James Alan Mcpherson's 'Why I Like Country Music'

In James Alan McPherson's "Why I Like Country Music," some may perceive Mrs. Boswell as McPherson's antagonist, but really, she wishes to help him grow. For instance, McPherson describes a life-lesson she gave to the class; she announces, "Now I know your mamas already made you think life is a bed of roses, but in my classroom you got to know the footpaths through the sticky parts of the rosebed." Then McPherson explains, "It was her custom during this ritual to prod and goad those of us who were developing reputations for meekness and indecision; yet her method was Socratic in that she compelled us, indirectly, to supply our own answers by exploiting one person as the walking symbol of the error she intended to correct," therefore explaining that although Mrs. Boswell's methods were abrasive, they were not ill-intentioned. Specifically, McPherson describes the time in …show more content…
Moreover, she exemplifies this belief at the annual spring celebration. There, she tragically places McPherson in the square-dancing group and Lawson in the Maypole group. After discovering this, McPherson decided to try to manipulate his way into Lawson's group by explaining to Boswell that he dances poorly and will mess up the show. Unsuccessful, he gets his father to wrote him an excuse, but after switching groups, Boswell realizes the groups are uneven. In direct punishment to McPherson's passiveness, she relentlessly moves Lawson to the other group. However, on the day of the festival, Mrs. Boswell miraculously told her partner he could not dance because of the dangerous spurs on his boots. In other words, Boswell gave McPherson another chance to speak up and actively pursue Lawson. As can be seen by these examples from "Why I Like Country Music" by James Alan McPherson, although Mrs. Boswell is crass in her methods, in the long run, she seeks McPherson's