Chapter 6 — Teaching Companion

What it asks It asks what Charles longs for, once the narrator has called his memory false. “He missed his brother more than he missed his mother and father. He remembered quite inaccurately the time before Adam went away as the happy time, and he wanted it to come again.” Around that sentence the house sinks into “a gloomy, rustling decay,” Charles gives up sheets and sleeps between blankets, and the narrator asks, “What good to clean the house when there was no one to see it?” Only on inn nights does he wash and put on clean clothes. His face takes on “the serious expressionlessness of a man who is nearly always alone.” The student names what Charles is missing and defends it from the page. It feeds the hinge: Charles keeps a home waiting for a brother and a past that may not be there, while for Adam “Home was not a pleasant place in his mind.” The card must not make Charles only brutal; the chapter says plainly that he missed his brother.

One reading

His brother. The memory is wrong, but the love is not. The narrator says so outright, and later Charles paints the house and the barn and has the house scrubbed for Adam’s return. A man can miss a real person and still misremember the years he spent with him.

• He missed his brother more than he missed his mother and father.
• He had painted the house and the barn, and as the time approached he had a woman in to clean the house, to clean it to the bone.

Another reading

Someone to see him. Alone, Charles lets the house rot and stops washing, except on the nights when someone will look at him. What he wants back may be less Adam himself than a witness, a reason to keep a house and a face in order.

• What good to clean the house when there was no one to see it?
• Only on the nights he went to the inn did he wash himself and put on clean clothes.

Listen for

• Hears “quite inaccurately” as the narrator’s word, not Charles’s, and asks how Charles himself would describe those years.
• Sets Charles’s happy memory beside Adam’s, “Home was not a pleasant place in his mind,” and notices that two brothers remember one house two ways.
• Notices that he “worked the farm mightily because he was lonely,” and asks what the work stands in for.

If stuck

• What happens to the house when Charles lives in it alone?
• On which nights does Charles wash and put on clean clothes?
• Whom does Charles miss most?

A strong answer A strong response names what Charles is missing and stands on the page. One reader says it is Adam himself: the narrator says so outright, and the painted barn and scrubbed house prove it later. Another says it is a witness: the house rots and Charles goes unwashed except on inn nights, because there is no one to see. The best answers notice that a false memory makes the reunion Charles wants hard to have, since the happy time he wants “to come again” may never have been.

What it asks It asks the student to set two marked men side by side. Charles’s scar comes from his own fury at a boulder: “he fought the stone as though it were a man, in silent fury,” and the iron bar crashed against his forehead. It heals “dark brown,” and he writes, “The damn thing gets darker.” He inspects it in the mirror, combs his hair over it, and feels fury “if any question was asked about it.” At Niagara Falls Adam notices a bartender with “a strawberry mark on his forehead.” The man calls it a birthmark that “Gets bigger every year,” asks, “You notice this one of mine looks like a cat?”, and says, “That’s my nickname, Cat. Had it all my life.” The student explains the difference from the page. It feeds the hinge: the scar drives Charles away from town until his world shrinks to the farm. The card must not say what the birthmark means or call the scar a sign from God; Charles says only that it “seems like I was marked,” and the chapter sets the two marks side by side without comment.

One reading

Where each mark came from. The bartender was born with his, and his family has a story for it, so it was never his doing. Charles got his in a fit of his own temper, fighting a rock as if it were a man. He cannot say why it shames him, but a mark a man gave himself is harder to laugh off.

• Suddenly he lost his temper.
• They say my old lady must of been scared by a cat when she was having me.

Another reading

Who is around him. The bartender works among crowds and strangers, and people gave his mark a name long ago. Charles lives alone and hears the town only as whispers. A mark that no one names out loud becomes something to hide, and so he stops wanting to go to town.

• That’s my nickname, Cat. Had it all my life.
• I can hear them talking about it when they don’t know I can hear.

Listen for

• Hears the two growth lines side by side: “Gets bigger every year” and “The damn thing gets darker.”
• Notices that Adam brings up his brother’s mark to a stranger, and asks why Charles is on his mind in that bar.
• Follows the scar to its cost in the last line of Charles’s letter: “It gets so I don’t feel like going in town at all.”
• Keeps to the page: the chapter says nothing about what the birthmark means.

If stuck

• How did Charles get his scar?
• What does the bartender say about his birthmark, and what is his nickname?
• What does Charles do when people look at his scar?

