From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Freedom and Confinement Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

"Going home without knowing about Angel for sure will be the same as going home from camp. It won't be any different. After one day, maybe two, we'll be back to the same old thing. And I didn't run away to come home the same." (6.76)

Claudia's main goal is that she's not going to feel the same when she goes home. She doesn't want to return to the same life she had before, feeling trapped and confined by her circumstances. She wants to be a superstar, free to make her own decisions (and dazzle everyone else, of course).

Quote #8

"I have half a mind to join that group and go back with them and just be mysterious about where I came from." (7.42)

Yeah right—as if Jamie actually wants to go back to school and be stuck in the same old routine again. He's totally bluffing (he's a card player, after all), and Claudia knows it.

Quote #9

"And the more plans you made, the more it became like living at home away from home," I interrupted.

"That's true," she said. "But we did enjoy living away from home in a mild kind of way." (9.138-139)

Even though living at the museum isn't that different from living at home in terms of those endless chores (they have to do their own laundry!) and the rules, Claudia is quick to make the distinction that it was different. It was different because they chose to do all those things, and were free to make their own choices.