I just broke down, and Papa let me cry it all out. I just sobbed and sobbed with my head up toward the sky and my eyes closed, hoping God would hear it.
"That's what being a man is all about, boy. It's just doing what's got to be done." (14.31-32)
Shmoop thinks it's really nice that Papa doesn't discourage Rob's tears, but lets him cry all he needs to. Even in Rob and Papa's be-a-man type world, being a man doesn't mean you have to like the dirty job—it just means you have to get it done.
Quote 2
"Never miss a chance," Papa had once said, "to keep your mouth shut." And the more I studied on it, the sounder it grew. (10.13)
Oh, Papa. So wise. Shmoop sure could use that reminder once in a while. In fact, it reminds us of something Mark Twain once said: "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt" (source). Zing!
Quote 3
Strong hands were touching my legs now, and then my ribs. I tried to say something about not being in school. Somebody had some warm water and washed my face with it. The water had lilac in it, and smelled right restful.
"We're beholding to you, Benjamin Tanner," said Papa, "for fetching him home. Whatever he done, I'll make it right." (2.8)
This is the first time we encounter Papa in the book, and we immediately get a strong sense of his character and his priorities. It's clearly very important to him that he "make right" whatever bad thing he thinks Rob has done. In the world of A Day No Pigs Would Die, that's just a father's job.
"Mama will make you a lunch basket that'll be breakfast, dinner, and supper. And you're to do all the Tanners ask of you. And see things to be done before they ask."
"Yes, Papa. I'll sure do good."
"If they judge hogs and judge oxen at the same time, your place is with Tanner's yoke and not your own pig. Promise me, boy."
"I promise, Papa. I'll do proud." (9.108-111)
Wow, talk about pressure. It's not enough to do your duty when it's pointed out to you. You need to go looking for responsibilities that haven't even come your way yet, too? Hey, no one ever said life on the farm was easy.
"Help me boy," said Papa. "It's time."
He put his tools on the ground, keeping only a three-foot crowbar. Neither one of us wore gloves, and I knew how cold that crowbar felt. I'd carried it, and it was colder than death.
"Back away," he said.
"Papa," I said, "I don't think I can."
"That ain't the issue, Rob. We have to." (14.16-20)
Here we get a look at a critical moment in the book. It's time to take out Pinky, and Rob says he just can't do it. Papa reminds him, though, that when duty calls, "can't" just isn't an option.
Quote 6
"We thank you, Brother Tanner," said Papa. "But it's not the Shaker Way to take frills for being neighborly. All that Robert done was what any farmer would do for another. It don't add up to payment or due." (3.39)
Okay, so they keep a respectful distance, but at the same time they're careful to be neighborly, lending a hand when needed (even if that hand ends up being bitten by an angry cow). Sound complicated? Well, in A Day No Pigs Would Die, it's all just part of the bargain.
"There's talk about a new county road," Papa yelled to me in the raining, "and they say it's wide enough to cut the corner of the churchyard at the Meeting House."
"Is that where we be going, Papa?"
"That's where."
"Why?"
"We don't let Sebring Hillman desecrate what's ours that's buried there." (8.15-19)
It's not just that Hillman will be desecrating a grave, but that he's going to desecrate "what's ours." Looks like community remains important even after death.
"Shameful. Them two living under the same roof, without benefit of clergy. You know well as I what's going on in that house, right under our very noses."
"Maybe," said Mama, "our noses are where they shouldn't be." (9.5-6)
Just like Papa with his fences, Mama thinks that keeping on your own side of the boundary lines is a major factor in being a good neighbor. Do Mama and Papa generally share the same opinions about community? Are either of them a part of a community that the other is not?
Quote 9
"I'll send the boy for his pig," Papa said, "and we're beholding to both you folks, Brother Tanner."
"We to you, Haven. I got offered five hundred for my yearling oxen. Five hundred dollars, and not even half growed. Thanks to your boy who helped born 'em, and work 'em at the Fair." (11.9-10)
Thank you! No, thank you! No, thank you! These farmers sure are polite, aren't they? Shmoop guesses it's all about successful community building—nobody likes to do favors for someone if they're not going to be gracious about it afterward, right?
Papa fished around in his pocket.
