The Teacher's Funeral

“It occurred to me even that early in life that there’s not much romance in a woman’s soul.”

Russell’s 15-year-old view of “romance” is the excitement of seeing the new steam threshers. Even their names are exotic and stirring. Russell likes the threshers because they speak to his dream, tantalizing him with the future he imagines for himself. Tansy, lacking a love of farm “implements,” is unromantic in Russell’s mind. Russell’s comment is also comical because he has little insight into Tansy’s personal view of romance and does not even recognize it when various men seek her attentions. 

“The twentieth century had found us at last, even here. We didn’t know how to look at something so new.” 

Seeing the steel threshing machines, Russell realizes that technological advances are finally making their way into rural backwaters like his hometown. The possibilities inherent in modern changes like the threshers alter people’s world views. Russell becomes emotional at the sight, sensing that his world is changing.

“Lloyd tightened his grip on me. He knew I was fixing to go, that in my heart I was already gone.” 

Lloyd shows his love for Russell when he holds his hand tightly, as if he could keep Russell with the family. Lloyd does not want Russell to run away to the Dakotas. Russell recognizes the strength of his brother’s love, but in the beginning of the novel, does not value it enough to keep him from pursuing his dream.

“At a funeral you want to miss something.” 

Sadly, no one will miss Miss Myrt: She was a teacher and community outsider. Russell observes that to salvage the funeral, Preacher Parr gets the congregation worked up and longing for the bygone “good old days.” His speech then becomes a criticism of modern times and lazy children.

“Increase Whittlesey, ten foot tall in his clawhammer coat with the three-foot, inch-thick birchwood paddle in his mighty hand, and the braided rawhide whip just for the boys?”

Preacher Parr recalls the teacher before Miss Myrt who was also a proponent of old-time educational methods: whupping. The older members of the congregation agree that teachers should literally beat education into the “ungrateful” youth. Tansy will demonstrate a different approach to education that better prepares children for the modern world.

“Nothing between the driver and any distance, nowhere to go but ahead.” 

Looking at Eugene’s “Bullet No. 2,” Russell again visualizes the future, and freedom. The automobile removes obstacles. It frees the driver to travel to new places quickly. It represents a way forward, out of the past and into new, exciting times and places. 

“I had an awful vision of being up on the recitation bench with nothing between me and Tansy riding her desk like a bronco and cracking a beech switch in the air like a carriage whip. My mind shuddered.” 

Russell shows his sense of humor and his penchant for hilarious and vividly figurative language in this comparison of Tansy to a bronc rider, taming her class. Russell is convinced that Tansy will be an even more punitive teacher than Miss Myrt. He—mistakenly—does not believe Tansy can separate her role of sister and teacher.  

“Husband-high and teacher-tall.” 

On her first day of teaching, Russell is surprised to see that Tansy looks like an adult. His comment indicates that Tansy is both ready to be a teacher and grown up enough to get married.

“Miss Myrt didn’t have us do it that-a-way!”

Tansy’s pupils balk at the extra work and extra learning she wants them to do. When Tansy makes them look up the meanings of the words they spell, the pupils protest. Tansy, however, wants them to have a more well-rounded knowledge than mere rote memorization, which was Miss Myrt’s only contribution to their learning.

“You’re never too old to learn.” 

This belief is central to Tansy’s educational philosophy. She goes to high school to better herself and becomes a teacher to give Russell an education and direction in life. She models learning for him and her class, working at night to stay ahead of her pupils in math. While Mrs. Tarbox selfishly dismisses Tansy’s comment, Tansy inspires Glenn Tarbox to get an education.

“Seemed to me, if she’d been trained right as a teacher, she’d stick to the rules more.” 

Even though Russell had no love for Miss Myrt, he objects to Tansy’s teaching methods. Russell resists learning more than he feels he needs to, and Tansy’s new ideas require him to work harder. Russell’s comment show that at this point, he still does not consider Tansy a real teacher.

“Aunt Fanny began to skid on wet reeds. Her bosom moved like hedgehogs just even with the road.”