A strong answer A strong response explains why the bartender can show his mark and Charles must hide his, and grounds it in both scenes. One reader looks to where each mark came from: a birthmark with a family story behind it, against a wound from Charles’s own fury at a rock. Another looks to company: a man among crowds with a nickname, against a man alone who hears only whispers. The best answers follow the scar to what it costs Charles, a town he no longer wants to enter, and leave the birthmark’s meaning unspoken, as the chapter does.

What it asks It asks what a closing-time joke struck in Adam. He has put off going home “as long as possible,” and “Home was not a pleasant place in his mind.” One evening a “crippling loneliness for the close men in barracks and tent” drives him into the first crowd he can find. As the men drift away “he became fearful of the time when he would have to go home,” and the bartender works “with his eyes and his manner to get Adam to go.” The one trick he lacks, he says, is “How the hell to get you to go home and let me close up.” Adam stares and does not speak. “It’s a joke,” the bartender says uneasily, and Adam answers, “I guess I’ll go home in the morning,” then, “I mean my real home.” Back in the boarding house, past a landlady who will not answer his good night, “Adam knew he could not go home.” The student names what the joke struck and shows it from the page. It feeds the hinge: this is the night Adam turns away from the farm. The card must not give a reason for the reenlistment beyond Adam’s own words, “I didn’t want to go home” and “It was like somebody else doing it.”

One reading

The word home. The bartender means the boarding house, but Adam has been putting off his real home since his discharge. A stranger’s joke says out loud the thing he has been dodging, and Adam’s answer shows where his mind went: not to Mrs. May’s but to the farm.

• He didn’t want to go home and he put it off as long as possible.
• I mean my real home.

Another reading

Being sent away. Adam came into the bar for the warmth of any crowd, and the crowd has gone. Now the last man in the room wants him out. The joke tells him he is in the way even here, and the walk back ends at a landlady who will not say good night.

• His impulse was to rush into a crowd for warmth, any crowd.
• She did not answer him.

Listen for

• Hears that the bartender, not Adam, calls it a joke, and “uneasily”: the stranger can see it landed.
• Asks whether Adam meant “my real home,” given that the same night “Adam knew he could not go home.”
• Notices the old soldiers’ story that follows, “first thing I knowed I’m begging the sergeant to let me back in,” and asks whether Adam already knew how the night would end.
• Keeps to the page: no reason for the reenlistment beyond Adam’s own words.

If stuck

• Why did Adam go into the bar that night?
• What is the bartender trying to do as the bar empties?
• What does Adam say once he speaks again?

A strong answer A strong response names what the joke struck and grounds it in the bar. One reader says it struck the word itself: Adam has been putting off home, and his answer goes straight past the boarding house to “my real home.” Another says it struck his fear of being sent away: he came for any crowd, the crowd is gone, and the last man left wants him out. The best answers follow the night to its end, from “my real home” in the bar to “Adam knew he could not go home” in the boarding house, and give no reason for the reenlistment that Adam never gives.

What it asks It asks why the fear returns when the costume comes off. On the street Cyrus has new teeth that give him “a vulpine smile,” and a leg that “Works on a hinge. Got a spring.” Adam “had experienced the beginning of contempt.” In the hotel Cyrus unlaces the leather sheath, stands “the travesty-on-flesh beside his chair,” and says, “It gets to pinching pretty bad.” Then: “With the leg off, his father became himself again, the self Adam remembered.” The contempt gives way, and “the childhood fear and respect and animosity came back to him.” The student explains the turn. It feeds the hinge: the father Adam fears is the one he refuses, and the refusal comes only after the leg is off. The card must not say how Cyrus came by his influence.

One reading

Cyrus changed. The cane, the slow voice and the hinged leg are an act, and an act can be despised. With the leg off, the act is over, and the man left is the one who had power over Adam from the start. The contempt was for the costume; the fear belongs to the father.

• With the leg off, his father became himself again, the self Adam remembered.
• Cyrus made his preparations, drank his whisky, and loosened his collar.

Another reading

Adam changed. Nothing in Cyrus has grown stronger; he has a stump that pinches. It is Adam who shrinks, back into the boy who watches his father’s mood to stay out of trouble. The room makes him young again.

• It gets to pinching pretty bad
• so that he seemed a little boy testing his father’s immediate mood to escape trouble

Listen for

• Traces the contempt back to the Secretary’s office, where Adam thinks, “He’s play-acting,” and asks why seeing through the act does not free him from the father under it.
• Hears “travesty-on-flesh,” the narrator’s name for the leg, and asks what it makes a mockery of.
• Notices that fear comes back with “respect and animosity,” three feelings at once, not fear alone.
• Notices that Adam’s “Yes, sir” comes after this, with the leg off, and asks what it costs him to say it then.

