Farmer Boy

Supporting the theme of Childhood and Coming of Age, Almanzo’s winning the pumpkin prize adds depth to his character, showing him the value of hard work and caring for something. He takes great satisfaction in having grown something so successfully with his own hands. Father assisted him, but Almanzo was the main caretaker, so the blue ribbon brings him great pride and joy as an admirable reward for his diligence with his pumpkin. He’s grateful, thrilled, and happy to win. Since he knows the winning pumpkin is a big deal, he worries that he wasn’t supposed to use milk to feed the pumpkin. His childish fears, morality, and logic of working through the problem are evident in his interaction with the judges:

‘How’d you raise such a big pumpkin, Almanzo?’ Suddenly everything seemed big and very still. Almanzo felt cold and small and scared. He hadn’t thought, before, that maybe it wasn’t fair to get a prize for a milk-fed pumpkin. Maybe the prize was for raising pumpkins in the ordinary way. Maybe, if he told, they’d take the prize away from him. They might think he had tried to cheat. He looked at Father, but Father’s face didn’t tell him what to do. ‘I—I just—I kept hoeing it, and—’ he said. Then he knew he was telling a lie. Father was hearing him tell a lie. He looked up at Mr. Paddock and said: ‘I raised it on milk. It’s a milk-fed pumpkin. Is—is that all right?’ (271).

Almanzo holds high morals, such as never lying, because of his upbringing with his parents and religion. Thus, although he starts to lie because he dreads losing the blue ribbon, he changes his mind since he can’t commit what he views as a sin. In addition, he can’t lie in front of Father: He’d be ashamed of his son and punish him. Father smartly doesn’t assist Almanzo here because he wants to test his son and see how he’ll handle the question, which shows that he’s giving him more independence too. Luckily, Almanzo’s milk-feeding method is allowed, but he still experiences a moment of moral turmoil over his pumpkin, revealing character depth to tackle this problem with the truth rather than lying. He’s too good-natured and innocent to lie to anyone.

The theme of Agricultural Life and Self-Sufficiency continues with slaughtering, threshing, and other aspects of farm life. Almanzo takes on more responsibilities. The family slaughters cows and hogs with help from John and Joe, which also emphasizes community, as neighbors often help each other by bartering their time and labor for goods. Because John and Joe help them, they receive some of the slaughtered meat in exchange for their services. In agricultural life during this time period, asking for help from neighboring farmers and bartering for time and goods were common. Almanzo decides to assist with extra tasks during the slaughtering and threshing, learning how to handle the cutting of the cow carcass and how to handle the threshed stalks of grain. He carries more grain stalks than ever before during threshing season. During threshing, Almanzo realizes that he has helped all year to gather the crops and now is rewarded with the oats and other foods that feed his family and the animals:

Almanzo had harrowed the fields, he had helped in the harvest, and now he was threshing. He helped to feed the patient cows, and the horses eagerly whinnying over the bars of their stalls, and the hungrily bleating sheep, and the grunting pigs. And he felt like saying to them all: ‘You can depend on me. I’m big enough to take care of you all’ (308).

He values being responsible and old enough to provide for the animals, taking pride and pleasure in being their caretaker. He also feels grateful that these threshed stalks will provide for the family and their animals for a whole year: They raise everything and waste nothing, honoring the cyclical nature of life. This underscores another of the main themes: The Benefits of Hard Work and Perseverance.

When the cobbler is late, however, the family faces one of very few situations in which they can’t fully provide for themselves. Although Mother works long hours and tries her best to repair the children’s old shoes, she doesn’t have the tools, materials, or expertise to make them new shoes. She has some leather from the slaughtered cows but not enough to craft new shoes. Since their feet have grown, they must cram their feet into their small, patched-up shoes until the cobbler arrives. They simply don’t have the means to make shoes alone, though they can do almost everything else at the farm. Their survival depends more on the crops, animals, and woods (for sap and chopping wood for the stove), but they also need shoes as part of their clothing. Mother makes the best of the cobbler being late, though she’s worried and feels unable to help further—a hard emotion for her to admit. She’s a self-sufficient woman who provides for her family, like Father, so knowing that she can’t do something is difficult for her to accept. When the cobbler finally arrives, Mother is thrilled. This situation is very realistic for the time period because farmers could do most things on their own but did need help with certain areas of survival, such as crafting shoes or wagons.