Russell’s depiction of the epic battle to get Aunt Fanny Hamline out of the ditch contains comical similes and visuals like this one. Peck again shows his mastery of characterization and his deft touch with situational humor. 

“For now it was enough to feel that baseball, still white and perfect, slide into your hand like it was coming home, to see the arc of it against the dark blue sky. To feel the throw in your shoulder.” 

The regulation baseball is perfection for the boys. It represents something they have longed for but never had. Their homemade baseballs are no comparison to the real thing. The new ball brings them a small but potent taste of modernity and life outside the country in a way they can all relate to.

“Tarbox trash.” 

Charlie hurls this insult at Glenn during their fight over Tansy. Charlie voices the community opinion of the Tarbox family as being redneck community outsiders. More immediately, Charlie’s insult implies that Glenn is just like the rest of his family, deceptive and untrustworthy. Charlie asserts that Glenn is not worthy of respect: Charlie’s or Tansy’s. 

“A teacher dares not cry, not a real teacher.” 

After Glenn and Charlie fight, Tansy breaks into tears. Russell still maintains illusions about what a “real teacher” is—and it isn’t Tansy. Her emotional response seems to prove that to him. To an extent, Tansy’s tears undermine her authority. She is still learning her professional role, and her tears show her youthful vulnerability. Tansy recognizes her misstep and soon “rallies,” regaining control. 

“I’d sooner have you home.” 

In this single, quiet sentence, Russell’s dad shows how much he loves his son. He shows Russell the rough camp at the railyard to inject reality into Russell’s romantic dreams of the Dakotas, but does not forbid Russell to go, simply cautioning him that Charlie was never going to accompany him. Russell’s dad prefers Russell’s company to the money he would send home, revealing how much he values and cares for Russell.

“If there’s one thing you can’t see at the age of fifteen, it’s ahead.”

Looking back, Russell recognizes that as a teen on the cusp of adulthood, it is hard to realistically envision what the future will hold. He refers to his 1926 motor trip to the Dakotas with Beulah, and how changed the world is 22 years after the events he is narrating, but he also speaks to his youthful inability to recognize the reality behind his idealistic dream of freedom.

“After all, Eugene Hammond wasn’t near as ignorant as your typical city person.” 

Russell believes that city people lack the skills and common sense of country folks. He thinks Eugene will prove himself a fool during the hog butchering, but finds that Eugene has a country background, and therefore some knowledge. Similarly, Russell knows that Glenn knows all about the natural world, even though he may struggle with the first reader. City and country knowledge are different, but both valuable.

“That’s the way people is who ain’t goin’ anyplace in life theirselves. They don’t want you goin’ anyplace either.” 

When Glenn chooses to better himself and get an education, he rejects his family’ s attempts to keep him down. Glenn shows that he has ambition and does not want to be like the rest of his family, who are going nowhere in life. 

“As the pupils got here to find Tansy in what looked like a coal mine, a broken woman, they fell to.” 

The fact that all the students help clean the schoolhouse after the stove disaster shows that they have come to respect Tansy as a teacher. Russell finally realizes that Tansy truly cares about teaching and deserves to be a teacher. 

“I am here to help her learn […] not to keep her from it. She is the brightest button in the box, and what the others learn, she picks up.” 

Tansy again reveals her opinions about education. When Little Britches learns the multiplication tables before the curriculum requires, the superintendent is upset. Tansy recognizes Little Britches’s potential and curiosity and will help her learn as much as she can, rather than holding her back.

“According to these pages, he saw us all a good deal clearer than we’d ever seen him.” 

Russell understands that everyone has misjudged Flopears, who is a talented artist. Flopears reveals that he quietly observed his classmates and captured their personalities in his drawings. Flopears shows that he learns differently from the other students. Although he was not successful with math or reading, he demonstrates strong visual-spatial intelligence.

“And remember this, mister: Everything you can get away with will be Lloyd’s burden. Every mistake you make will be his excuse.”

Tansy tells Russell to grow up and be a positive role model for Lloyd. Russell’s pranks, resistance to school, and immature dreams of running away to the Dakotas are “mistakes” that Lloyd can use to excuse his own future irresponsible behavior. Tansy wants better for of her brothers.