"Gryphon 1985": Break Out from The Norms

In the story “Gryphon,” Charles Baxter fabricates a character that is not as perfect as we think she will be. Miss Ferenczi is a substitute teacher who came to Five Oaks Community to take over one of the teachers who has become ill until he has gotten better. Her coming to Five Oaks made a big impact in the community, especially her students. Miss Ferenczi lives in a world that is out of the ordinary, with no boundaries and a free will to teach students to have an open mind and imagine the possibility that one particular way of doing things or thinking is not always the only way. So she teaches her student to think beyond their limits.

Baxter’s character in the story has to go out of their usual procedures, compelling them to absorb new ways of learning, despite the social standard of the community. When the narrator introduces the substitute teacher, Miss Ferenczi, he describes the large scar on her face, which he can describe as intriguing. Unlike other substitute teachers they had previously, they thought Miss Ferenczi was out of the norm. Miss Ferenczi appearance is one symbol that can change students imaginations. “Her face had two prominent lines, descending vertically from the sides of her mouth to her chin”. The scar on Miss Ferenczi faces reminded Tommy of someone or something. This Characteristic of hers will signify an important part later on in the story, but also show an unbelievable countless personality. The narrator of the story, Tommy, says the two lines on her face reminded him of a character in a short tale, Pinocchio. The resemblance of Miss Ferenczi and this fictional character is unpredictable because both characters have a characteristic of lying. For example, when Pinocchio tells a lie, his nose extends and grows.

Later on in the story, the students start to question their substitutes truthfulness in her lessons. During her arithmetic, she told students "think of six times eleven equals to sixty-eight as a substitute fact". The students were confused because six times eleven was not sixty-eight, but sixty-six. Miss Ferenczi lives in a fantasy world of hers, as Pinocchio is a resemblance of a liar. The most dominant representation is the gryphon introduce to the story where Miss Ferenczi speaks about the Egyptians. The gryphon which is a magical creature that is half lion and half bird is characterized as Miss Ferenczi in the story. “She said that an old man in Egypt who worked for a circus had personally shown her an animal in a cage, a monster, half bird and half lion”. She who tells the students a portion of the truth, with a mixture of myth in her unreal tales. She has told the students about a plant that eats meat, which in fact is true. “The leaves,” Carol insisted. “The meat-eating plants.” I know it’s true”. She mentions many other explanations that can be true and encourages the students to open the mind to many possibilities. “My feeling is, if you don’t like a word, you don’t have to use it”. Miss Ferenczi saw that Tommy had trouble with spelling the word "balcony", so she told him he did not have to use the word. She also was trying to tell him he has the option to bend the rules a little. There are many other myths that can be unsure, like if diamond rings are not important and people made up the idea that “the biggest diamond in the world was cursed.. diamonds are magic, is why women wear them on the fingers”, or the fact that there are more dangerous creatures down below the sea that "which have never been studied by scientists because when you take them up to the air, the fish explode". Miss Ferenczi told the truth but also twisted the truth with lies. As she stated that no one ever studied these creatures below before, so how did she know if the fish will explode if it came up to the air.

The important part of this lesson is gryphon is a symbol of imagination in the story and a tale that helps student imagine more than meets the eyes. And it will help broaden the minds of these young students, like how Miss Ferenczi help student shape their own thinking. She states that the teacher from Five Oak community has an absence of idea to teach the student to have broader minds. The Gryphon in the story is a representation of Miss Ferenczi and her idea to peak out from the norm and share with the student a real-world concept.The story reaches its peak when Miss Ferenczi reads the students fates through the tarot cards she brought to class with her. She told many students their fate, but when it came to one student, Wayne Razmer, he had the death card, which scared him. The first time Miss Ferenczi came to teach the class she told the students “there is no death, you should never be afraid” foreshadow this point of the story when Wayne pulled a death card. Miss Ferenczi told him the meaning of the card, that he will soon face his fate, but as she refers back from earlier, "death does not mean the end of someone, but a new beginning". "But do not fear," she said, "It's not really dead, so much as change". What she told the boy was not to scare him, but get him ready for the real world and to help face his hear and not be afraid of what is coming. But for her to say this to a fourth-grade class was too severe and inappropriate for an elementary school, even if she had good intentions. “Wayne went to Mr. Faegre, the principal, and told him what Miss Ferenczi had done”.

Miss Ferenczi had gone too far from what is appropriate and what was not, letting students know about the real world. She was reported and had to leave Five Oaks, where adults in the community cannot accept going out from the norms that the society set for them to have broad minds to think for themselves and also educate the community of what is real. Tarot cards are used throughout many countries to tell people their fortunes and are still important to many cultures today. Miss Ferenczi has taught her students many forms of way to learn, not just one concept of learning, but to help them broaden their minds and go beyond the social routines that is a place for them. She goes by her own rules, by telling the student's not to worry about something they have done over and over again and it's a waste of time. She wanted to teach the student thinks that matter in life and what will help them later. In the social expect going to school and learning was serious and not fun, but she changes that perspective to tell student truthful and untruthful myth that keeps students interested but also let them learn the real world. She also taught the student to think as an individual not what a society put out for them.

Even though Miss Ferenczi is different from other characters in the story, she symbolizes the individuality and changes that a society should not put a restraint on. In the story, Miss Ferenczi gave her students a better understanding of life and help them think “outside the box”.