How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Picking up the pencil, Aunt Matty started to draw some lines and circles (and a few other geegaws that I'd never seen before and never seen since) on the sentence about Jack. She put a zig-zag here, and a crazy elbow joint there. There was ovals and squiggles all over the paper. It was the fanciest thing I ever saw. The part about Jack was still in sight, but now it had arms and legs that thrashed out in six directions. It looked to me like a hill of barbwire. And the worse it got, the prouder Aunt Matty was of it.
"Behold!" she said at last, trying to pry loose the pencil from her own fingers. "That is a diagram!" (6.64-65)
Rob's description of Aunt Matty's diagram sure makes it sound ridiculous, huh? What do you think? Is learning to diagram sentences going to help improve Rob's grade in English? Do you think our author is trying to tell us something here?
Quote #8
"Is he a better farmer than you, Papa?"
"Yes. He bests me at it. He wouldn't say to my face. But he knows and I know, and there's not a use in wording it."
"I don't want to grow up to be like Mr. Tanner. I want to be like you, Papa."
"I wouldn't wish that on a dead cat."
"I do, Papa. And I will. I'll be just like you."
"No, boy, you won't. You have your schooling. You'll read and write and cipher. And when you spray that orchard, you'll use the new things."
"Chemicals?"
"True. And you'll have more than farming to do. You won't have to leave your land to kill another man's hogs, and then ask for the grind meat with your hat in your hand." (12.54-61)
Papa sees education as a way for Rob to improve his lot in life and make him more prosperous than his father. He's interested in education not as an end in itself, but as a tangible way to increase Rob's skill as a farmer and, in turn, his future prospects.
Quote #9
"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.