Weblog 9

In Gryphon, Charles Baxter intertwines the conventional and unconventional primarily through the odd substitute teacher, Miss Ferenczi. When she first introduced herself, Miss Ferenczi did not follow the daily routine of pledging allegiance, which was the first example of unconventional intertwining with the conventional children who follow schedules. Another way Baxter intertwines the conventional and unconventional is through Miss Ferenczi’s story telling. Miss Ferenczi would constantly give the kids a fact, but would also tell a completely unrealistic story just to make the children interested in what she is saying. One of the many examples of this is when Miss Ferenczi told the children about diamonds, on page 50. Miss Ferenczi started off talking about jewels and diamonds and explained that they were magical and the biggest diamond killed anybody who owned it. She then went on to say women wear diamonds as a sign of the magic of womanhood, which so far, everything she said is fictional. She then says the magic in diamonds are reasons why men fall in love with women but women do not actually fall in love with men, instead they love being loved. From there, Miss Farenczi leads on to say that George Washington had died due to a mistake he made about a diamond, and that Washington was not the first true president. She goes on and talks about other completely fictional things but adds a touch of reality to make the story believable for the children. Charles Baxter does this to make Miss Ferenczi seem like a very peculiar character who cannot be trusted. Also, another way Baxter intertwines the conventional and unconventional is when the class was doing math. Miss Ferenczi asked what six times eleven was and a student answered with sixty-eight, which was wrong. Soon after, another student points out her mistake, which leads to a speech where Miss Ferenzci said that since she is a substitute teacher, she can provide a substitute answer which the children can use only when she is there. By this, Baxter wants to show that people should think outside the box and be creative, instead of being dull and narrow-minded.