If stuck

• What does Adam feel toward Cyrus on the walk to the hotel?
• What does Cyrus do when he sits down in his room?
• What does Adam feel like once the leg is off?

A strong answer A strong response explains why the fear returns with the leg off. One reader says Cyrus changes: the grand manner is an act Adam can despise, and when it comes off, the father who always had power over him is back. Another says Adam changes: Cyrus has only a sore stump, and it is Adam who shrinks into a boy reading his father’s mood. The best answers notice that Adam defies his father in this room, not in the Secretary’s office, after the old fear has come back.

What it asks It asks what Charles gains by living in the shed beside his own clean house. As Adam’s return nears, Charles paints the house and the barn and has “a clean, mean old woman” scrub the house “to the bone.” He moves out to escape “the immaculate but painful smells of lye and soda and ammonia and yellow soap,” and he gets “the impression that she didn’t approve of his housekeeping.” When she leaves, “Charles remained in the shed. He wanted to keep the house clean for Adam.” The shed holds “the tools of the farm and the tools for their repair and maintenance,” and he finds he can cook “more quickly and efficiently on the forge than he could on the kitchen stove.” The student names what the shed gives Charles and defends it from the page. It feeds the hinge: the shed is where Charles waits for the reunion, and the farm is what he is left with when Adam does not come. The card must not make Charles only brutal; he keeps the house for a brother he misses.

One reading

A life that fits him. In the shed Charles sleeps among his tools and cooks fast on the forge, with no waiting. The house was kept by the wives who lived there; the shed belongs to the farm, the one place where Charles works well. He is more at home there than in a house kept clean for someone else.

• Charles found that he could cook his fried and boiled meals more quickly and efficiently on the forge than he could on the kitchen stove.
• A man didn’t have to wait for a stove to heat up.

Another reading

A way to keep waiting. A clean house stays clean only while nobody lives in it. By sleeping outside, Charles keeps the house the way it should look when Adam walks in, and keeps his hope as clean as the floors. The shed lets him wait without spoiling what he is waiting for.

• Charles had looked forward to Adam’s return after five years.
• He wanted to keep the house clean for Adam.

Listen for

• Hears the cleaning woman’s “Men—dirty animals” and the smells that drive Charles out, and asks whether the clean house was ever his.
• Hears how pleased Charles is in “He wondered why he had never thought of it before,” and sets it beside the later “satisfaction” he takes in undoing the woman’s work.
• Links the shed to the cool reply, “I didn’t hardly expect you anyway”: a man who kept a house clean for his brother now says he never expected him.
• Follows the forge to the last line, where Charles spends “all of his energy on the farm.”

If stuck

• What did Charles do to get the house ready for Adam?
• Why does Charles move out to the shed while the woman cleans?
• Why does he stay in the shed after she leaves?

A strong answer A strong response names what the shed gives Charles and grounds it in the third part. One reader sees a life that fits him: his tools, the forge, quick heat and no waiting, a place that belongs to the farm and not to the wives who kept the house. Another sees a place to wait: as long as no one lives in the house, it stays as clean as his hope. The best answers notice what happens when Adam does not come. Charles moves back and undoes the woman’s work with “a satisfaction,” and the forge he was so pleased with points ahead to the farm that takes “all of his energy.”

What it asks It asks the student to settle a sentence that can be read two ways. In the hotel Adam refuses West Point. Cyrus answers with threats, and Adam “knew that Cyrus was defending himself with threats.” Adam then turns down a post at his father’s side, and “He saw the shadow of loss darken his father’s face.” Cyrus curses him, “You’ll rot in barracks.” Asked why he does not bring Charles to Washington, Cyrus breaks off: “Because I—No, Charles is better where he is—better where he is.” The Washington pages then close: “Adam remembered his father’s tone and how he looked. And he had plenty of time to remember, because he did rot in barracks. He remembered that Cyrus was lonely and alone—and knew it.” The sentence never says whose knowing it is. The student builds a thesis, meets the strongest objection, and revises. It feeds the hinge: the hinge asks whether Adam understood something, and this sentence is what Adam carries away from his father. The card must not say how Cyrus came by his influence or his rooms, and must not finish Cyrus’s broken sentence as if the page did.

