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
Tommy and his twin sister Tammy Jean were born in Oakland,California on June 28,1964.His mom Nina Sells was a single mother with three other children when the twins were born.They moved to St. Louis,Missouri and at 18 months old,sells and tammy jean contracted spinal meningitis, which was fatal to tammy.After he got better sells was sent to live with his aunt Bonnie Walpole in Holcomb,Missouri.He stayed there until he was five when his mom went back to take him when she found out that his aunt was thinking about adopting him.Through his childhood he was left alone to fend for himself.He barely went to school and by the time he was seven he was drinking alcohol.Around the same time he started hanging around this old man.The man showed him a
Based on Tommy’s pattern of behavior, he seemed to defend Miss Ferenczi, which shows that (claim) This shows that he defends her because he is open- minded to her ideas. First of all,(T) Tommy defended Miss.
Why does Tommy defense Ms. Ferenczi During the story “Gryphon” by Charles Baxter, Tommy defense Ms.Franczi almost in every page, but the question is why. Tommy defense Ms. Franczi because he like her, because they think almost alike for example when Tommy sees a tree that he hadn't seen before and he just notice on the exact same day when Ms. Franczi draws “A large, leafy, deciduous… oak.” (P. 44, L. 70)
“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” As many have heard this before, it stands very true. Which means you shouldn’t prejudge. However, that didn’t stop Miss Lebowitz from pre judging her new juvenile delinquency neighbors Gecko, Terence, and Arjay. It’s understandable why however, they gave her no reason to speculate. Eventually she grew close to them as she defended them against a group of teens in a gang. Pouring water down on them saying, “I’ve dialed nine-one-one and I’m about to push the send button! You get out of here and leave my buys
One of the first memory moments is about him and his dad practicing at the park. They then were talking about football and then Tommy’s father said “Everyone wanted to play offence…” He was talking about how all of his friends and pretty much everyone else who wants to play offence instead of defence. But Tommy and his dad play defence I feel like that brings a connection from Tommy’s dad to Tommy. It adds a person vs. person conflict. Tommy is sad since, he and his father won't have that connection ever again because he is gone.
you, sir, I do not believe it” (Miller70). Even after John’s lechery, she believed that he
I think that Tommy looks up to Chuck and Portia as guardians. Chuck serves as the father-figure in his life and Portia serves as a second mother. The event of his mother’s death ignites
During the Roaring twenties, social class was an important aspect of society. All different classes were for the most part separated by where people lived. In other words, by no means would anyone from a lower class be caught in an uptown setting. There are a variety of characters in the novel that come from different economic backgrounds. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald successfully uses location to differentiate social status amongst his characters while the weather and seasons of those locations help guide them. Each character helps represent and support the differences of social class and the four main locations, The East Egg, the West Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and New York City.
The narrative begins when Gregory is about seven years old, quite young to be experiencing such a painful lesson in racism. However, this teacher, which Gregory never mentions her name, dishes out her hatefulness with every opportunity. Gregory has a classmate, which he is quite fond of and tries to impress her at every opportunity he is given. The problem Gregory is up against is that he is poor. Gregory has one set of clothes which he washes every night. He shines shoes to make money, which he leaves on Helens porch instead of buying food. In return, Helen, the girl of Gregory’s dreams, rewards him as she walks by his house on the way to school with a wink and a smile. Gregory jumps through hoops to gain this girls attention and she is never unkind to him even though she is economically in a better situation than he is. However, when he goes to school he is made the center of attention by the teacher who labels him an idiot; she does this intentionally by placing him at the back of the room in a seat with a circle drawn around it in white chalk. Gregory is
Throughout history it becomes apparent that all the great stories: The Odyssey, Great Expectations, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are all founded on a similar theme. The same plot line, a hero, most often the protagonist, faces danger and adversity to the highest extreme but always comes out on top. He is depicted as the pinnacle of human triumph and in essence, demonstrates a fundamental strength that all men should strive to achieve. These stories were, “ full of darkness and danger. And sometimes one did not want to know the end; How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? In the end, it is only a passing thing. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out even clearer. Those
Tommy notices Plinio looking at Mavis and is jealous of him, his dislike for Plinio deepens because he is Italian, so Tommy decides to humiliate
During this section of the book Tommy is in the middle of his football game and his teammate had just let the other team gain 40 yards. This shows that Tommy had no business with things that have happened in the past because he tells his teammate that the play that just happened is in the past and there is only one thing he can do to make it up. Do good on
Because Smith never offers up any backing for his word, the reader is left to speculate how he came up with all his information and why they should believe anything he has to say. Smith goes on and on, mentioning example after good example while never once backing up what he has to say.
The short story Gryphon by Charles Baxter is about a substitute teacher that challenges the way the children in the classroom usually think and encourages them to think with their imagination. Growing up, I also had a teacher that challenged me to think creatively as well. She inspired me to work hard and learn as much as I could. Both the story and my personal life have strong influences of a teacher wanting to better the student’s life in an unconventional way.
The father teaches tommy how to hunt, track animals and be a part of Mother Nature. And Tommy really tries his hardest! We can see that in this scene at line 7 page 40: “and sometimes when he turned real quick, he would see a pride in Pa’s eyes” Out of this reaction we can see how much pride means for Tommy. He wants his father to brag about him to the other men in the Hut. Therefor Tommy practises a lot.