Pippi was very much a father’s daughter that broke with social conventions of being female, so maybe this was a nod to the conventions that she was disavowing?
posted by childofTethys at 5:32 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

I have always interpreted those details to mean that the picture is incredibly tacky. I don't know that a red dress and black hat don't go together, but a red dress might be considered flashy. The dead rat speaks for itself.
posted by gideonfrog at 5:37 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

As an aside, it makes a striking dall-e image.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:58 PM on January 8, 2023 [12 favorites]

Best answer: The Swedish is more or less word for word the same except for the last sentance. It is "Det var en mycket vacker målning, tyckte Pippi." This translates to "it was a very beautiful painting, in Pippi's opinion. That's quite a difference in meaning, in my opinion.

In the context of the time and place it's written I think it's mainly an example of Pippi's pure anarchism.
posted by Iteki at 10:35 PM on January 8, 2023 [6 favorites]

Googling in Swedish points to the parallel of Tom Sawyer's buddy buying in on fence-painting with a dead rat and a string to swing it on.
posted by Iteki at 10:36 PM on January 8, 2023

There is a pretty long interesting article about the significance of using a red dress in costuming here.
posted by flug at 12:00 AM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]