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Charles Baxter's Short Story 'Gryphon'

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In analyzing the short story “Gryphon” using psychoanalytic approach, this paper focus first on the biography of the author to see how this literary work became a manifestation of the authors own neuroses. One of the greatest milestones in the life of Charles Baxter was being a public teacher. In the year 1969, he taught fourth grade for a year in Pinconning, Michigan. According to Baxter, it was kind of an exotic experience for him but he also came to feel that it was one of the most important things that happened to his life. He was enraged in war during that time and he was trying not to bring the war into the classroom but sometimes he failed. Once, unprepared for class, he winged it, making up facts on the spot like making stories about ancient Egypt and realizing that his “facts” are being fanciful- this proves that this episode of his life inspired the short story “gryphon”, in which a substitute teacher tells her fourth graders some eccentric ideas like angels lives in the clouds over Venus and sometimes visit Earth to attend concerts. How Charles Baxter as a fourth-grade …show more content…

According to my research, Maslow 's hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. This theory wanted to understand what motivates people. Maslow believed that people possess a set of motivation systems unrelated to rewards or unconscious desires. He stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that some needs take precedence over others. Our most basic need is for physical survival, and this will be the first thing that motivates our behaviour. And the condition of Tommy falls into “self-actualization needs”. He has a need for personal growth and discovery that is present throughout a person’s life and the need to become all the things that a person is capable of

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In “Gryphon” by Charles Baxter, Miss Ferenczi provides the narrator, Tommy, with a space for imagination, creativity, and wonder in his otherwise dull life. Miss Ferenczi is a substitute teacher who has the wonder and creativity that Tommy craves. She teaches the class new ideas called substitute facts, and when the kids ask why she’s telling them these random facts she replies, ““Because it’s more interesting that way,” she said, smiling very rapidly behind her blue-tinted glasses. (169).” Her response alone shows she has a fondness for not only knowledge but fun and creativity as well.

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