4. The Big Baby. Sophie writes that her father drove her to Connecticut to join her uncles and cousins at Dock’s cottage. She says that she’s been holed up there with them for two weeks, making repairs on their boat, “The Wanderer.” She describes her Uncle Stew as a worrywart, and his son Brian as a “photocopy” of him, the two both placing a lot of value in being highly organized all the time. Sophie describes her Uncle Mo as “a bit on the chubby side” and always lying around tanning instead of helping with the boat, yet nonetheless barking orders. Cody, his son, is “fit and muscular,” and always attracting the attention of girls who pass by the cottage. Uncle Dock, Sophie says, is “easygoing and calm,” unfazed by any mistakes the crew makes when repairing the boat.
Here Sophie starts to give caricatures of her fellow crewmembers, and we can notice that she feels no need to sugarcoat her descriptions—her journal is a place where she can escape from social interactions and say what she feels. We also get a sense of the uneasiness and tension in the atmosphere around her: Stew, Brian, and Mo are making stressful what would otherwise be an easygoing and carefree environment with Cody and Dock. Still, Sophie’s enthusiasm about embarking upon the open ocean isn’t fazed by the fact that her crewmembers can be unpleasant.