At home, Pa had said to Ma that Uncle Henry and Aunt Polly spoiled Charley. … Now Uncle Henry said that Charley must come to the field. He could save
them a great deal of time. He could go to the spring for water, and he could fetch them the water-jug when they needed a drink. … Charley did not want to
go to the field. He wanted to stay in the yard and play. But, of course, he did not say so 1971:203-204.
Actually Charley does not want to go to the field but he does not say so and follows his father’s will. In the field, Charlie makes a lot of troubles. He does things such as hiding
the whetstone, making the adults cannot swing their cradles, and not bringing the water- jug properly. He lies to his father and Pa by yelling at them as something dangerous
happens to him. When his Pa and Laura’s Pa come to him, nothing is wrong and he laughs at them and only says, “I fooled you that time” Charley thinks it is really funny
1971:204-205. At the end of the day, he is stung by the bees, yellow jacket type. His father and Pa are little bit late helping him, because they think he is lying as what he did
before 1971:207-209. As we can see on the characterization of the children in the story, there are some
basic characteristics that most of the children characters shared together. Most of the children characters share the same idea of small, innocent, and playful children. Some
of them are depicted as kind, obedient, and helpful children; but some of them are described as the children who are curious, disobedient, and competitive. This
characterizations are resulted from the way of each analyzed characters above is depicted. The depictions come by the narration, what the characters do, what the
characters said, and what the other characters said about a character.
2. The Characters of Adults
As what we can see in the analysis of the characterization of children, the characterizations of adults also share some similarities or basic ideas. These similarities
will be discussed in the following description of the characterization of adults in the story. The characters of adults that will be discussed in this part are Pa, Ma, Laura’s
Grand Pa, and Pa’s Grand Pa, Uncle George, Aunt Eliza-Uncle Peter and Aunt Polly- Uncle Henry, Aunt Lotty, and the storekeeper.
a. Pa: The Perfect Father
Pa is father of Laura, Marie, and Baby Carrie. He is the only male character in the house of the little family. By the personal character, Pa is described as a man with a
big body. Laura and his sister are used to climb on his knee and sit on it 1971:34. He is depicted as a father who is used to catch his children up in a bear’s hug 1971:60.
Through his mannerism, Pa is described as a character that never makes mistake. When Pa tells his daughters to watch him making bullets, he tells them to
watch if he makes mistake and he never makes any mistakes 1971:48. Another time when Pa goes to the woods for hunting, although he is alone, they believe that Pa will
be alright. Pa is described as what his children believe about him, as a good hunter. His
children believe that their father always kills his prey at the first shot. When he shot at a bear or a panther, he must kill it with the first shot. A wounded bear or panther could
kill a man before he had time to load his gun again. But Laura and Mary are never
afraid when Pa goes alone into the big woods. They know he can always kill bears and panthers with the first shot 1971:52-53.
Pa is described as a character that is always safe from any possible harm that can happen to him. He is always lucky in facing the danger from big woods, especially
from the surrounding wildlife. Pa is characterized as a brave character. One of the dangerous threats comes from bears. He hits a bear in order to survive 1971:114-115.
He is also depicted as a confident figure. He surely believes that bees will never sting him 1971:197.
Pa is described as having a perfect figure and behavior. Pa always acts in good attitude. It makes his children proud of him, as seen when Pa is sending for the
threshing machine 1971:228. Pa is believed as good person by his children. Pa will never do something grieving such as killing a baby deer 159 or killing the calves
186. This attitude makes him a perfect person in his family. Moreover, by his reaction towards his children’s questions, Pa is described as a
knowledgeable character. He is the place for the children to ask anything and he will give them the answer. Pa is asked by Laura about many things, he is asked about sugar
snow 1971 119-121, separator machine 223, and the meaning of days of auld lang syne 237. Pa answers all the questions. Besides,
The bullet was too hot to touch, but it shone so temptingly that sometimes Laura or Mary could not help touching it. Then they burned their fingers. But they did
not say anything, b Pa also knows the consequences of
the children’s action as can be seen in the quotation below.
ecause Pa had told them never to touch a new bullet. If they burn their fingers, that was their own fault 1971:
46.
