Chapter 10 of 27 · 2'13"
After grace, Grandpa mentions that Alice is going to be married, and Alice explains her family to Kolenkhov. The story is that everyone simply does what he likes: Grandpa quit business because he was not having fun, and Penny writes plays because a typewriter arrived by mistake.
❝ Monologue · 6 lines Grandpa's odd grace
He reports a family's ordinary life like a progress note to heaven, and the solemn tone is the joke.
Why Grandpa Quit Business
Why Penny Writes Plays
Grandpa says grace and mentions Alice's coming marriage. Then Alice explains the household to Kolenkhov: her grandfather walked out of his business one day and took up stamp collecting, her father builds fireworks because he never grew up, and her mother began writing plays because a typewriter was delivered by mistake.
The chapter explains, with affection, why the Sycamores are the way they are. Each story is a small refusal of the ordinary: Grandpa quit a business career because "he wasn't having any fun," and Penny became a playwright because of a delivery error. The film is not mocking them. The point is that none of these lives was planned, and all of them are happy. Kolenkhov's line, that living with them is like a world Walt Disney might have thought of, is both a joke and the highest praise in the film. Against the Kirby household, where everything is arranged, this is the alternative.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“Living with them must be like living in a world that Walt Disney might have thought of.”
He reaches for the great dream-maker of the age to describe the family, and the compliment sounds effortless.
Neutral
“He could have been a rich man, but he said he wasn't having any fun.”
Could have been sets up the money, and the plain lack of fun overturns it in one clause.
Neutral
“If it had been a plow, she'd have taken up farming?”
He pushes the logic to its absurd end, and the mock-serious question is what makes it funny.
Informal
“He started up in the elevator, turned 'round, came right down again and never went back.”
One turn in an elevator explains a whole life choice.
Informal
Well, sir. Here we are again. We've been getting on pretty good for quite a while now. We're certainly much obliged. Looks like Alice is going to get married, and I think she'll be very happy, because we just met the boy you sent her and he looks fine. Remember, all we ask is just to go along the way we are and keep our health. As far as anything else is concerned, we leave that up to you.
Up next · 11castles in the airThe scene: Tony and Alice Talk About CourageHe said he was not having any fun. He walked into the elevator one day, turned around, came back down, and never returned to the office.
Because a typewriter was delivered to the house by mistake eight years earlier. Alice jokes that if it had been a plow, her mother would have taken up farming.
Alice says it is because he never grew up. He builds them for the pleasure of it, not for money.
He says living with them must be like a world Walt Disney might have imagined, because everyone does exactly as he pleases.
