The Education Of Little Tree Essay

The first aspect that stood out to me while reading The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter was when the little tree’s grandpa explained to him the significance of life cycle. “It is the Way. Tal-con caught the slow and so the slow will raise no children who are also slow. Tal-con eats a thousand ground rats who eats the eggs of the quail-both the quick and the slow eggs- and so Tal-con lives by the way” (9) was what his grandfather said to explain little tree about how life cycle worked. The stronger ate the weaker, while the weaker depends on other thing and the other thing depends on the stronger thing- it is the circle of life and it is exactly what an ecosystem mean. The moment when this incident occurred was few days after little …show more content…
After little tree lost his parents when he was five, he lived with his Cherokee grandparents in the mountains. He was named little tree by his grandparents which was an Indian name, but was forced to change it as it was associated with Cherokee. However, inside his heart he was always a little tree, as it was given to him by his grandparents and he proves to show that he loves and admire his grandparents. The book shows variety of example on how little tree was made to interact with nature. He adopts Cherokee cultures from his grandparents and value them. He learned hunting, trapping turkeys, movement and behavior of some animals, whiskey making, and survive in wilderness from his grandpa while learning to read from his grandma. Some example where the love and affection shown by grandparent to little tree is seen when grandpa carries him in his back when he gets tired, when he went with his grandpa to sell the whiskey his grandpa made, and from his conversation with his grandma while learning meaning of the words from the dictionary. The little tree from the book is a contradiction to the kids from these era as he is exposed to nature in his early childhood as compared to kids from these age who are exposed to technology. Part of the reason might also be because of the more …show more content…
The reason why I like it the most is because of my own childhood experience of gardening with my mother. In the chapter “Willow John” the little tree explains in detail about his gardening experience with his grandpa and grandma. “Once you start planting, you have to be careful” (138) explains how gracefully was he involved in gardening, and shows his dedication towards gardening. From his grandparents, he learn that while planting plants that grows below ground, should be planted in dark, while other crops that grows above ground should be grown in the presence of light. Little tree shares an experience of how he gazed stars with his grandpa while looking for crops during night. “Stars are right for running beans. We’ll plant some tomorrow if the east wind ain’t blowing” (139) shows how deeply little trees grandpa taught little tree about planting crops and the conditions that is suitable for growing certain kinds of crops. The gardening moment for them was one of the way to connect to each other, and it was also the moment for little tree to learn deep life values and meaning. “I checked the patch every morning and evening, sometime at dinnertime too, if I was passing by” (140) showed the dedication of little tree towards gardening. I a way he was kind of a support for his grandparents, as