Chapter 7 — Teaching Companion

This chapter's big question

Adam will not look at the papers because his faith in Cyrus is stronger, though he never loved him. Is that faith honest, or a way of keeping the money without asking where it came from?

The tension Charles lays out the proof—“He was not at Chancellorsville. He was not at Gettysburg or the Wilderness or Richmond or Appomattox.”—and Adam, who has just said he did not love their father, answers, “Papers are no match at all for my faith in my father.”

Today's focus

Adam drifts as a tramp, survives a chain gang and escapes, while Charles learns that Cyrus has died rich; when Adam walks in, the brothers sit up late circling the question of where the fortune came from.

The shape at a glance

The chapter moves in three parts. In the first, Adam serves five more years of drill and polish, and the narrator stops to argue that dull, eventless times have no duration in memory. Discharged in San Francisco late in 1890, Adam writes Charles, “This time I’m coming home,” and is not heard from for over three years. Out of money, he becomes a tramp, riding freight cars and camping with wandering men. He winters on the California coast, works on a widow’s outfit near Denver, follows the Rio Grande, and learns that the very poor still give. Picked up as a vagrant near Tallahassee, he is put on a road gang for six months, then picked up again for six more. There he learns that the easiest way to get along with men who treat men as beasts is to be a beast. He reduces his personality to a minus until the guards stop fearing him and give him the water buckets. Three days before his release he sinks the buckets, hides from the hounds in the river, and crosses slowly into Georgia. In Valdosta he steals cheap clothes, taking only what was heavily stocked, and walks to the station in the rain. In the second part, a lawyers’ letter tells Charles that Cyrus is dead and has left his sons over a hundred thousand dollars, far beyond his salary. Charles thinks in circles about where it came from. A telegram from Valdosta asks for a hundred dollars, and Charles sets a test question: what did Adam give their father on his birthday before the army? A pup. In the third part, Adam walks in, and finds with amazement that he is no longer afraid of his brother. Charles asks if Adam loved their father; Adam says no. Charles says their father loved Adam more, tells how the pup was held at the funeral and shot afterward, and weeps. He asks whether their father could have been dishonest, then tells Adam of the fortune, far more than the salary could explain. When Adam suggests writing to the G.A.R., Charles says, “I wouldn’t dare.” He lays out the dates on the discharge: Cyrus was never at Gettysburg or any great battle. Adam feels a surge of joy. After supper Charles says he thinks their father stole the money, though he has no proof; when Adam says to have the books checked, Charles answers with the funeral. Adam says he does not care, then that he does not believe it, then that he believes in his father, as people feel God exists against the proofs. Maybe, he says, love makes you suspicious and its lack allows faith. He will not look at the papers and will take the money. He calls the old hatchet attack a fight for love, and proposes a big monument to their father. Charles says he could never leave.

A way in

Before reading, ask the student how long their dullest month felt while it lasted, and how long it seems now. Hold the answer for the copywork. Read the first part to “He took a deep breath to calm himself and went inside,” and ask the student to retell the road gang and the escape in order. Read the second part, and pause at the telegraph office to ask what question the student would have sent. Read the third part to the end, and leave Adam’s “I believe in my father” unanswered for now; the last written question takes it up. The chapter never says where the money came from, and the guide says nothing about it either.

Lesson plan

Retell The student retells the chapter in its three parts: Adam’s last army years, the road, the road gang and the escape; Charles, the lawyers’ letter and the telegram; and the homecoming, from the walk in to the last line. Look for the order of the road gang and the escape, the exact test question and its answer, and the order of Adam’s answers about the money.

Imitate the author After copying, the student writes a short paragraph that argues with a common belief about their own life. It opens by granting the belief, in the pattern of “It would be reasonable to suppose,” and turns it over in one short sentence, like “It should be so, but it is not.” One sentence lists three things in matched phrases, then stops at a dash and gathers them in one word, as “that’s” does. End on a metaphor that makes an idea into a thing you could touch, like posts to drape duration on.

