Standing Up In Charles Baxter's 'Gryphon'

Umer Siddiqi
Mrs. Asselin
Language Arts 6/7
14 December, 15

Standing Up

The story “Gryphon” by Charles Baxter is about a 4th grade observing and stubborn boy named Tommy who has a really interesting and weird substitute teacher named Ms. Ferenczi. As Tommy says, “savoring the imminent weirdness of the day”(pg.44 l.76-77) because of the weird substitute teacher. In this story, Tommy shows many different ways of how he respects and defends Miss. Ferenczi. Why Tommy defends Miss. Ferenczi is because she added something new and different to his life, something he didn’t know.
On the bus,Tommy is talking to Carl Whiteside and wondering why he is being so stubborn against what Miss. Ferenczi is saying. Tommy thinks that the story is true, so

why won’t Carl? Tommy had to improvise. “‘I heard in this newspaper my mom bought in the IGA about this scientist, this mad scientist in the Swiss Alps, and he’s been putting genes and chromosomes and stuff together in test tubes, and he combined a human being and a hamster.” I waited for effect. “It’s called a humster.’” (page 57 l.426-431) You can clearly see that Tommy is sort of supporting Miss.Ferenczi by telling Carl Whiteside that Miss.Ferenczi was right all along. The stories might sound silly, but they are real (at least in Tommy’s opinion). He made up the story of the humster to trick Carl into thinking that all of Miss. Ferenczi’s stories were real.
During the noon recess, Tommy was standing underneath the slide while kicking stones and listening.

When Wayne came, Tommy got up and made his way towards him. Wayne had told on Miss. Ferenczi and now she was gone, disappeared. However,Tommy wasn’t going to let that slide. It was payback time. “‘She just scared you,” I said. “ You’re a chicken…..Scared of a little card,” I singsonged. Wayne fell at me, his two fists hammering down on my nose, I gave him a good one in the stomach and then I tried for his head.” (pg. 69 l.800-804) Since Wayne told on Miss. Ferenczi, Tommy made sure that Wayne would pay for what he did to her. This is another way of how he defended the teacher. Wayne had told on Miss. Ferenczi and had just taken the only thing that had changed his life and could have made up for living in such a small

place.
Tommy rode the bus while talking to Carl Whiteside and then rushed home.

He kissed his dog and his mom. When he was about to go do his chores, he stopped, “I ran into the living room, pulled out a dictionary next to the TV stand, and opened it to the Gs. After five minutes, I found it. Gryphon: “variant of griffin.” Griffin: “ a fabulous beast with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion.” (pg. 59 l.488-494) It shows why Tommy defends Miss. Ferenczi when you read this. He defends Miss. Ferenczi because she is different. The reason he searched up gryphon was because Miss. Ferenczi had told them a really cool story in the morning and he wanted to search if the gryphon was actually true. That is why he defended her. She told him and the class interesting stories that he had never heard

of.
In the beginning of the story, I said Tommy defends Miss. Ferenczi because she brought something new and different. You can understand he knew everything when he said this. “I knew every barn, every broken windmill, every fence, every anhydrous ammonia tank, by heart.” (pg. 63 l.608-609) In conclusion, you can see that Tommy, all along, wanted something that could make his life more interesting and more fun. Miss. Ferenczi was that person, and Miss. Ferenczi, as a person, had changed Tommy and changed Tommy’s class.