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Tommy's Character In 'Gryphon' By Charles Baxter

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Gryphon by Charles Baxter is a really interesting text. The substitute teacher, Ms.Ferenczi tell weird stories to Mr. Hibler’s 4th grade class, and the main character Tommy thinks that the stories are true. Tommy is vexed, gullible, and inquisitive. First, Tommy is vexed. One example is when Tommy beats up Wayne because he told on Ms.Ferenczi. Tommy states, “Aiming my fist, I saw he was crying. I slugged him” (p. 69, lines 804-805). This explains that Tommy is vexed since he got angry at Wayne because he reproached Ms.Ferenczi. Tommy likes Ms. Ferenczi, so he got angry when Wayne told the principal about Ms.Ferenczi and the death code. He also got worried if something will happen to Ms.Ferenczi which is also vexed because vexed means angry or worried. Another idea is when Tommy is worried if Mr.Hibler would test them on their knowledge about Mrs.Mantei’s 6th grade science lesson like he’s expecting Tommy to memorize the lesson. Tommy states “ … for the next day, when Mr.Hibler would certainly return to test us on our …show more content…

For example, Tommy stares at Ms. Ferenzi inquisitively. Tommy states “... never taking my eyes of the women” (p.43, lines 64-65). This illustrates that Tommy looks at Ms. Ferenzi because she looks different and she also acts different. This proves that Tommy is inquisitive because inquisitive means curious, and he was wondering why she looks different and why she acts weird. Another example is when Tommy searches up Gryphon with curiosity because Ms. Ferenzi said it was real. Tommy states, “After five minutes, I found it. Gryphon… Fabulous was right” (p. 59, lines 490-493). This reveals that Tommy is really curious to find out if Ms. Ferenzi is correct, and to prove Carl wrong. This proves that Tommy is inquisitive because he was curious to find out if Gryphon was real or not. All in all, Tommy is inquisitive because he stared at Ms.Ferenczi inquisitively, and he searched up Gryphon to see if it was true or

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