Responsibility in Fred Gipson's Old Yeller

691 Words2 Pages

Responsibility in Fred Gipson's Old Yeller

Responsibility may be defined as "a form of trustworthiness; the trait of being answerable to someone for something or being responsible for one's conduct." (www.thefreedictionary.com) Responsibility is shown all through Fred Gipsons novel Old Yeller about a family living in the dangerous wilderness in 1860. The young hard working Travis, his loving mother and the loyal dog Old Yeller all show responsibility.

Travis has many responsibilities when his father left for the cattle drive and he must work hard to take care of his family. Papa's chores weren't easy. Marking their hogs was a lot of hard work. Old Yeller and Travis work together to mark all thirty hogs. The job gets dangerous when the two get hurt badly from the mad hogs. In addition to marking the hogs Travis also had to supply food to his family. Killing a deer on the run Travis feels proud and important supplying food to his family. Above all Travis had to keep the varmints out of the corn patch. Again Travis and Old Yeller work together staying up at all hours of the night fighting off the varmints in the corn patch. Travis working hard and his responsibility was not enough for the family. Mama also had to work hard for the family’s survival.

Hard work was a big part of the family’s survival but the family also needed loving care supplied by Mama. Mama showed her loving care by keeping her family well fed. When Bud Sanderson comes to claim Old Yeller Mama ma...

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Beneatha In A Raisin In The Sun American Dream

    528 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mama has her own American Dream that she chases after, which heavily affects the family, she just wants a better life for her family, a life where her children can be happy, not really ever wanting anything for herself. Mama has to go through many struggles and

    Read More

  • Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    557 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mama who is the narrator is a woman who can do any chore that a man can, because of the way she is described. "In real life I am a lar...

    Read More

  • Mis And Insecurity In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    The protagonist, Mama, shows two distinct traits throughout the story. She possesses a hard working demeanor and rugged features, leading to her insecurities shown throughout the story. She raised two children without the assistance of a man in her life, forcing her to take on both roles, and further transforming her into a coarse, tough, and burly woman. Mama portrays this through her own account of herself, saying “[i]n real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man”(Walker 1312). It is very difficult for Mama to raise her kids on her own, but she does whatever

    Read More

  • Suffering and Surviving in James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mama, as a member of an older generation, represents the suffering that has always been a part of this world. She spent her life coexisting with the struggle in some approximation to harmony. Mama knew the futility of trying to escape the pain inherent in living, she knew about "the darkness outside," but she challenged herself to survive proudly despite it all (419). Mama took on the pain in her family in order to strengthen herself as a support for those who could not cope with their own grief. Allowing her husband to cry for his dead brother gave her a strength and purpose that would have been hard to attain outside her family sphere. She was a poor black woman in Harlem, yet she was able to give her husband permission for weakness, a gift that he feared to ask for in others. She gave him the right to a secret, personal bitterness toward the white man that he could not show to anyone else. She allowed him to survive. She marveled at his strength, and acknowledged her part in it, "But if he hadn't had...

    Read More

  • Quotes Of Responsibility In Frankenstein

    1543 Words  | 4 Pages

    Taking responsibility is “the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one's power, control, or management” (dictionary.com). When you decide to take the responsibility of something or someone then do it to your greatest ability and do not leave any stones unturned. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley determines the role of responsibility for the welfare, acts, the deaths and the lives of others. Taking responsibility means being accountable for your actions, accepting the mistakes and taking the ownership of the mistakes that come along with one’s actions. Taking responsibility does not mean that all the actions will go as planned but accepting the consequences even if they do not go

    Read More

  • Mama In Everyday Use

    878 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even though Mama is a strong woman, there are many flaws. Not so much with her, but more so with her family. Her youngest daughter Maggie was burned in a house fire, which has left her broken and battered. Mama really talks down about Maggie, but it’s all true, she says “Have you ever seen a lame animal,