Debate Take sides on the last written question. One side argues that Adam’s faith is honest, and gathers his offer to have the books checked, the comparison to God, and the fact that he did not love the man he defends. The other argues that the faith is convenient, and gathers the surge of joy, the move from “I don’t believe anything” to “I won’t look at the papers,” and “Of course.” Each side must answer the other’s best line. Neither may say where the money came from.

Purpose Close on Adam’s last plan: “And of course we must set up a monument to our father—a big one.” Ask the student what a monument would honor, given the discharge papers Adam will not look at. Then ask what it means that Charles, who doubts his father, is the one who says, “I couldn’t ever go away from here.”

Three levels

Easier Read aloud the road gang paragraphs, the telegraph office, and the homecoming from “Oh, Charles!” to the end. Talk through the second, third, fourth and fifth discussion questions, then answer the last written question aloud before writing it.

On level Talk through all five discussion questions in order, then write both written questions as a thesis, the strongest objection and a revised thesis, each with lines from the chapter.

Harder Ask for one argued essay that tests Adam’s “kind of reverse” against the whole chapter: love makes you doubt, and its lack lets you believe. Does it explain Charles at the telegraph office, the pup at the funeral and the hatchet night, or does it mostly free Adam? The essay should meet the objection that Adam himself calls it “a new thought” and says “Maybe” each time he states it.

Discussion

1. Twice in the first part, something happens to Adam “before he knew it.” How much of his life in these years does Adam actually choose?Character

What it asks It asks how much of Adam’s drifting life is his own doing. The army years end “before he knew it,” and “before he knew it he was a bindlestiff himself.” The seasons push him about: “Spring urged him east again,” and the frost “drove him south again.” At Omaha, “without question or reason or thought he hurried west and south.” He is picked up for vagrancy, sentenced, and “released and instantly picked up again.” Yet the same man plans an escape for days, sinks his buckets with stones, and crosses into Georgia slowly because “He had schooled himself against hurry.” The student weighs drift against will from the page. It feeds the hinge: the chapter ends with Adam choosing what to believe about his father, and this question asks first whether he is a man who chooses at all. The card must not tell the tramp years as an adventure; the road ends on the road gang.

A strong answer A strong response takes a position on how much Adam chooses and stands on the first part. One reader sees a man moved by time and weather: the army years end “before he knew it,” and he flees to California “without question or reason or thought.” Another sees a will that wakes under pressure: he turns north on purpose, and he plans the escape to the day. The best answers notice that the two are not opposites in this chapter. The road gang and the escape are where the drifter learns “an iron control,” and he brings that control home.

2. The narrator calls it “a triumph of self-control” to watch a man whipped and give no sign of pity. What has Adam defeated when he learns this?Author's choice

What it asks It asks what the word “triumph” is a triumph over. On the road gang Adam learns “how men can consider other men as beasts and that the easiest way to get along with such men was to be a beast.” Any “stir of will” brings a whipping, and Adam reasons that the guards are afraid, since “a man afraid is a dangerous animal.” So “He drew a curtain around himself,” and “reduced his personality to a minus.” The narrator then says, “It is a triumph of self-control to see a man whipped until the muscles of his back show white and glistening through the cuts and to give no sign of pity or anger or interest. And Adam learned this.” The student names what was defeated and defends it from the page. It feeds the hinge: the brother who sits “untroubled but he was watchful” while Charles weeps learned that stillness here. The card must keep the road gang’s lesson about beasts in view and not tell the escape as an adventure.

A strong answer A strong response names what Adam defeated and stands on the road gang pages. One reader says the guards: by becoming “nearly invisible” Adam takes away their fear and wins the bucket job that frees him. Another says himself: he wins by killing his own pity and anger, and the narrator’s “triumph” has an edge, since the horror comes “afterward.” The best answers notice that Adam takes both lessons home. The stillness that beat the guards is the stillness he brings to his brother’s kitchen.

