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The Only Interesting Event In Gryphon, By Charles Baxter

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Sunnie Li Mrs. Asselin Language Art 6/7 07 Jan, 2016 The Only Interesting Event In Five Oaks In the short story, Gryphon, by Charles Baxter, is about a boy named Tommy who lived in a rural community in Five Oaks. At that time, life has been boring for him, until a substitute that Tommy has never seen before walks into his classroom. She introduced herself as Miss Ferenczi. As the story progresses, the relationship between Tommy and Miss Ferenczi also changes. Tommy starts to like and respect Miss Ferenczi as she tells a lot of nonsense and crazy stories during class. Tommy likes interesting and odd things. As he was going home on the bus, he said he “knew every barn, every broken windmill, every fence, every anhydrous ammonia tank, by heart” …show more content…

For example, as soon as Tommy got home from school, he “ran into the living room, pulled out a dictionary next the TV stand, and opened it to the Gs” (p. 59, line 487-490). This means that he know, as soon as possible, if Miss Ferenczi is telling the truth. Tommy thinks that if the one thing that Miss Ferenczi is telling him is true, then the rest must be authentic too. Sometimes, he wants to believe in Miss Ferenczi so much that after she told the class about diamond rings, he started doubting his mother as “she touched the back of her hand to my forehead and I felt her diamond ring against my skin” (p. 64, line …show more content…

From the start, Tommy doesn't know anything about Miss Ferenczi, although he continues to like her more as her behavior becomes even more insane. At first, Tommy only listened to the conversation as Miss Ferenczi said “‘In higher mathematics numbers are...more fluid… It would be better for you to think that six times eleven is sixty-eight only when I am in the room’” (p. 48, line 180-190). Then, as he get more and more involved with Miss Ferenczi, he started to look up and respect her. The first time that Tommy defended her was when Carl Whiteside, the boy who he sits next to him on the bus, challenged her. Tommy had said “‘I read in this newspaper… and he combined a human being and a hamster.’ I waited, for effect. ‘It’s called a humster’”(p. 57, line 430-431). At that moment, he became loyal to Miss Ferenczi in a way and in the end, had a fight with Wayne, who tattletaled in Miss

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