After Claude catches sight of tree he went into a tantrum and his mother tried to console him by telling him "it's your father's tree. He has a perfect right to cut it down if he wants to (Cather 964). At that instant Claude gets a skewed view on what a wife should be like when witnesses his mother being completely submissive to his father. This view of women continues on through his life as be becomes attracted to women that are submissive and therefore safe. .
The cherry tree incident with Claude and his family left him emotionally disturbed. From that point on he exhibited issues with other stumps he encountered in his life such as the time he described the Judge who was "a one-armed man, with white hair and side-whiskers, sat at his desk, writing with his left hand. He was an old settler in Frankfort County, but from his frock-coat and courtly manners you might have thought he had come from Kentucky yesterday instead of thirty years ago" (Cather1126). Claude's depiction of the judge demonstrates how he was able to overcome his "stump." The Judge is a very well dressed, well-spoken and well-respected man and he was able to succeed in life despite having a piece of him cut off. Claude does no have the strength to emotionally get over his "stump" and it haunts him throughout the story especially when he takes particular notice of a soldier that he runs across who also lost his arm. .
When Claude encounters this soldier and his lover he immediately becomes infatuated with the two of them. Right away he notices that .
The man wore the American uniform; his left arm had been amputated at the elbow, and he carried his head awry, as if he had a stiff neck. His dark, lean face wore an expression of intense anxiety, his eyebrows twitched as if he were in constant pain. The girl, too, looked troubled. As they passed him, under the red light of the Armour sign, Claude could see that her eyes were full of tears (Cather 1197).
