Growing Up

In the book’s final paragraph, Baker asks his mother if she remembers Russell and Mimi, referring to himself and his wife. He writes, “She glared at me the way I had so often seen her glare at a dolt. ‘Never heard of them,’ she said, and fell asleep” (240). Discuss how Lucy’s senility ties into Baker’s motivation to write his memoir.

What does Baker mean when he says Harold “was not a liar but a teller of stories and a romantic,” and how does it influence Baker’s beliefs about storytelling (127)?

Baker’s relatives in Virginia rely on familiar maxims to explain their experiences. How does Baker both rely on and transform the function of maxims by attributing key phrases to his family members and himself?

Lucy refers to Harold, Allen, and Herb as “good men.” What qualities does she attribute to good men? To what extent does Baker become a “good man”?

Explain how Baker’s attitudes towards education and educated people change over time.

In Chapter 14, Baker contrasts the upper class’s interest in world events with his blue-collar neighbors’ preoccupation with the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling fight. What importance does Baker attribute to these events, and why?

In telling his story of “growing up,” Baker also tells the story of the Depression and World War II, giving particular attention to his mother’s suitor Oluf, whose aspirations the Depression crushed. Explain why he reprints Oluf’s letters and how it relates to his statement in the Foreword that, “children ought to know what it was that went into their making” (17).

When Baker begins dating Mimi, his mother fears history is repeating itself. In what ways is this both true and false?