The Yearling

Ezra “Penny” Baxter is the kind patriarch of the Baxter family and his son Jody’s hero. Penny grew up in an impoverished family, one of many children, and the constant malnourishment left him small in stature. However, what he lacks in height, he exudes in virtue. Physically strong despite his stature, Penny is a man of compassion and wisdom. Penny’s father was a pastor, and he grew up under his religious, rigid hand, but Penny himself wants to raise his son differently. He invites Jody to learn at his side and allows the boy to make mistakes, lovingly correcting and guiding him on the right path. He imparts wisdom about relationships, the natural world, and the value of hard work. Of all Penny’s gifts, his stories are the most valuable to Jody.

As Jody’s relationship with Flag grows and Penny’s health fails, Jody finds himself adrift without his father’s strong leadership. When Flag ruins Penny’s hard work, the very thing he prides himself on, he asks Jody to kill the deer to save the family’s livelihood. At the tragic capitulation of the novel, Penny is framed as a shell of his former self, stumbling outside while wrapped in a quilt, broken in body and spirit as Jody curses him and chases after his wounded deer. When the penitent Jody returns, their father-son relationship is repaired but will never be the same. Penny, who began the story as a larger-than-life man, confesses that he desired to protect his son and failed, emerging as a truly human, imperfect father.

Ora Baxter, called “Ory” by Penny and “Ma” by Jody, is the matriarch of the Baxter household. She and Penny buried five children before Jody was born, a tragedy that continues to shape them in different ways. Penny gives his love and time freely, while Ora guards her heart by holding her love at a distance. She responds to hardships by turning inward and neglects to show her son affection: “[Jody] wondered if his mother had ever been so concerned about him, her only son, and doubted it” (359).

While Penny longs to protect his son’s innocence, Ora forces it to end. She pushes Jody to take on more responsibilities and is vehemently opposed to him having a pet. Despite her tough veneer, the reader is meant to empathize with Ora’s plight, and Penny and Jody delight in the brief moments when her true personality shines through: “They were all pleased whenever she made a joke. Her good nature made the same difference in the house as the hearth-fire had made in the chill of the evening” (293).

While Ora loves her family, she actively criticizes the Forresters. Though she doesn’t spend time with them, she fixates on their lack of farming knowledge and free-spirited behavior. However, when Buck and Mill-wheel come to Penny’s rescue, Ora is forced to reassess her condemnation of the family. Though she never outright apologizes for her judgement, their actions humble her, and she feeds them all the food she has as a sign of her gratitude. Her response to Fodder-wing’s death appears callous until she reveals that it’s her way of dealing with grief. Rawlings uses Ora’s character as a foil to Penny’s relaxed parenting style, but also to show that a person’s judgment may be based on misunderstanding.

The Forrester family consists of Ma and Pa Forrester, six burly sons (Lem, Buck, Mill-wheel, Gabby, Pack, and Arc), and their delicate youngest (Fodder-wing). As their name suggests, the family lives a carefree life in their cabin in the woods. They live four miles from the Baxters and are their closest neighbors, but the families couldn’t be more different. The Baxters work hard to cultivate subsistence crops, which they use to feed themselves and their livestock; Penny only hunts to provide food and means of trade. Conversely, the Forresters can’t be bothered to farm and often enjoy hunting for sport. Ora sees them as rough, reckless, and untrustworthy, but Penny and Jody slowly come to understand them.

Of the seven Forrester sons, the youngest, Fodder-wing, is physically the weakest due to an unknown disability. However, he is spiritually strong, possessing a mystical connection to nature that Jody finds magnetic. Fodder-wing and Jody’s friendship is endearing, but when Penny is bitten by a rattlesnake and near death, it is Buck Forrester who solidifies the bond between the families. He single-handedly keeps the Baxter farm running and becomes a loyal friend to both Penny and Jody. The families harbor a mutual hatred of the legendary bear Old Slewfoot, but it is their shared experience of losing children that brings them the closest together (i.e., Ora and Penny’s loss of several children and Fodder-wing’s death). However, Lem Forrester’s hatred for Oliver Hutto mires the families’ attempts to find common ground, and when the Forresters burn down Grandma Hutto’s house, the friendship is severed indefinitely.