"A column of smoke rose thin and straight from the cabin chimney. The smoke was blue where it left the red of the clay. It trailed into the blue of the April sky and was no longer blue but gray. The boy Jody watched it, speculating."
These are the opening sentences of the novel. Imagery is used to create a sense of serenity and clarity within a bucolic setting. The reference to the smoke transforming a blue sky into a gray one can be read as a subtle foreshadowing that this is going to be a story taking place in the American south while the ravages of the Civil War still linger heavily within the consciousness of that war's humiliating losing side. Into this setting is introduced a speculative boy. The story contains much fruitful characterization, but ultimately it is a coming-of-age story about a young boy. The rest of the characters in this tale are not particularly speculative or contemplative. This opening scene serves to strongly and immediately situate young Jody as an evolution in the growth of his family and his region.
"Ma, we got milk a-plenty. Cain't I git me a leetle ol' fawn for a pet for me? A spotted fawn, Ma. Cain't I?"
The title of this novel most directly references a fawn. While it also references a year in the life of Jody in which he makes the transition from childhood to manhood, it is primarily a description of the young deer which Jody is asking for in this quote. This quote reveals the depth of an emotional plea to adopt one of the young fawns to raise as a pet. This quote is also significant for the language, however. The descriptive prose of the narrative is straightforward, terse, and plainly written. The dialogue, however, is heavily written in southern dialect native to the Florida region in which the story is set. One might well assume from this quote that the dialect and lack of sophistication is due to Jody's youth. In fact, every character in the story talks using this informality of language.
"You've seed how things goes in the world o' men. You've knowed men to be low-down and mean. You've seed ol' Death at his tricks. You've messed around with ol' Starvation. Ever' man wants life to be a fine thing, and a easy. 'Tis fine, boy, powerful fine, but 'tain't easy. Life knocks a man down and he gits up and it knocks him down agin. I've been uneasy all my life."
Despite the gender expectations associated with the name, Penny Baxter is actually Jody's father and not his mother. As indicated in the quote above, the dialect indicating dialogue maintains the same informal speech patterns among the adults. This passage is a typical example of how Jody's father speaks using the same low level of language as his son, but it is the actual content of the quote that is most significant. The father has been a typical parent to his only surviving child in that he has tried to shield and protect him as much as possible from the harsher realities of life. This conversation comes very late in the narrative, however, and illustrates just how much Jody has matured by alluding to all that he has seen over the course of the tale, including death and starvation. The novel is a coming-of-age story about Jody's movement from immaturity to maturity and this passage strongly hints that it has not been an easy transformation. Penny Baxter is providing an overview of some of the harshest truths about the reality of being a human being. Ultimately, the difficult path which has brought Jody to this stage of maturity is expressed as a life lesson the novel is trying to convey: life isn't easy.
