The Education of Little Tree: Parenting
             The one thing a child should be able to rely on in life is his parent. No matter what the situation, some sort of guardian always needs to be there for a child until he's old enough to live life on his own. A good parent should also have certain qualities such as communication, acting responsibly, and being a decent role model. In Forrest Carter's The Education of Little Tree, a five-year old boy named Little Tree is being brought up by his two grandparents. Both are his guardians, but Little Tree mostly looks up to his Granpa and acts as his best friend. The old man loves, trusts, and respects his grandson, but sometimes that's not enough. Little Tree's Granpa is a horrible role model, completely irresponsible, and has a lot of miscommunication with him, showing he is unfit for the parenting job.
             First of all, Granpa's irresponsibility is shown thousands of times throughout the novel. He regularly lets Little Tree wander off into the mountains and trees, even though he's only five years old. This old man seems to be sagacious and experienced enough to know about the dangers of nature, yet he still lets Little Tree go off on his own. One day, Granpa and Little Tree are fishing and he lets him wander down the bank, alone. Before Little Tree knows it, a rattlesnake is hissing by his head, about to attack. Carter writes, "Granpa was laying on the bank and had already pulled a catfish out of the water. I couldn't find a fish hole, so I went a ways down the bank . . . I heard a sound right by me . . . It was a rattlesnake"(108). Granpa is irresponsible because there is no sign of him even caring about Little Tree's safety and warning him to be careful! Not once does he tell him to watch out for rattlesnakes, or anything else, for that matter. Although Granpa does save him from the snake, Little Tree wouldn't have been in the s...