3. Charles complains that their father liked Adam’s gifts and not his. The complaint ends on the pup Adam gave. It was at the funeral, blind and unable to walk, and “They shot it after the funeral.” Why does Charles finish on that?Inference

What it asks It asks why Charles ends his complaint on the dead pup. Charles tells Adam that their father “loved you more than anything in the world,” and Adam answers, “I don’t believe that.” Charles goes on: “He liked everything you brought him. He didn’t like me. He didn’t like anything I gave him.” He cut and sold a load of wood for a pocketknife, and it is “right in his bureau right now.” Then: “And you gave him a pup. It didn’t cost you a thing. Well, I’ll show you a picture of that pup. It was at his funeral. A colonel was holding it—it was blind, couldn’t walk. They shot it after the funeral.” Adam is “puzzled at the fierceness of his brother’s tone.” Charles says, “I loved him,” and cries for the first time Adam can remember. The same pup was the test question Charles chose at the telegraph office, where he was “delighted with the game.” The student explains the last line from the page. It feeds the hinge: Charles’s love for Cyrus, and his envy of Adam, sit under everything he doubts. The card must not say Cyrus loved Adam more; Charles says so, and Adam answers only “Maybe he loved me.”

A strong answer A strong response explains why Charles ends on the shot pup and grounds it in the kitchen. One reader hears envy: the gift that “didn’t cost you a thing” beat his knife and came to a hard end, and Charles makes sure Adam knows it, with a fierceness that puzzles Adam. Another hears grief: the pup stood at the funeral and was shot when it was over, and Charles’s next words are “I loved him.” The best answers set this beside the telegraph office, where Charles chose the same gift as the test only Adam could pass, and notice that he cannot leave it alone. They do not take Charles’s word that their father loved Adam more.

4. Back home, Adam finds he is no longer afraid of his brother. When Charles’s eyes spark with anger, Adam only chuckles. But when Charles cries, “a little of the old fear came back.” Why do the tears bring it back when the anger did not?Character

What it asks It asks why one feeling in Charles frightens Adam and another does not. Before they go in, Adam thinks, “Why, I’m not afraid of my brother! I used to be scared to death of him, and I’m not any more.” In the kitchen he teases Charles for walking around his news “like a terrier around a bush.” “Charles’ eyes sparked up with anger,” but “His force was gone,” and Adam chuckles. Then Charles says their father “loved you more than anything in the world,” ends on the shot pup, says “I loved him,” and cries. “Adam was about to go to him when a little of the old fear came back. No, he thought, if I touched him he would try to kill me.” He goes to the doorway instead. Later, after supper, “Adam knew that his brother was no longer dangerous. There was no jealousy to drive him.” The student explains the difference from the page. It feeds the hinge: the fear comes back at a moment of love, not of anger, and that night Adam will guess that love makes a person “suspicious and doubting.” The card must not settle Adam’s own “Maybe—but I don’t understand it,” and must not say Cyrus loved Adam more; only Charles says so.

A strong answer A strong response explains why the tears bring back the fear when the anger did not, and stands on the kitchen scene. One reader hears jealousy: Charles cries over their father’s love, the thing he says Adam had more of, and Adam calls him safe only once “There was no jealousy to drive him.” Another hears pride: Charles’s anger is already beaten, and his tears leave him at his weakest before the brother he envies, so a touch would be pity he could not bear. The best answers notice that the fear returns at a moment of love, not of anger, and carry that into Adam’s guess that love makes a person “suspicious and doubting,” a guess he marks with “Maybe.”

5. Charles tells Adam that their father was never at Gettysburg. The proof is in the discharge papers. The news has crushed Charles. But in Adam’s chest, “like beating fists, was a surge of joy.” What does Adam hear in the news that Charles does not?Inference

What it asks It asks why the same news breaks one brother and lifts the other. Charles lays out the dates in a voice “as toneless as a report”: their father joined in June 1862, was hit in the leg in October, and came home in January. “He was not at Chancellorsville. He was not at Gettysburg or the Wilderness or Richmond or Appomattox.” The proof is the discharge. “Adam sighed deeply. In his chest, like beating fists, was a surge of joy. He shook his head almost in disbelief.” Then he stands up and asks, “What’s in the house to eat?” Later he says, “I feel better maybe than I have ever felt in my whole life. I’ve got rid of something.” The student names what Adam hears. It feeds the hinge: the hinge names this joy as a risk to skip, because it sits strangely beside “I believe in my father.” The card must not say Cyrus stole anything; the papers prove only where he was not.

