Essay Questions

How do the opening and closing lines of the poem connect as ironic commentary on the content in-between?

The opening lines set the stage for the bulk of the narrative to follow. “My and I debate” leads into an accounting of the pros and cons of selling the walnut tree for lumber to raise money to pay off the mortgage on their house. The word “debate” creates the expectations of a rational argument allowing logic to lead to a final decision. The narrative that follows for the most part confirms this expectation as the mother and daughter weigh the practicalities on both sides of the issue. The debate is not just about whether or not to spare the tree or to chop it up for lumber. The key point of contention is that selling the tree as lumber will not just allow for a mortgage payment, but for the entire remaining balance to paid off. Contextual clues indicate that mother and daughter are having financial difficulties so ridding themselves of a mortgage debt would be equivalent to a windfall. The choice sees obvious keeping the tree standing seems likely to add to that financial burden. Ultimately, however, the choice is made not to sell the tree for lumber and—most importantly—this decision is made on the solely on the basis of emotion rather than logic or any rational calculus of the pros and cons that have been discussed and noted. The closing line of the poem situates the mortgage debt that will in standing as within the imagery of torture as this decision means “month after month, the whip-crack of the mortgage.”

How does the daughter arrive at the decision not to sell the tree?

On the list of cons about keeping the tree that arise during the opening debate is the potential that the tree is in such a condition that a strong enough storm could easily uproot it, causing it to topple onto the roof of the house. In addition, the roots of the tree present a threat to the cellar drains, and the branches have grown so large that it is getting more and more difficult to deal with the weight of the fallen leaves. On top of that, the fruit itself has become persistently harder to pick. And, of course, at the top of the list of the pros of selling it is freedom from mortgage debt. All these elements are discussed as part of the logical debate. Nevertheless, all this logic goes to rot literally overnight when the daughter has a dream in which she sees her ancestors coming to Ohio from Bohemia and transforming “the blue fields” of Ohio into “vines and orchards” which have sustained generations ever since. The dream engenders an extreme emotional response in the daughter. Her mother concurs with her expectation of feeling an overwhelming sense of shame were they to reverse this course of action and remove something productive from the land rather than add to it. Keeping the tree and its problems rather than selling it and paying off debt is literally the result of an irrational decision made on the basis of a dream.

What does the story suggest about the importance of mother-daughter relationships?

The context of this story—two characters on a farm forced to choose between sacrificing a possession and incurring additional financial hardship—is one that forms the basis for many literary narratives set in the American Midwest and prairie states. The couple at the center of the bulk of those stories is usually a husband and wife. Although the speaker specifically mentions the word father twice in the poem, it is in the abstract. There is no indication about the status of the speaker’s father indicating whether her mother is a widow, or her husband is incapacitated or has abandoned them. Although the speaker’s age is not mentioned, it seems clear enough she is old enough to have married, but either never did or was widowed herself. The relationship at the center of the existence of both women is the mother/daughter roles each has been assigned and willingly accepts. By making this story farming and sacrifice center on a mother and daughter rather than the traditional casting of a married couple, the imagery connects more strongly to the shared experiences. Imagery focusing on roots, ancestry, the house, and the growth of the tree itself are all commentary on the lifelong bond between mother and daughter that cannot be replicated in a story about a wife and husband.