Gryphon (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Charles Baxter
- First Published: 1985
- Type of Plot: Psychological
- Time of Work: The late twentieth century
- Setting: Five Oaks, Michigan
- Principal Characters: Tommy, Miss Ferenczi, Mr. Hibler, Carl Whiteside, Wayne, Mrs. Mantei
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Short fiction
- Subjects: Teaching or teachers, Children, Midwest, Truth, Fortune-telling or fortune-tellers, Truthfulness and falsehood, Egypt or Egyptians, Mathematics or mathematicians, Tarot, Elementary education
- Locales: Michigan
The Story
To the narrator, Tommy, a normal fourth-grade boy, and other pupils at Garfield-Murray School in rural Five Oaks, Michigan, each day is much like another. As their teachers lecture to them about predictable subjects in predictable ways, they memorize facts and repeat them back. Occasionally, the routine is disrupted by a substitute teacher, but with only four substitutes in all of Five Oaks, the students know exactly what to expect from each of them. Oblivious to the dullness of their routine, the students do not know that there are other possibilities, other ways to...
[The entire page is 1453 words long]
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