The Corn Planting
Short Story Analyzer
Short Story: The Corn Planting Author: Sherwood Anderson
Element for Analysis
Response/Evidence
Significance
Basic summary of the story:
Major action of the story in five to eight sentences.
Hatch Hutchenson lives in a small town, where he marries a schoolteacher and they have a son named Will. The Hutchenson family runs a farm even after their son Will goes into Chicago to attend school at the Art Institute as a cartoonist. At the Art Institute, Will meets a young man named Hal Weyman and they become good friends. Hal Weyman develops a strong relationship with the Hutchensons and visits them to read Will’s letters while he is still at the school. Hal receives a telegraph notifying him that Will died in a drunken car crash, and Hal and the narrator travel to the Hutchenson household to bare the bad news. The Hutchensons are so distraught with the news that in order to cope with their loss, they proceed to plant corn in their nightgowns in the middle of the night.
-Glorify the small-town lifestyle
- Stressing importance of keeping a connection to the Earth.
-Shows the distance created by industrialization and cities.
-Portrays the dangers of the cities (drinking, parting, ect.)
Major Characters:
Who are the major characters and how does the author develop them? What do the characters represent?
Hatch Hutchenson- a simple, hardworking and dedicated man who was 70 years of age and was devoted to his family and his farming way of life, refused to travel into the city and leave behind the life he had known.
Hal Weyman- Met Will Hutchenson at the Art Institute in Chicago and had a close relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Hutchenson. Read letters from Will to the Hutchensons, and informed them of their sons death.
Will Hutchenson- a charismatic free-spirit, intelligent, creative and well-liked by all. The son of Hatch and Mrs. Hutchenson. Studied at the Art Institute in Chicago as a cartoonist and
Short Story: The Corn Planting Author: Sherwood Anderson
Element for Analysis
Response/Evidence
Significance
Basic summary of the story:
Major action of the story in five to eight sentences.
Hatch Hutchenson lives in a small town, where he marries a schoolteacher and they have a son named Will. The Hutchenson family runs a farm even after their son Will goes into Chicago to attend school at the Art Institute as a cartoonist. At the Art Institute, Will meets a young man named Hal Weyman and they become good friends. Hal Weyman develops a strong relationship with the Hutchensons and visits them to read Will’s letters while he is still at the school. Hal receives a telegraph notifying him that Will died in a drunken car crash, and Hal and the narrator travel to the Hutchenson household to bare the bad news. The Hutchensons are so distraught with the news that in order to cope with their loss, they proceed to plant corn in their nightgowns in the middle of the night.
-Glorify the small-town lifestyle
- Stressing importance of keeping a connection to the Earth.
-Shows the distance created by industrialization and cities.
-Portrays the dangers of the cities (drinking, parting, ect.)
Major Characters:
Who are the major characters and how does the author develop them? What do the characters represent?
Hatch Hutchenson- a simple, hardworking and dedicated man who was 70 years of age and was devoted to his family and his farming way of life, refused to travel into the city and leave behind the life he had known.
Hal Weyman- Met Will Hutchenson at the Art Institute in Chicago and had a close relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Hutchenson. Read letters from Will to the Hutchensons, and informed them of their sons death.
Will Hutchenson- a charismatic free-spirit, intelligent, creative and well-liked by all. The son of Hatch and Mrs. Hutchenson. Studied at the Art Institute in Chicago as a cartoonist and