Weblog Entry 10

In Charles Baxter's short story "Gryphon," the main character Tommy narrates his experience with his eccentric substitute teacher Ms. Fercenzi. Although he is initially skeptical of the fantastical stories she recites in the beginning, he later develops an admiration for her and a fascination with all of her exciting information, even though they are mostly fictional accounts. To achieve not only Tommy's fascination but the other students, however, Ms Fercenzi must often intertwine unconventional and conventional ideas into her lessons, and in the process lies to her students many times throughout the story. Although dishonest and misleading for her students, the unconventional and conventional ideas she exhibits to her class help foster her children to develop in many ways. Three main examples of when she mixes together ideas are when she explains about the gryphon, prophesies to the children's fortunes, and explains to the children that 6x11 is 68.

The first time Ms Fercenzi intertwines conventional and in conventional ideas is during her first lesson with the students. While reviewing over arithmetic problems, one of the students gives the incorrect answer of 68 to a question, yet Ms Fercenzi dubs it correct. Although most of the children argue with her that the answer is 66, Ms Fercenzi denies this and tells the children that while she is present 6x11 is 68. Thus, by taking a simple arithmetic equation and applying her method to the answer, she succeeds in mixing together conventional and unconventional ideas.

The next time she intertwines those ideas is when she is explaining what a gryphon is to the class. She tells the children that a gryphon is an animal in existence with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. She even goes as far as to say that on her trip to Egypt she encountered a live one. By taking simple animals in existence such as lions and eagles and amalgamating them together into a fantastical being, Ms Fercenzi mixes together conventional and unconventional ideas once again.

Finally, during her last lesson with her children, Ms Fercenzi pushes boundaries once again by predicting her students futures using playing cards. She goes around predicting everybody's fortunes, and even to the extent where she reveals that one of her students will have an early demise. In this scene she uses simple playing cards and bestows upon them unearthly powers, thus successfully combining both conventional and unconventional ideas for the last time in the story.

Like i said earlier, the mixture of conventional and unconventional ideas that Ms Fercenzi shared with her children were not entirely honest. However, although dishonest, her purpose as a teacher was to inspire her children, and through the numerous enthralling tales she told she was able to stimulate the children into using their imaginations and developing a view on the world that broke secular boundaries. Thus, in the end her dishonesty was justified.