.
The only insight of Claude's childhood that Cather gives the reader is the story with the cherry tree and Claude's father. Claude remembered his mother asking Mr. Wheeler to go down to the orchard and pick cherries from the tree when she "persisted rather complainingly, saying that the cherries were too high for her to reach, and that even if she had a ladder it would hurt her back. Mr. Wheeler was always annoyed if his wife referred to any physical weakness, especially if she complained about her back" (Cather 963). The reader gets a good picture of what kind of a person Mr. Wheeler is from the beginning of this story when he reluctantly goes down to the orchard and is clearly annoyed by his wife's physical weakness. Mr. Wheeler eventually comes back to the kitchen and instructs his wife and Claude that "Cherries won't give you any trouble. You can pick "em as easy as can be" (Cather 963). This is a peculiarly strange point in Claude's story because at first glance it seems like Mr. Wheeler might have done something favorable for his wife and Claude. However, Claude soon learns that that his father had done something terrible when he and his mother were walking down to the orchard and they saw that "the beautiful, round-topped cherry tree, full of green leaves, and red fruit,-his father had sawed it through" (Cather963-964). Claude was in shock by what his father had done to him. The cherry tree meant more to Claude than anything in the world at that point in his life. Picking cherries with his mother was one of the few joys that he had in his younger years. By cutting down the cherry tree, his father not only cut down a piece of nature, but he also cut down a piece of Claude's manhood. The full, uncut, cherry tree represented Claude's fulfilled desires and fantasies. However, his father cut down those desires before Claude had a real chance to experience them. On this day Claude not only realized that his father had taken away a part of his manhood at the age of five, but also realized that his mother was a coward for sticking up for his father and not standing up for her deprived son.
