SHORT STORY REVIEW: The Split Cherry Tree by Jesse Stuart

SUMMARY
Once, a professor give a punishment to the Protagonist which is Dave Sexton, because he
and the other five boys climbed the cherry tree at Eif Crabtree’s place and broke it. The reason
why they climbed it, is because they saw the lizard on it and it was biology class. The
professor just ask one dollar each, but Dave didn’t have some dollar, so the professor let him
to stay 2 hours in the school in 2 days and every hour is 25 cents. The father of Dave, Luster,
asked Dave why he went home late. Dave answered it honestly, he tell the real story. Luster
thought they discriminating his son for being poor, so he decide to discuss it with professor on
the following day. When he already gets to school, he enters to the professor’s office with a
gun! That was the way he knew for settling misunderstanding or disagreements. The professor
was scared to the gun, but he didn’t call security and talked to Dave’s father kindly. The
professor explains to Luster what was his point, he said to him that it is unfair to the other kids
if he just let Dave to go home without paying a dollar in the broken cherry tree, so he just make
Dave to work for the dollar; staying in school for 2 hours in 2 days. That thing makes Dave’s
father to realize that the professor hadn’t discriminating his son for being poor.

In that case, the professor suddenly realize that Luster is an uneducated person and
depends only at the past and decides to “Teach the child according to his Way”. He took
Luster to the laboratory to show him some germs through microscope. Luster can’t believe that
germs really exist everywhere, or even in a human body. When it was time to go home,
Professor Herbert told Luster that it was not obligatory for Dave to stay after the school, since
he realized that Dave need to help his father on the farm. At that point, the father and son just
stay on the school for one hour for Dave’s work. Luster did that because he was a man who
believed in paying one’s debt. Luster taught his son some good attitudes. He told him to be an
honest man, always pay his debt, be kind to animals and to summarize it, be a good person.
Those things can’t be learn at school. When they already got home, Luster told his wife that
Professor Herbert was a good and fine man.

REVIEW
This story really present the values of the old social life and the new social life. Luster
represent the old one. He is an uneducated man and he doesn’t realize that school had
changed a lot since his time. He was a hardworking man through farming to support and to
help his family, and expects his son to help him with the farm. He believes that a “Person who
spears the rod spoils the Child’ and he whips Dave whenever he didn’t help on the farm.
Professor Herbert represent the new one. He is an educated man who believes that children
should not be given physical punishment.

Jesse Stuart was really a good writer, she make 2 persons to be a model of two sides like
the old and new social life. Although, her story was really great.