The Teacher's Funeral

Peck’s lifelike portrayal of amiable, good-natured Russell, the first-person narrator, sets the humorous tone for the rest of the novel and guarantees the reader’s engagement. By using regional colloquialisms in Russell’s speech, Peck creates a realistic sense of Russell’s rural community and the bygone era. Russell’s language is informal and reflects his everyday life: He uses words and phrases like “whupping” and “durn good thing” and refers to old-time measurements like a “few rods.” Russell’s casual manner of speech combined with his first-person perspective helps draw the reader into Russell’s private thoughts and feelings. Plus, Russell is a complex character.

Russell has a well-developed, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor that informs his observations of his family and community—and himself. With witty, colorful descriptions of individuals’ eccentricities, Russell brings the other members of his town and family to life. In one dry sentence, for example, Russell combines a description of both his friend Charlie Parr and Miss Myrt’s punitive approach to education with a body part joke: “Though he was a preacher’s son, it was at school where he learned to turn the other cheek” (25). Russell is also a good-hearted jokester, and Peck uses situational humor, like the ghost story pranks to show both Russell’s sense of fun and his close connection to his family and friends.

In addition to establishing the novel’s humorous tone and building characterization, this section also introduces several of the novel’s themes, including education—both its practice and value. Russell avows there is no point in going to school. He has not graduated eighth grade, despite being 15, and views school as a waste of time, a chain holding him back from his dream. School with Miss Myrt is physically and emotionally painful. Typically, education equals enlightenment, but Russell calls school “the darkness of learning” (13). Tansy, however, values learning. Tansy significantly seeks a different role from other girls in the small community by choosing to attend high school.

Although teenage Russell has no love of school, his thoughts and language show that more than a little learning sank in by the time he narrates this narrative. Russell is an accomplished storyteller, frequently using figurative language and colorful description: He describes crickets walking up under his shirt on “bobwire legs” (7). The very names of the steel threshers inspire a sense of “romance” in his soul (10). He even shares a literary pun based on the novel Robinson Crusoe (7). In addition to book learning, Russell also has extensive practical education in farming. He knows, for instance, that cockleburs have two seeds that mature at different times which he needs to kill twice.

Despite his skill at farming, Russell dreams of a different future; one that is far away from rural Parke County, Indiana. Russell’s hometown is rooted in the past. Religion, superstition, and old-fashioned customs influence the close-knit community. Seeing the Case Agitator, Russell remarks that “the twentieth century has found us at last, even here” (11). Russell contrasts his hometown with how he imagines the big city of Indianapolis. The contrast of city and country life, and old-fashioned ways with future technology is another ongoing theme in The Teacher’s Funeral. Russell’s dreams of joining a team of threshers in the Dakotas, utilizing the newest technology, speak to his desire to leave his childhood and Parke County behind and become a man. Russell’s journey towards adulthood is another developing theme.

Finally, some inside info on “old-time stuff.” Peck refers to several objects and practices that were common in 1904 but which modern readers may not recognize: threshers, for instance. A thresher is a piece of farm equipment used to separate the seeds of wheat and other grains from their stalks and husks. Grain goes into the hopper, then passes into a separator which breaks the heads from the straw by violently beating, or agitating, and knocking out the grain kernels. The straw passes over a rack, and the grain falls out onto screens. Threshing, originally done by hand, was both labor-intensive and time-consuming. Horse-powered threshers came along in 1837, and steam-powered threshers appeared around 1890. By 1904, the setting of the novel, Russell sees the newest model threshers are no longer wooden, but steel. For Russell, the thresher becomes a symbol of freedom and the future.

The party line phone system is another old-fashioned practice. At the time of the novel, many people, especially in rural areas, subscribed to a shared phone service. Each subscriber had a unique phone ringing sequence and all the subscribers would hear their own phone ring every time anyone else used a phone. All the neighbors in Parke County know each other’s ringing sequence. When Miss Myrt dies, her landlady calls the doctor with his distinct “two long rings and one short” (25). On a party line, anyone can pick up their phone and listen in to someone else’s conversation. This leads to a lack of privacy and creates a source for gossip and entertainment. The party line shows again how tightly-knit Russell’s community is.