One reading

Cyrus knew it. The great man lives in hotel rooms, not a house, always on the move, and he has just watched his son choose barracks over him. The threats are how a man who knows he is alone defends himself. Read this way, the sentence says Cyrus wears his grand manner with his eyes open.

• He saw the shadow of loss darken his father’s face.
• I’ve thought of getting a house, but I’m on the move so much it wouldn’t hardly pay.

Another reading

Adam knew it. Every other time the narrator says “knew” in the second part, the knowing is Adam’s: he knew he could not go home, and when Cyrus boasts of his power, “Adam knew more than that.” The sentence ends on what Adam takes back to barracks. He understood his father’s loneliness, and he went back to his regiment anyway.

• And Adam knew he could not go home.
• Adam knew more than that.

Listen for

• Hears that “lonely and alone” seems to say one thing twice, and asks what the second word adds.
• Sets Cyrus’s broken answer, “Because I—,” beside the sentence, and asks whether a man who stops himself there knows he is lonely, without finishing the sentence for him.
• Notices “he did rot in barracks”: the father’s curse comes true, and Adam spends it remembering his father.
• Links Cyrus to his sons: he offers Charles a visit “in some future,” “but he never asked him again,” much as Charles answers Adam late and coolly.

If stuck

• What does Adam know about his father’s threats?
• What does Adam see in his father’s face when he asks to go back to his regiment?
• What does Cyrus say when Adam asks why he does not bring Charles to Washington?

A strong answer A strong response builds a thesis about who knew, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis gives the knowing to Cyrus: the threats, the hotel rooms and the broken answer about Charles show a man who knows he is alone and covers it. The strongest objection gives it to Adam, the one who “knew” all through the hotel scene and saw through the threats as they were spoken. A good revision might hold that the sentence lets both men know it, and that knowing changes nothing: Adam still goes back to his regiment, and Cyrus never asks Charles again. The best answers notice that understanding his father brought Adam no closer to him.

What it asks It asks the chapter’s whole question about Adam and the farm. Adam is “discharged in 1885” and free to go. He finds that “It is a hard thing to leave any deeply routined life, even if you hate it.” He does not want home: “Home was not a pleasant place in his mind. The kind of feelings he had had there were dead in him, and he had a reluctance to bring them to life.” He re-enlists in Chicago, and to Cyrus he admits he does not like the army and gives one reason: “I didn’t want to go home.” Meanwhile Charles paints the house and the barn, sleeps in the shed to keep the house clean, and when Adam does not come, moves back and lives “in a kind of savage filth, taking a satisfaction in overcoming the work of the grumbling woman.” He grows “away from the village,” and the farm “had never been so well run.” The student builds a thesis, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not give Adam a reason he never gives; he says only “I didn’t want to go home” and “It was like somebody else doing it.” It must not read Charles’s scar as a sign from God.

One reading

Weakness. Adam hates the army and says so, and still runs back to it because he cannot face life without orders. He drifts from Chicago to Buffalo to the falls, and then does what he had heard old soldiers tell of doing. His own account is that he does not know why.

• It is a hard thing to leave any deeply routined life, even if you hate it.
• It was like somebody else doing it.

Another reading

Understanding. Adam knows the feelings of that house are dead in him and would only come back to life there. Charles is waiting for a happy time the narrator says he remembers wrongly. The chapter shows what the farm does to the brother who stays, and Adam may be the one who sees that coming home would not bring that time back.

• Home was not a pleasant place in his mind.
• He remembered quite inaccurately the time before Adam went away as the happy time, and he wanted it to come again.

Listen for

• Sets two memories of one home side by side: Adam’s “not a pleasant place” and Charles’s “happy time,” which the narrator calls inaccurate.
• Tests the weakness reading against the hotel room, where the same Adam says “Yes, sir” to his father’s face.
• Weighs what Charles does with the scrubbed house when Adam stays away, and asks whether that is what Adam would have come home to.
• Keeps to Adam’s own words for why he went back, and supplies no reason he never gives.

If stuck

• How does Adam feel about the army, and about home?
• What does Adam tell his father when Cyrus asks why he went back?
• What does Charles do with the house when Adam does not come?

A strong answer A strong response builds a thesis, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis calls it weakness: Adam hates the army and runs back to its routine because freedom frightens him, and by his own account it was “like somebody else doing it.” The strongest objection is that Adam knows the farm better than Charles does: its feelings are dead in him, while Charles waits for a happy time the narrator calls inaccurate. A good revision might hold that the choice was both, a frightened flight into habit and a refusal to pretend, the same refusal Adam makes to his father’s face.