The Yearling Duty Quotes

Ugh, chores, right? Taking out the trash, cleaning your room, hoeing the fields… who wants to, when there are creeks to frolic in? In the beginning, it's not even on Jody's radar that he has any real responsibilities: everything is laid upon him by his parents, not by his own sense of duty.

Fair enough, but we get the feeling that Jody wouldn't like the word "pizza" if his mother talked about it a lot, either.

Jody might hate the word "duty," but it doesn't seem to have occurred to him that "duty" goes both ways. Penny's duty is to take care of and look after Jody, just like Ma's—and Ma might not be warm and cuddly, but she does nourish and care for Jody as best as she can.

When Fodder-wing dies, Jody has to decide for himself what his duty to his friend is, and in this case it's taking care of the animals. (When we die, we want our friends to erase all the embarrassing pictures of us on the Internet.)

Penny has dropped the carefree childhood bit, and is trying to teach Jody something about life. It's not an easy lesson to learn about eleven years of gallivanting around the wilderness.

Boom. There's nothing like throwing down a haunch of bear on the table to make you feel like a grown-up. Having some responsibility to feed his family helps Jody grow up just a little bit faster.

Jody hasn't really learned to fear starvation yet, so he still values the companionship of a pet over food for his family. Pretty soon he's going to learn that one of a man's most important duties is to provide food for his family. (Don't worry, ladies, you have a duty, too: you have to make that bear meat taste good. Which one do you think is harder?)

Ma is often disgusted with Jody for being so immature and with Penny for letting him stay that way so long, and on the one hand, okay: Jody is going to have to learn to take care of other people. On the other hand, he's eleven. So, maybe give him another year or two, okay, Ma?

Hello there, symbolism! See how Jody is literally taking the weight off of Penny and also, you know, metaphorically doing the same thing? Sure you do.

Whoa there, Jody. This is an admirable commitment to duty and all—you're really stepping up to the plate—but maybe you shouldn't try to run the farm single-handedly until you're, say, 13?