Howl's Moving Castle, Chapters 6-10

[Prof. Sky Alton]

And aunts, aunts are terrible. They go for you with hat pins.

Here we’ll be discussing chapters 6 through 10 of Howl’s Moving Castle. Don’t worry if you’ve not reached this point yet, all the discussion posts will be waiting for you whenever you do.

Fairy tales often derive a lot of their wonder and simple charm from characters who are cookie-cutter versions of people and spells which simply happen. Fantasy books, on the other hand, tend to go into more detail (a lot of detail in some cases). Writing for children, do you think Jones is attempting to strike a balance between the two? For instance, we have Seven-League Boots with no explanation of how they work but spend an entire chapter watching Sophie and Michael trying to unpick a spell. Then there’s Howl: is he just a heartless young man who needs to be taught a lesson about meddling with people’s feelings or is there something more at work?

Don’t be heartless to your fellow readers - use spoiler tags when discussing specific plot points!

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Just as I was starting to maybe sort of like Howl he starts behaving in a manner which is ... well ... boorish. Sophie is trying to get along! But that's great. In the second chapter of this section, though, something happens and, for some reason, maybe the way it is written, this is a terrifying event. I don't know why, but the idea of a scarecrow determined to refuse to let Sophie leave the castle is scary.

In the meantime, everyone, Michael, Sophie, Calcifer and Howl, are starting to blend into sort of a family, or a group, and Sophie is learning all kinds of things about the castle and the artifacts in it, and finding out how very magical they are. I think that's nifty! I think the stuff about the castle being magic has to do with it being based in Howl's actual house, but even so, it's sort of funny how the castle magic works.

THEN the plot thickens! Oh dear. It's like, the more Sophie learns, the more trouble she gets into. This is getting very interesting! And I think it is funny how Howl seems so powerful and yet, somehow, Sophie is becoming sort of vital to him.

[Silas Hipolito Crist]

Sophie has really changed a lot in the recent chapters, I guess evenbeing old makes you different- she is much more mature, brave and full of humor. I do like her better now because she is a lot more confident. Offering herself asa cleaning lady was not something that I expected, I really thought that she was going to listen to fire demon's suggestion about her as Howl's old relative. She would be accepted better I guess.
"As an old woman, she did not mind what she did or said." This is the sentence that so good describes her character after transformation. I can 't tell anymore that this is Sophie anymore.
Howl was also the one that surprised me,because I expected, someone old; some powerful old magician. And he is much less than I expected because his character is so unpleasant, not honorable.
The idea of moving castle is really original and so fun to read; escapingyour enemies by living in a castle that constantly moves.
It was such a relief when I found out that there were only rumors about what Howl does with his victims.
Finally, the mysterious girl was revealed-- I expected that it would be Lettie or Martha and I was right.
But after time Howl's transformation is noticeable- he is getting much nicer because of Sophie.

Forgot to mention that scarecrow was such a surprise; really scared for Sophie right now

[Shiloh Adlar]

I feel like there's a lot more going on that needs to be seen yet, especially when it comes to Howl.

I don't too much mind the fact that these items have no explanation. After all, does magic really need explanation? Though some of these spells that Howl is using, I wonder how many are real and how many are placebo. Think Sophie when she's handing out the yellow powder and cayenne. She doesn't really do anything except make people believe they're getting what they want.

Sophie is completely different from the beginning now, as everyone else has mentioned. But I think this must have been in her the whole time but maybe not realized yet?