This is Jody’s Fawn

By MARJORIE KINNAN RAWLINGS

Objectives :

• To develop the reading skill of the students.
• To develop a sympathetic attitude towards the animals.
• To add new words to their vocabulary.
• To enhance their comprehension ability.

About the author

• Marjorie kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953) was an American author who lived in rural Florida and wrote novels with rural themes . Her best known work , The yearling, about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn, won a Pulitzer prize for fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie of the same name. some of her famous works are Jacob’s ladder; alligators; blood of my blood ; the friendship etc.

Introduction to the chapter

This story is about a little boy name Jody . His father has been bitten by a rattlesnake . He quickly kills a doe and uses its heart and liver to draw out the poison . Jody wonders what will happen to the little fawn left without a mother .

Characters in the story

1. Jody Baxter – a little boy
2. Penny Baxter – Jody's father
3. Ma Baxter – Jody's mother
4. Mill wheel – Penny Baxter's friend
5. Doc Wilson – an acquaintance of penny Baxter

Summary

This story is based on a young boy Jody . He was a very sensitive and emotional child . One day his father , Mr. Baxter , got bitten by a rattlesnake . In order to save himself , he killed doe and used its liver and heart to draw out the poison from his body .

This incident had a great impact on Jody’s mind . He was worried about the fawn that had become often after its mother’s death . He asked his father if he could adopt the fawn .

Penny Baxter agreed to his decision and he allowed him to go the forest in search of the fawn . Mill Wheel , his father’s friend , took Jody on his horse . After sometime they reached near their destination .

Jody asked him to leave him there. He said so because he did not want mill wheel to see his disappointment If he could not find the fawn. On the contrary , if he met with the fawn he didn’t want to share his moment of joy with any one.

He assured mill wheel of his knowledge of directions and sent him back . At the spot of the incident Jody found buzzard floating over the carcass of doe. After searching for the fawn to and fro, he finally reached it . he saw that the fawn was trembling with fear.

He turned towards the fawn and tried to calm it down . The fawn remained steady . Jody was filled with a moment of bliss . He carried the fawn all the way home . He fed it some milk with his fingers . Jody felt a deep connection with the fawn .

Theme of the story

The main theme of the story deals with kindness and compassion . In this story Jody's father who was bitten by a rattlesnake has to kill a doe to cure himself. But Jody could not for the episode. He was a very kind, caring and sensitive boy.

He decided to bring the doe’s fawn home , which was left alone in the forest. He got permission from his parents to adopt the fawn. He at once started searching for him and at last found him behind the bushes.

He brought at home and fed it milk of his own part. Thus he became a good friend of the fawn.

Glossary

• Drift back to – go back to
• Rattlesnake – a poisonous American snake
• Scared – afraid of something
• Staring – to look at someone
• Starve – to suffer or die from lack of food
• Gasped – to breathe with difficulty
• Mount –to climb up something
• Abandon – to leave a place because of danger

• Clearing – an open area of land in which there are no trees
• Endure – to experience pain/ suffering from a long time
• Hooves – the hard covering on the foot of an animal
• Carcass – the body of a dead animal
• Emerged –to become apparent
• Cracked – to make a short sharp sound
• Startled – to surprise or frighten

• Tumbled – to fall down suddenly
• Limply – to walk in a slow way
• Dangling – to hang down loosely
• Thumped – to beat forcefully
• Clutched – to hold onto someone or something tightly with your hand
• Skimmed – to remove a layer of something from the surface of a liquid
• Snort – to force air noisily through your nose

Comprehension I

Mill-wheel mounted his horse and pulled Jody up behind him. He said to Mill-wheel, “Do you think the fawn’s still there? Will you help me find him?” “We’ll find him if he’s alive. How you know it’s a he? “The spots were all in a line. On a doe-fawn, Pa says the spots are every which way…”

Questions

1. Where were Jody and mill wheel going ?
2. What did mill wheel say to Jody ?
3. How does a fawn male look like?

Comprehension II

Then a buzzard rose in front of him and flapped into the air. He came into the clearing under the oaks. Buzzards sat in a circle around the carcass of the doe. They turned their heads on their long scrawny necks and hissed at him. He threw his bough at them and they flew into an adjacent tree. The sand showed large cat prints but the big cats killed fresh, and they had left the doe to the carrion birds.

Questions

1. What is a “buzzards” ?
2. What were the buzzards doing ?
3. What did Jody see on the sand ?

Comprehension III

He was afraid that it might kick and bleat at sight and smell of its mother. He skirted the clearing and pushed his way into the thicket. It was difficult to fight through with his burden. The fawn’s legs caught in the bushes and he could not lift his own with freedom. He tried to shield its face from prickling vines. Its head bobbed with his stride. His heart thumped with the marvel of its acceptance of him. He reached the trail and walked as fast as he could until he came to the intersection with the road home. He stopped to rest and set the fawn down on its dangling legs. It wavered on them. It looked at him and bleated.

Questions

1. Why was Jody afraid ?
2. What does “thicket” mean here ?
3. How was Jody feeling ?

Recapitulation

• How did the doe save Penny’s life?
• Why was mill wheel afraid to leave Jody alone?
• Did Jody keep the fawn with him?
• What do you learn frim the story?

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