Heidi

“[…] she looked enviously at Peter, running about so freely on bare feet, in comfortable trousers […].”

The author establishes clothing as an important motif early in the narrative. Heidi ascends the mountain wearing all her clothing on her back but quickly sheds it as she settles into life in the hut. Peter’s casual clothing and lack of shoes symbolize the freedom that exists for children on the mountain. Heidi longs to live in that same freedom and quickly adapts her clothing to her new life.

“It’s a chair specially for me […].”

Grandfather’s carpentry skills are not just one of his unique attributes but also a way that he shows love to Heidi and others. By making her a chair, he not only physically creates a place for her at his table but also makes her feel emotionally like a part of his family. Grandfather also uses his carpentry skills later to help Grannie and to make chairs for the Sesemann’s visit.

“She gazed so intently at the mountain peaks that soon they seemed to her to have faces and to be looking at her like old friends.”

Heidi has a childlike perception of nature, where everything appears to come alive to her. The author uses the anthropomorphosis of natural elements to explore the theme of Romanticism in nature and seeing the natural world as a place of refuge for humans. The mountains become Heidi’s friends as they help her heal from her past trauma, and their memory brings her comfort when she is in Frankfurt.