    Read More

  • The Character of Mama in Alice Walker’s Everyday Use

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    “I am a large, big boned woman with rough, man-working hands” Mama describes of herself in the short story Everyday Use by Alice Walker. Mama, who additionally takes the role of narrator, is a lady who comes from a wealth of heritage and tough roots. She is never vain, never boastful and most certainly never selfish. She speaks only of her two daughters who she cares deeply for. She analyzes the way she has raised them and how much she has cared too much or too little for them, yet most of all how much they value their family. Mama never speaks of herself, other than one paragraph where she describes what she does. “My fat keeps me hot in zero weather. I can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing” (Walker, 60). She does not need to tell readers who she is, for her descriptions of what she does and how her family interacts, denotes all the reader needs to know. Although Mama narrates this story rather bleakly, she gives readers a sense of love and sense of her inner strength to continue heritage through “Everyday Use”.

    Read More

  • “Everyday Use”: Heritage

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mama knows her roots and her heritage, but does not dwell on the meaning. “I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man” (Walker, 460-461). This in addition to her reference to her second grade education “I never had an education myself. After second grade the school was closed down” (Walker, 462), shows that mama takes pride in the practical, every day hardships of her nature and that she doesn’t spend time thinking about her documented education. She is not trying to impress anyone or “show off” her culture and heritage.

    Read More

  • Essay on the Setting of Everyday Use

    609 Words  | 2 Pages

    The objects that lead to the final confrontation between Dee and Mama are the old quilts. These quilts are described as being made from old material by family members, which enhances their value to Mama, and the detail with which they are described increases the sense of setting.

    Read More

  • Free Will And Racism

    1378 Words  | 3 Pages

    Responsibility, must be put down though we ought to change the definition notions. We want to be held responsible by society.

    Read More

  • Characters Dreams Deferred in Raisin In The Sun

    553 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ruth, whose dreams are the same as Mama’s, get deferred when the family are forced into there small apartment and there lack of money. Since she has no money she can not help her family as much as she would like to.

    Read More

  • Cause And Effect Essay On Old Yeller

    493 Words  | 1 Pages

    When Travis first met old yeller, he had bad prejudge on him. After a couple day, something happened and made Travis felt bad to yeller. One day, Travis heard bulls roasted from the south of cabin and he found there was a fighting between two bulls. Their cabin was located on a high knoll so Travis, Little Arliss and their mum watched the fighting there. Travis enjoyed the fighting between animals but Yeller disturbed the fighting.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of the Dream Deferred in A Raisin in the Sun and Harlem

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mama's economic hardships may have killed her dream, but she has not allowed it to kill her. The social inequality which the Younger encounters also does not hinder Mama's compassion. Mr. Lindner temporarily shatters Mama's dream of owning a home when he comes to the Youngers prepared to give them money to move from Clybourne Park. The derogatory use of "you people" by Mr. Lindner has little to no effect on Mama's steadfast decision to move to Clybourne Park.... ...

    Read More

  • The Role of Mama in A Raisin in the Sun

    1004 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mama is a powerful, strong witted person. She has a lot of control in this play and dominates as a woman character. This is unusual because this is usually a male’s position in life. She is a woman, “who has adjusted to many things in life and overcome many more, her face is full of strength”. In this play she is illustrated as taking over for the head of the family and controls the lives of everyone in her house. Rules are followed to Mama’s extent. She controls what is said and done in her house. After Walter yells, “WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE LISTEN TO ME TODAY!” (70). Mama responds in a strong tone of voice saying, “I don’t ‘low no yellin’ in this house, Walter Lee, a...

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Free Will

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    Moral responsibility is when an agent does something good or bad morally for a specific event. For example, Donating money would be something you would be praised for in a moral sense, where as stealing would be seen as immoral. Free will would be required in moral responsibility. Without Free will, People would not be accountable for their actions, such as stealing a car or vandalism.

    Read More

More about Responsibility in Fred Gipson's Old Yeller

Open Document