A strong answer A strong response names what Adam hears and grounds it in the kitchen. One reader hears freedom from the father: the man who “tested” and “punished” him and sent him to war was not the soldier he claimed. Another hears freedom from the brother: the loss belongs to Charles, who loved Cyrus, and not to Adam, who did not. The best answers keep the joy in view when Adam later says, “I believe in my father,” and notice that the chapter puts both in the same man on the same night.

Critical thinking

1. Charles believes their father stole the money. Yet when Adam says they could write to the G.A.R. and ask, Charles says, “I wouldn’t dare.” What keeps him from finding out?

What it asks It asks why Charles will not test his own suspicion. He has hard facts. The discharge shows their father was hit in a skirmish and missed the great battles. “His salary with the G.A.R. was a hundred and thirty-five dollars a month,” and “No, he didn’t have it all the time.” When Adam says, “Well, why don’t we write to the G.A.R. and ask? Someone there might know,” Charles answers, “I wouldn’t dare.” Later he says, “I think he stole the money,” and admits he does not know where. Adam offers again: “Have them go over the books. If it’s true we could give back the money.” Charles answers with the funeral, the Vice-President and the wreath, and then: “’Spose we found out he’s a thief. Then it would come out how he never was at Gettysburg or anyplace else. Then everybody would know he was a liar too, and his whole life was a goddam lie.” He fears for the grave: “they might even dig him up and throw him out.” He asks Adam, “How will you face anybody?” The student builds a thesis, meets the strongest objection, and revises. It feeds the hinge, which asks whether Adam’s faith lets him keep the money without asking where it came from: Charles will not ask either. The card must not say Cyrus stole the money; the chapter leaves its source open.

A strong answer A strong response builds a thesis about what stops Charles, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis takes Charles at his word: he guards his father’s name and grave, since one proven lie would make “his whole life” a lie. The strongest objection is that he fears for himself too: he asks how Adam will “face anybody,” and a doubt he never tests can never shame him or prove him wrong. A good revision might hold that love and fear are knotted together in him, as Adam guesses when he says “maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting,” a guess Adam marks with “Maybe.” The best answers notice that Charles takes care not to find out, and claim nothing about where the money came from.

2. Adam will not look at the papers because his faith in Cyrus is stronger, though he never loved him. Is that faith honest, or a way of keeping the money without asking where it came from?

What it asks It asks the chapter’s whole question about Adam’s faith. At first Adam keeps an open mind: “I don’t believe anything,” he says. “I don’t know, so what can I believe?” He offers a way to find out: “Have them go over the books. If it’s true we could give back the money.” When Charles says Adam does not care if their father’s life is spoiled, Adam answers, “I don’t have to care.” When Charles asks how he will face the town, Adam goes further: “I don’t have to care because I don’t believe it.” He goes on: “I believe in my father.” He compares his faith to belief in God: “The proofs that God does not exist are very strong, but in lots of people they are not as strong as the feeling that He does.” He offers a theory, hedged with “Maybe,” that love breeds doubt and its absence allows faith. Then: “I won’t look at the papers. Papers are no match at all for my faith in my father.” Asked if he would take the money, he says, “Of course.” The student builds a thesis, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not say Cyrus stole the money, or that Adam’s theory is correct; he calls it “a new thought.”

A strong answer A strong response builds a thesis, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis calls the faith honest: Adam first offered to check the books and return the money, and his belief arrives as a feeling he compares to faith in God, not as a plan. The strongest objection follows his words in order: he moves from “I don’t believe anything” to “I won’t look at the papers” in one evening, and the faith settles the money in his favor. A good revision might hold that the faith is sincere and also convenient, and that the chapter lets both be true of a man who has just “got rid of something.” The best answers keep the joy and the faith side by side, as the chapter does, notice that Charles will not ask where the money came from either, and claim nothing about where it came from.

Vocabulary definitions