The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is a story about self-discovery and the rite of passage for young Jody Baxter. The Yearling is a 1938 novel written by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. She wrote the novel about what she knew best, she lived in north-central Florida where the novel is set. The Yearling won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1939. The story outlines the life of the Baxter family. The story is told over the course of a year in the Baxters life. The story is based on young Jody growing from a boy into a man.
The story of The Yearling takes place in the 1870s in the inland of Florida. The Baxter family has settled in a clearing of pines near the "scrub". The scrub is a deeply forested stretch of land enclosed by rivers, surrounded by marshes, and inhabited by hundreds of wild animals and birds. The Baxters are isolated from their neighbors and the rest of the world. The family lives a hard life, fighting against the constant threat of bears, panthers, wolves, rattlesnakes, and the weather. The water is scarce where the Baxters live, and must be carried from a large sinkhole. Their survival depends on hunting, both to provide food and to protect the crops and livestock.
Jody is a 12 year old boy who has never attended school, and as his parents only surviving child, he is a great joy to his father. Like his father, Jody is of a small build, with narrow shoulders and narrow hips, and hair the color of straw. Jody is a country boy, coming into adolescence in the early 1870's. His entire world is bordered by the St. John's River, Jacksonville, Florida, and about 20 miles of country southwest of those points. As the only child, Jody is expected to work and do chores most days in the fields, alongside his father. His childish actions are somewhat indulged by his father, who wants to make sure Jody has a true childhood. We watch Jody go through the process of putting childhood behind and taking on the responsibilities and good judgment of manhood. Jody's only regular companions are his parents and the wild creatures he is able to observe. He considers Fodder Wing and Oliver his two friends, but Oliver is already old enough to be away at sea, and Fodder Wing lives four miles from the Baxter clearing. Even his father's dogs are not interested in playing with Jody. Jody yearns for a loyal pet that will love him and follow after him. Throughout the first half of the novel, he considers various possibilities and makes his wishes known, but his mother is adamant that there is no extra food to feed another creature. One of Jody's greatest joys is to visit Fodder Wing Forrester, a boy his age who loves nature and whose family allows him to keep any number of wild things as pets. Finally Jody gets a baby fawn whose mother Penny killed in order to save himself from a snakebite. Besides his pet, Jody's favorite things are "man-things" such as hunting with his father, listening to the men tell stories, learning about nature, and simply talking to his father. Jody's father is his role model and source of inspiration because Jody wants to be just like him. He admires his fathers hunting skills, and his ability to make stories sound even better than the real thing. The deer, though, becomes his object of affection, sleeping with him, romping in the woods with him. Jody and his deer Flag mature and grow together, and eventually Jody must part with the deer because it is the final thing that ties him to childhood.
The rite of passage is one of the most popular themes in literature, because it is involved in every culture and it is an experience embedded in the memory of every living adult. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings presents this theme through Jody Baxter and his young deer Flag. This is essentially a story of Jody Baxter's year as a "yearling" as his father explains, the year in which a male deer stands between being a fawn (child) and being a buck (adult). Although the deer, Flag, is the actual the yearling in the novel, it is Jody's maturing and growing that we are watching. Jody and Flag (the fawn) grow, learn and develop in the same way.
Another rite of passage for Jody involves learning to hunt successfully, and eventually being drawn into the circle of hunters, is critical in the development of a young boy in the back woods in mid-nineteenth century America. When Jody carries his father's rifle for the first time, when he shoots his first deer, when he shoots his first bear, when he camps alongside his father and the Forrester boys during the wolf hunt, when he successfully flushes the wolves toward the hunters, each of these is a challenge that Jody faces and overcomes, and each represents another step toward becoming the successful hunter he must become. Jody must also become a successful farmer. Learning to set in the tobacco seedlings, drop the corn into the holes drilled by his father, turn the mill wheel, milk the cow, work on the fences, all of these are challenges the Jody must overcome. Jody must also learn responsibility, such as taking care of his fawn, managing the chores when his father was ill, shooting squirrels to feed the family, hauling water from the sinkhole, cleaning the water troughs, these are all challenges leading to Jody becoming responsible. Yet the rites of passage in the novel The Yearling demand more than accomplishment of adult tasks. They also demand that the "yearling" (Jody) sever ties with childhood, giving up comfortable and pleasurable dependencies. Rising before dawn and working until nightfall, giving up his milk so the fawn can be nourished, losing Fodder Wing to death, and most importantly, shooting the yearling (Flag) to ensure his family's survival and the deer's peace, are examples of the painful things that Jody must endure. Finally, the rite of passage almost always involves a journey of some type. In The Yearling there are a series of short journeys that Jody must embark on, some pleasurable and some painful. The pleasurable ones show Jody a wider world and open his eyes to how big the world is, but the painful ones try him and test his strength. Some of Jodys challenging and painful journeys are walking home through the woods during the frightening storm, wondering whether his father will survive. This prepares Jody for the final journey at the end of the novel when he runs away from the comforts and security of home to find himself. Jody runs away from his home a yearling, and he returns a man.
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was born in Washington, D.C., on August 8, 1896. Rawlings believed research to be essential to her writing, and would spend weeks living in the backcountry, gathering stories and facts firsthand. The Yearling, a story of twelve-year-old Jody Baxter and his pet fawn, Flag, was partially inspired by her visits with an old man who took her bear hunting. This novel, considered the high point of Rawlings's career and an outstanding book for young people, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939. The novel also won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1963.
In conclusion, The Yearling story about a young boy whos makes the journey into becoming a man. He endures many trials and hardships throughout this journey such as the death of his friend Fodder Wing and when he has to kill his deer Flag. He also has many pleasurable times on his journey as well such as when he got to hunt with the men, and when he sent the wolves towards the hunters. Jody learns many responsibilities throughout the novel, such as what its like to be an adult.
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