Page 17

By Jack Joseph Smith

fussy? Am I what, Michael? You know. Are you fussy? Well, I guess I am a little. Do you go to church Mrs. Williams? Yes, I do Michael, she said that very directly. What kind of a church? I'm a Presbyterian Michael. What's that? Do you know what a Protestant is Michael? That's someone who isn't a Catholic. Well Michael, there are lots of different kinds of people who aren't Catholic. My Dad's not; He's a protestant, but he doesn't go to church. Do you go to church Michael? Yes. With your mother? Yes; She's a Catholic. My dad always calls her a bullheaded Irish scrub. woman. Oh, she said, gasping a bit. That's okey Mrs. Williams. He calls me a stubborn Dutchman, and I think that's what he is. You think your father is stubborn? I think he's Dutch. Oh I see. Do you think he is stubborn Mrs. Williams? Why Michael, I don't even know your father.

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

In the hall, talk with Miss Williams drifts from fussiness to church, Protestants and Catholics, and the child's rough family language about Irishness, Dutchness, and stubbornness.

The page shows Michael testing adults by mixing theology, ethnicity, and household insult in the same conversation. Religious naming becomes a way of probing authority while he remains half-naive and half-startlingly exact.

Claude

From the hall the boy interviews Miss Williams, opening with 'Are you fussy?' and moving into denomination: she is 'a Presbyterian', and he supplies his own working theology - 'a Protestant' is 'someone who isn't a Catholic'. He then exposes the family's sectarian friction in a child's flat reporting voice: his Catholic mother is what 'my dad always calls her a bullheaded Irish scrub. woman', making the teacher gasp, while the father is 'a stubborn Dutchman'. The comedy lies in the gap between his startlingly exact disclosures and Miss Williams's careful retreat ('Why Michael, I don't even know your father').