The Education Of Little Tree Chapter Analysis

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In The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, a narrative memoir, Little Tree describes his life and the adventures he takes with his family. The book starts off with the death of his father, and ultimately his mother. Little tree finds himself in the middle of a family argument over who is going to take care of him. In all the chaos of conversation, Granpa walks over and simply places his hand on Little Tree’s head. This simple gesture was the beginning of a lifelong journey of learning and love. In the book, Granpa and Granma provide Little Tree with an education and with love. Within chapter one of the book, Grandma began to show love to Little Tree. In this chapter, they begin to head into their cabin that is in the woods. During …show more content…
Not only is love shown to Little Tree, but his guardians are also teaching him important life lessons. It is important to note that in this part of the book little Tree is only five years old. He is very innocent, and is learning. In this chapter, Granpa warns Little Tree that he will be going hunting in the morning, and that he can come only if he wakes up on his own. Little Tree shares in the book, “ . . .He had spoken down to me and he did not smile. But Granpa had made many noises in his rising, bumping the wall of my room and talking uncommonly loud to Granma, and so I had heard, and I was first out, waiting with the hounds in the darkness.” (Carter 6). Granpa is trying to teach Little Tree a lesson that if he is to wake up early on his own he can get more done. In this little seen Granpa is teaching him independence. Later in chapter two, Granpa takes Little Tree into the woods to hunt and teaches him some more. In this scene Granpa teaches him about “The Way”. This is basically the words Granpa uses to describe hunting. He instills the idea of survival of the fittest into Little Tree’s brain. He lets him know that even though they are animals, that they are eliminating the animals that are not going to survive because they are slow or weak. In this scene, 5 year old Little Tree is allowed to hunt for the first time. Granpa teaches him about hunting, but is also showing him love by …show more content…
This family lives in a cabin in the woods, so when they need supplies they must make their way down to the settlement. Granpa likes to take Little Tree on these trips with him. When they go to the store they pick up new books for Granma to read; however, Granpa has a hard time picking them out because he cannot read. Back at the cabin they keep a dictionary. From this dictionary they teach Little Tree five words a week, starting from the letter A. From reading the book, one could gather that Little Tree is not hesitant with his learning, could be because he sees how it affects Granpa to not know how to read. By living with Granma and Granpa, Little Tree is growing up with love and

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