The Education of Little Tree

Content Warning: These analyses discuss racism, racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), and racist speech.

A young boy’s mother dies, and the family must decide where the boy is to go now that he is an orphan. Nobody in the family can agree until the boy clings to his grandfather’s leg; seeing this, everyone decides that he can go with his grandparents. The boy, Little Tree, and his grandparents board the bus home after dark; the driver and passengers laugh and make fun of the three, but Little Tree does not understand this and mistakes it for friendliness. When they arrive at the cabin in the wilds of Tennessee, Granma soothes Little Tree to sleep by singing him a song about the woods welcoming “Little Tree” to them; this song is where Little Tree gets his name.

Granpa and Little Tree go into the upper mountains to trap turkeys. While they are out, Granpa uses this time to teach his grandson about “The Way,” which teaches that nature weeds out the weak and allows the strong to thrive. This principle strengthens all creatures, because the strong must continually become stronger to survive.