"Here's two beads of spruce gum. One's for me. But I don't mention you'd want one."
"Yes, I sure would. Please."
"Here, then. Might help you forget where those prickers are nested."
"It's helping already. Thanks, Papa."
The spruce gum was hard and grainy at first. Then the heat of your mouth begins to melt it down so that it's worth the chewing. The bit that Papa gave me was rich and full of sappy juices. Except that every so often you have to spat out a flick of the bark. (2.71-76)
Wow, this kid is poor. Seeing him get excited over a piece of homemade gum (with bits of bark in it!) really brings home just how few treats he's used to getting. You know who this reminds us of? Little Charlie Bucket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
"We are Plain People, your mother and aunt, and your sisters, you and me. We live the Book of Shaker. We are not worldly people, and we suffer the less for not paining with worldly wants and wishes. I am not heartsick, because I am rich and they are poor."
"We're not rich, Papa. We're…"
"Yes we are, boy. We have one another to fend to, and this land to tend. And one day we'll own it outright. We have Solomon here to wind up a capstan and help us haul our burdens. And look here, he's almost done pulling that cratch where we want it pulled to. We have Daisy's hot milk. We got rain to wash up with, to get the grime off us. We can look at sundown and see it all, so that it wets the eye and hastens the heart. We hear all the music that's in the wind, so much music that it itches my foot to start tapping. Just like a fiddle." (4.103-105)
Rob focuses on all the things the Pecks can't afford, but Papa looks at the important things they do have, most of which don't cost anything at all. Can't buy me love, that's for sure.
Papa put his hand on my shoulder as we walked up to the house.
"Try an' try," he said, "but when it comes day's end, I can't wash the pig off me. And your mother never complains. Not once, in all these years, has she ever said that I smell strong. I said once to her that I was sorry."
"What did Mama say?"
"She said I smelled of honest work, and that there was no sorry to be said or heard." (12.68-71)
Mama makes the best of everything; we never see her complain about how little the family has. Guess this is an example of just how rich the Pecks are in the things that matter.
"I ought to lick you proper for leaving the schoolhouse."
"Yes, Papa. You ought."
"Someday you want to walk into the bank in Learning and write down your name, don't you?"
"Yes, sir."
"I don't cotton to raise a fool." (2.42-46)
Clearly Papa is serious about Rob's getting an education. Do you think it's because he didn't get an education himself and he's trying to live vicariously through his son? Or is there something more to it?
"It all goes way back."
"Way back to what?"
"Back to reason. Something that modern townfolk don't care a lick for. They don't understand it, so they think it to be tomfool." (3.77-79)
Hmmm. Even with all their learning, those townfolk apparently still don't have all the answers. Papa suggests that there's an older kind of knowledge, a wisdom that comes from a close connection to the land and something that the educated folk in town have lost sight of. Do you buy it?
"…why can't you vote? Is it because you're a Shaker?"
"No. It's account of I can't read or write. When a man cannot do those things, people think his head is weak. Even when he's proved his back is strong."
"Who decides?"
"Men who look at me and do not take me for what I be. Men who only see me make my mark, my X, when I can't sign my name. They can't see how I true a beam to build our barn, or see that the rows of corn in my field are straight as fences. They just see me walk the street in Learning in clothes made me by my own woman. They do not care that my coat is sturdy and keeps me warm. They'll not care that I owe no debt, and that I am beholding to no man." (4.96-99)
Again, Papa sees two different—and equally valid—kinds of knowledge: the book learning that is valued by the larger community (and that Papa values as well), and the older, more practical wisdom that shows itself in the way a man handles his affairs and manages his land. Papa suffers the disrespect of the powers that be, though, because the only kind of learning they recognize is the kind that Papa doesn't have.
"You are not to say this to your mother, or to Carrie. But from now on, you got to listen how to run this farm. We got five years to go on it, and the land is ours. Lock and stock. Five years to pay off. And you'll be through school by then."
"I'll quit school and work the farm."
"No you won't. You stay and get schooled. Get all the teaching you can hold." (12.98-100)
Like elsewhere in the book, Papa insists that Rob pursue his education as far as possible, even in the face of Papa's death. Though quitting school might help Rob in the short-term, it would be disastrous for his future.