Gryphon by Charles Baxter
"Gryphon" by Charles Baxter is a short story centered around a fourth-grade class at Garfield-Murray School in rural Five Oaks, Michigan. The narrative is told through the eyes of Tommy, a typical student whose life is marked by the monotony of routine education. The arrival of a substitute teacher, Miss Ferenczi, disrupts this regularity. She is portrayed as eccentric and unconventional, captivating the students' attention with her unusual stories and alternative perspectives on learning.
Miss Ferenczi's teaching style challenges traditional educational norms, as she introduces fantastical elements and encourages students to question established facts. Her lessons include a blend of personal anecdotes and imaginative ideas that ignite debate among the students about truth and belief. However, her impact is temporary, as she leaves after a few days, returning only to invoke further intrigue with tarot card readings. The story ultimately contrasts the vibrant, chaotic world introduced by Miss Ferenczi with the rigid structure of their regular curriculum, highlighting themes of curiosity, skepticism, and the search for meaning in education.
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Gryphon by Charles Baxter
First published: 1985
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: The late twentieth century
Locale: Five Oaks, Michigan
Principal Characters:
Tommy , the narrator, a fourth-grade studentMiss Ferenczi , his substitute teacherMr. Hibler , his regular teacherCarl Whiteside , andWayne , his classmatesMrs. Mantei , the sixth-grade teacher
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 learn, and other ways to look or think, so they do not feel a lack. Into their mundane world Miss Ferenczi, a new substitute teacher, suddenly arrives.
From the first moment that Miss Ferenczi appears, it is clear that she is different; one student even jokes that she may be from Mars. She carries a purple purse and a checkered lunchbox, her glasses are tinted, and her hair is done up in a strange way. Before class begins, she spends time drawing a tree on the chalkboard because "this room needs a tree." She then introduces herself by telling a long and dramatic story about her grandfather, a Hungarian prince, and her mother, a world-famous pianist. The students are captivated but cautious.
On her first day, Miss Ferenczi covers some of the regularly assigned material; however, during the arithmetic lesson, she accepts a student's answer that six times eleven equals sixty-eight. When several students protest, she encourages them to let go of their orthodoxy. She is a substitute teacher, she says, so it will not hurt them to learn a few substitute facts. The students, however, will not have it. They want to know which answer is correct. Miss Ferenczi closes the discussion: "You are free to think what you like. When your teacher, Mr. Hibler, returns, six times eleven will be sixty-six again, you can rest assured. And it will be that for the rest of your lives in Five Oaks. Too bad, eh?"
The afternoon lesson is on Egypt. Miss Ferenczi ignores the assigned text and instead tells about her own travels in Egypt—where she has seen "much dust and many brutalities," and where she claims to have seen a gryphon in a cage. She talks about the movement of souls, the cosmic powers of pyramids, and the tidal forces of the solar system. Although her sentences are unconnected, they seem profound—sometimes true and sometimes not. Tommy wants to believe everything that Miss Ferenczi says, but his friend Carl Whiteside thinks that she is making it all up. To each boy, it must be one thing or the other: Miss Ferenczi must be right or wrong, a truth-teller or a liar.
Miss Ferenczi teaches for two days, enchanting and confusing the students with her rambling, fabulous ideas. On the playground, the students group together, debating whether she is crazy. On the third day, Mr. Hibler returns, and everything is back to normal.
Several months later, Miss Ferenczi reappears. This time, she ignores the assigned lessons altogether, and takes out a deck of tarot cards with which she tells the students' fortunes. For most of them, she sees nothing exceptional in their futures—merely marriage, the army, and a good life. However, she predicts an early death for one frightened boy, Wayne, who tells the school's principal.
After the children see Miss Ferenczi drive away at lunchtime, never to return, Tommy and Wayne come to blows in the schoolyard. Tommy tries to defend the substitute: "She was right," he yells. "She was always right! She told the truth!" After lunch period, they study insects under the guidance of Mrs. Mantei, the regular sixth-grade teacher, who is "no mystery." She tells them about the parts of an insect's mouth, its four-stage metamorphosis, and its internal anatomy. On the next day, she tells them, Mr. Hibler will test them on their mastery of the facts.