Look into Frindle: History, Nature, and Words

This story is about "Frindle," a new born word created by a young and creative boy, Nick Allen.

"Frindle" is synonymous with "pen." It arises a tornado-like controversy between two groups: one supports the innovation led by Nick, who plays a major role getting the idea of making the brand new word "Frindle" and puts it into practice. The other stands by conservation, and Mrs. Granger, Nick’s language teacher, is the representative figure.

As his plan starts, Nick tries to spread his idea by using "Frindle" hundreds of times, and he soon gets echo. Opposing to the new word, Mrs. Granger forbids students to use "Frindle" in every way. However, this restriction doesn’t stop the exciting trend but boosts these students’ applications of the word more frequently. What’s more, spread by mess media like TV shows and newspaper, “Frindle” is introduced to the public and is familiar to everyone. Eventually, “Frindle” is formally collected in a dictionary.

Two interesting points in Frindle have caught me while I eagerly swallowed this cool book: the relationship between words and history, and the link between its name and nature.

Mrs. Granger, the leading role of the conservation group, regarding history of words as importance, calls into a question: how “Frindle” created without any historical background can remain through time. According to Mrs. Granger, the word “pen” comes from the Latin word for feather, “pinna.” As time dates back, our ancestors used quills which were made from feather to write. Quills are some of the first writing tools. Thus, “pinna” is extended for a pen. That is, most words can be remained through time usually have their historical background. Based on her, “Frindle” can only be recognized by repeating it again and again but inherits nothing from history. That’s why she is furious about what Nick does.

To Nick, on the contrary, it doesn’t matter what people call a pen. Via observation and description, a concept of an object is formed, and people then give the object a name, which represents the formed notion. Therefore, when mentioning the name of the object, we naturally associate the name with its features like external shape, smell, material, and even the feeling or meaning it brings to us. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.” These lines quoted from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet mirror Nick’s action. As for Nick, using another name to replace the initial one, it doesn’t make the nature of the object different. For instance, when Nick says ”gwagala” in his childhood, his parents know that it indicates to music. So as Nick’s word creation, which I interpret as the following idea: once a word is understood, accepted, and used, the word exists.

In my opinion, names are flowing with time, that is, the way we call an object often varies because of different periods, spaces and cultures. Besides, any reason can lead to a change or a creation of a word. Like “Frindle,” instead of a glorious history backing it up, there is an invaluable spirit and courage. I see a boy trying to break old values and voicing his new thought to the whole world through creating a word. He shows us that a word exists not only on historical base but also on our frequent uses. Regularly used words in any era model contemporary atmosphere and an unparalleled aura. To me, “Frindle” edited in a dictionary at the end of the story indicates the youth’s brave spirit of creation is accepted by their time.

While reading this hilarious and meaningful book, I deeply appreciate Nick’s curiosity, creativity and his action carrying what he thinks out. He makes me realize that staying hunger for learning is the power to improve ourselves. Amazed by Nick’s innovative idea and unique thoughts behind words, I got full pleasure from pondering in this worth reading material.