Charles Baxter, the author of the short story, Gryphon, utilizes conventional and unconventional ideas in order to emphasize the uniqueness Miss. Ferenczi’s personality.
The children were very conventional. For example, they felt that they had to always follow a set schedule. First, they had to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. When Miss. Ferenczi told the children “No, no allegiance pledging on the premises today,” the children seemed surprised and disappointed. This shows how the children felt that there was only one set way to do things. Also, during lunch time, the children found it odd that Miss. Ferenczi ate in the classroom with them. The conventional way was for the substitute teacher to eat in the teacher’s lounge with other teachers. “Miss Ferenczi, you don’t have to eat with us. You can eat with the other teachers. There’s a teacher’s lounge.”
On the other hand, Miss Ferenczi was very unconventional. She had many peculiar and bizarre ideas. For example, she told the children that sometimes, “six times eleven can be considered to be sixty-eight” because “it’s more interesting that way.” This shows how Miss Ferenczi had a wide imagination. Also, Miss Ferenczi told the children that she had seen a gryphon. This was obviously not true because gryphons are mystical creatures, but this also shows Miss Ferenczi’s unconventional ideas. Later on, she begins to talk on and on about things that seem almost impossible. For example, she says that “Beethoven had not been deaf; it was a trick to make himself famous, and it worked.” She also said “God kissed me.” These things were very unordinary and strange things to say. Most substitute teachers would not have said these kinds of things.
In conclusion Charles Baxter made use of the conventional and unconventional to make a comparison between Miss Ferenczi and the children. The children were extremely conventional while Miss Ferenczi was extremely unconventional.
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