The Yearling

“[…] but ‘twa’n’t mine and I wouldn’t of wanted to die with it on me. Dead or alive, I only want what’s mine.”

Penny Baxter is a man of character. When the shopkeeper gave him an extra dollar in change, he went to great lengths to return it. He takes his integrity seriously and says he wouldn’t want to die with the extra money in his pocket. This is ironic as the Baxters could use the money, but Penny sees the extra change as theft.

“This was the saw-grass. It grew knee-deep in water, its harsh saw-edged blades rising so thickly that it seemed a compact vegetation.”

This quote’s dense vegetation gets its name from its sharp edges that can slice through human skin. The description of the native plant shows the harshness of the climate and landscape, and highlights the way the natural world is central to the characters and plot.

“It sounded like all the wild-cats in the scrub rounded up together, but it had a rhythm and a gusto that satisfied the ear and soul. The wild chords went through Jody as though he too were a fiddle and Lem Forrester drew long fingers across him.”

Jody is captivated by every facet of life at the Forresters’ house, from their bounty of food to Fodder-wing’s collection of wild pets. The din of male energy is foreign to him since he’s an only child, and the Baxter home is mostly quiet. The author uses figurative language to describe the effect Lem’s music has on Jody, sending him into a trance-like state.

“A sense of aloneness that was not lonely came to the boy.”

Jody is an only child and doesn’t have many friends nearby; he instead finds comfort in his father and nature. He often goes into the woods alone, this solitude ironically bringing him adventure and a sense of peace.

“Her good nature rose and fell with the food supply.”

Ora has developed a tough veneer due to the many tragedies she’s endured. She’s hard on Jody, and Penny rarely stands up to his wife as he feels guilty for bringing her to the scrub. She takes great pride in cooking for her family, so when they bring home game, it temporarily softens her bristly nature.

“The pine swayed in an imperceptible breeze. It seemed alive, stirring with a breath of its own.”

The author incorporates extended descriptions of the landscape, which becomes a character in itself. As Jody sits in the tree, he feels its power; personification makes the tree come alive and reinforces its importance to the boy.

“A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life, to be thankful for a good one.”

Grandma Hutto and Ora have different personalities and don’t get along despite the former having taken in Ora and Jody while Penny was away at war. The former spoils Penny and Jody, and doesn’t think Ora appreciates Penny’s nobility. However, she’s never been to Baxter’s Island and doesn’t understand the difficult life Ora leads (regardless of Penny being a good husband or not).

“The south was filled with darkness, like the smoke of gunpowder. A chill air moved across the scrub and was gone, as though a vast being had blown a cold breath and then passed by.”

As Penny and Jody advance toward the Forresters’ cabin, a literal storm brews as a metaphorical storm forms between the two families. The darkness and chill foreshadow something ominous to come.

“It seemed to him that he could feel the poison working in his own veins, attacking his heart, churning in his gizzard.”

Penny and Jody are connected on a deeper level than just father and son. When Penny languishes after the snakebite, Jody worries he’ll lose his father and closest companion. He feels as if he, too, is poisoned—with grief and sorrow.

“Ory, the day may come when you’ll know the human heart is allus the same. Sorrer strikes the same all over.”

Penny rarely stands up to his wife, but after she coldly responds to the news of Fodder-wing’s death, he chastises her lack of compassion. He speaks the universal truth that everyone, no matter their background or status, experiences grief, and that all humans are linked by the experience of loss.

“It would be better not to have known; to have gone away, believing.”

When Fodder-wing dies, a part of Jody’s innocence is lost. Once he discovers Fodder-wing’s visions (of a ghostly Spaniard) were illusions, he wishes he didn’t know the truth and could once again live in the magic of childhood wonder. This moment is the first step in Jody’s loss of innocence.

“Dogged if ‘tain’t like goin’ outen the Ark […] The animals two by two—Ory, come go out with me.”

After an eight-day storm, Penny summons everyone outside to survey the damage. He alludes to the biblical story of Noah, who was trapped on an ark for days while the earth flooded (to cleanse itself of evil and start anew).

“The flood had reached everywhere, like the searching fingers of a ‘coon, and had torn out all the things for whom the solid earth was their only refuge.”

Nothing was spared by the flood. The author uses a simile, comparing the extent of the flood’s destruction to a raccoon’s deft fingers. Everything is transformed, and Jody doesn’t recognize the land he once knew so well.

“You got to learn to be keerful. You got to learn takin’ keer o’rations comes first of all-first after gittin’ ‘em.”

Though Jody doesn’t receive a formal education, Penny teaches him how to survive off the land through hunting and homesteading. Penny also teaches his son the importance of making thoughtful decisions, a lesson that transcends time and place.

“I done my growin’ sideways, and I aim to set in a piece down the front so’s it’ll meet around me.”

Though Ora is usually serious and stern, she sometimes delivers humorous one-liners. She compares Jody’s upward growth to her growing girth, and expresses the need to make her dress larger to accommodate her larger body.

“That makes me feel right humble. A dog knowin’ what you mought call kin-folks.”

Penny realizes that the family’s dog Julia doesn’t track Flag because she recognizes him as part of the family. This quote illustrates Julia’s intelligence and Penny’s love and respect for her as a part of the family. However, while Penny is willing to put Julia in harm’s way for the sake of procuring food and protecting his wife and son, Jody coddles Flag.

“It was a great thing, he thought, to be kin to Penny Baxter.”

The successful hunt of Old Slewfoot makes Penny a temporary celebrity. Jody helped his father through the ordeal, but lets him alone shine. The boy is content simply being Penny’s son and hearing his stories.

“It was a harsh thing, even for a wolf, to be so alone that it must turn to the yard of its enemy for companionship.”

The wolves that once posed a threat to the Baxters’ food supply are now gone; one lone, injured wolf remains and frolics with the Baxters’ dog Rip. Jody feels empathy for the wolf, left to fend for itself in the wild, and the sight of it deepens his love for Flag. He sees himself as Flag’s rescuer, but refuses to recognize what he sees as cruel abandonment as nature’s way.

“[…] a pair o’ yearlin’s […] Hit grieves me.”

Penny equates Flag’s growth with Jody’s coming of age. He laments Jody’s waning boyhood and the loss of innocence he knows is coming, as Jody will gradually learn more about the hardships of life.

“Penny was inviolable, as the earth was inviolable.”

Jody has always seen Penny as a larger-than-life figure. After Penny survives his snakebite, he appears invincible; still, seeing his father taken down by an injury humbles Jody and leaves him feeling vulnerable. He equates his father’s mortality with that of all creation.

“Why, love’s got nothin’ to do with corn.”

Ora shares a harsh truth with Jody, that Flag must die in order for the family to survive. Jody sees his parents’ directive as heartless and a violation of their trust, but for Penny, it’s simply a matter of survival. Penny understands Jody’s love for Flag, but knows the deer must die due to its destructive nature.

“He was not hungry.”

From the beginning of the novel, the author highlights Jody’s insatiable appetite. He’s a growing boy and food is scarce, so he never misses a meal. However, Jody loses his enjoyment of eating after killing Flag, despite his physical body needing nourishment.

“He was out in the world, and it seemed to him that he was alien here, and alone and that he was being carried away into a void.”

Jody wanders the woods and becomes lost, both physically and spiritually. Feeling betrayed by Penny, Jody is adrift without something to hold onto. He battles with nature instead of allowing it to comfort him, emerging from the woods a different person.