Papa was breathing the way no man or beast should breathe. I had never seen any man work as fast. I knew his hands must of been just about froze off; but he kept working, with no gloves. At last he stopped, pushing me away from the pork and turning me around so as my back was to it. He stood close by, facing me, and his whole body was steaming wet with work. I couldn't help it. I started thinking about Pinky. My sweet big clean white Pinky who followed me all over. She was the only thing I ever really owned. The only thing I could point to and say…mine. But now there was no Pinky. Just a sopping wet lake of red slush. So I cried.
"Oh, Papa. My heart's broke."
"So is mine," said Papa. "But I'm thankful you're a man." (14.28-30)
So what makes Rob "a man" in Papa's estimation? Surely not simply that he took part in killing Pinky, right? No, it's much more than that—it's that he did what he had to do, despite how badly he didn't want to do it. That, to Papa, is what manhood is all about.
Quote 2
Mr. Tanner and his wife came in the black rig, with a pair of black horses. I went out to meet them.
"Thank you for coming, Mr. Tanner."
"Robert, my name is Benjamin Franklin Tanner. All my neighbors call me Ben. I think two men who are good friends ought to front name one another."
"And I'm Bess," his wife said, "from here on." (15.26-29)
Ah, symbolism. The community, as represented by Mr. Tanner, formally recognizes Rob's new role as head of the household. And how does he do it? By telling Rob he can call him by his first name, just like any grown-up man would.
Then we went outside and sat on a bench on the westerly side of the barn, me still holding the kitten on my lap, and we watched the sun go down. The pink became purple, and the purple turned to what Mama called a Shaker gray.
"Papa," I said, "of all the things in the world to see, I reckon the heavens at sundown has got to be my favorite sight. How about you?"
"The sky's a good place to look," he said. "And I got a notion it's a good place to go." (7.28-30)
Rob doesn't know it yet (and neither do we, of course), but in retrospect, it seems that maybe Papa already knows he's not long for this world. What parts of this passage show us that he's already thinking about the approach of his own death?