Calpurnia Tate Response 10/10/12

   In The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Henry Holt, I raised an interesting question. How seriously does Calpurnia's grandfather take their relationship and what does Calpurnia mean to him? This was a great story with a lot of great details. I loved all the little descriptions of the house and of the wild landscape. I think this author did a great job at describing his setting, but also his characters, and that is what sparked my question.

   There are multiple answers to this question. Firstly, I think her grandfather takes their relationship very seriously. One example of this is how much he trusts her with his precious work. One example of this comes towards the middle of the story. Her Grandfather is trying to distill pecans into whisky and Calpurnia is assisting. He finishes one batch and takes a sip. "I think, I think we may have something approaching drinkable." he says. He then gives a glass of the liquor to Calpurnia. He then tells her to taste the whisky and be the deciding taste test. This shows that he is trusting Calpurnia, a 12 year old girl, with the basis on his work. That is a big deal! This makes me think, what does Calpurnia think of her Grandfather? I think she is generally nervous around him because he is the only one that really understands her and she really doesn't want to screw their relationship up.

   Secondly, I really think that her Grandfather respects Calpurnia as a person. His old fashion values and ideas should go against him being so encouraging of Calpurnia but like I said earlier, I think he really understands her better than most people. For example, when Calpurnia received 

"The Science of Housewifery" her grandfather's eyebrows were "puckered in concern" as the author describes it. At no point later on in the book did he speak to Calpurnia about the present but this small facial expression shows that he actually cares for her. I think that when he was a child he could have had the same kind of experience. maybe his mother or father wanted him to do something and he wanted to live his own life. I dont really know what life was like back then though.

   I think I answered my question by forming another one. Is this how all kids feel? I can definitely relate to Calpurnia. Not in the way of feminism or anything but the fact that her parents want her to be somebody besides herself. In many ways this is how the world works. If you think about it though, the greatest minds followed their own paths, not those created by others. I will leave you with that thought reader.