Tornado

“My brothers and I sat on the dirt floor. My grandmother sat on a pickle barrel and my mother on an orange crate. We sat for a moment, silent. We listened to the storm and worried about my father in the cornfield. Something that sounded like gravel was thrown against the cellar doors. ‘Hail,’ my mother said, and bowed her head.”

The details about the items in the storm cellar—the pickle barrel, orange crate, and dirt floor different characters are sitting on—increase the vividness of the scene. The use of first-person plural “we” pronouns emphasizes the collective feeling of the scene, as the narrator, their family, and Pete all sit in silence, listen to the storm, and worry about Link. This emphasizes the fact that disaster can produce shared, communal experiences. Byars uses Beth’s gesture of bowing her head to indicate her worried emotional state.

“Pete cleared his throat. ‘You know what this brings to my mind?’ he said. We knew, and my brothers and I turned to him gratefully. We saw a flash of teeth as he smiled at us. ‘It brings to mind a dog I had one time.’ ‘Tornado,’ my brothers and I said together.”

This passage characterizes Pete as kind and perceptive. He realizes the family is fearful and that they will be in the storm cellar for a while. Though he knows the narrator and brothers already know his stories of Tornado, he pretends they don’t and allows them to fill in the dog’s name to request the story.

“Pete settled his straw hat on his head and began. ‘I remember it was an August day, a whole lot like this one.’”

This passage is important because it concludes the first chapter and sets up the framing of the rest of the novel. Chapter 1 is the only chapter of the novel that takes place entirely in the present, with the rest of the novel focusing on Pete’s childhood through his stories. Pete’s gesture of settling the hat onto his head indicates that he is settling into the story and remembering the past. The detail about it being an August day similar to the one in the present indicates the similarity between Pete’s childhood and the narrator’s, which is emphasized throughout the novel.

“The morning went by, slow and scary. We did stay close to the house. Folks didn’t call our part of the country Tornado Alley for nothing.”

Byars uses alliteration of the “s” sounds in slow and scary in this passage. The language emphasizes the importance of that morning and the ominous feeling the family experienced as they anticipated the storm coming. The reference to Tornado Alley, the real term for the part of the country most likely to experience tornados, increases the novel’s verisimilitude.

“Next there was a roar—worse than a train—worse than a hundred trains. And then there came a terrible tearing sound, like the world was being ripped apart. I can still hear it in my mind. I looked up, and I saw sky. The ceiling was clean gone. There was the sky! The tornado had torn the roof off the kitchen and left the food on the table and us in our seats.”

Byars provides vivid auditory detail of the roar and the metaphor of a train sound to emphasize the terror of the family’s tornado experience. Byars uses repetition in the passages of “I saw sky” and “There was the sky!” to emphasize Pete’s disbelief. The image of the roof having been ripped off the house but the food having remained on the table suggests the strangeness of the tornado phenomenon and that the family could easily have been killed in the tornado if it had hit the house differently.

“My daddy was the first to be able to speak. He said, ‘Well, I’m surprised to find myself alive.’ That was how we all felt. We looked at our arms and legs to make sure they were still hooked on us. Then my father pushed back his chair and said, ‘Let’s go see the damage.’”

This passage is important as a representation of the overall tone of the novel. In connection with its Resilience in the Face of Natural Disaster theme, Byars blends a no-nonsense attitude and humor with the objectively terrifying reality of the tornados the characters experience. Pete’s family, particularly his father, demonstrates a practical and wry attitude toward the experience of the tornado; he uses understatement in discussing his surprise at being alive, then suggests that they should go see the damage in a straightforward manner as if suggesting a more quotidian activity. Byars also uses understatement through diction in suggesting that the family check to see if their arms and legs are still “hooked on.”

“Then that night my mother leaned out the kitchen door and yelled, ‘Supper!’ as she usually did. The dog heard her and stuck his head out of the doghouse. He must have been familiar with the word. He came out, stood there, looked around for a moment, and then gave one final shake, as if he were shaking off the past.”

Byars characterizes Tornado in this passage. The dog is smart and understands the concept of dinner. In spite of his fear, he is ready to leave the doghouse when he understands that it is suppertime. He is also portrayed as having complex human emotions, at least in Pete’s estimation, as he gives a shake “as if he were shaking off the past.”

“His ears came forward some more. I shuffled the cards. Now his ears were almost over his eyes. ‘You want to play cards? Cards?’ I held out the deck. He waited. I fanned out the deck. He waited. I could see that he was ready, willing, and able. He had that look he got when I had a ball and he was waiting for me to throw it.”

Byars uses detailed gestures to suggest how Pete views Tornado as an almost human member of the family. For example, Pete observes that Tornado is “ready, willing, and able” to participate in the card trick. The passage also emphasizes the bond Pete and Tornado are developing and the novel’s theme of The Power of Human-Animal Bonds. Pete makes a connection between how Tornado looks in this moment and the expression on his face when “I had a ball and he was waiting for me to throw it.” Byars thus emphasizes the shared experience Pete and Tornado are developing throughout the novel.

“My daddy came in the kitchen for a glass of buttermilk. I said, ‘Daddy, Tornado knows a card trick!’ ‘Does he?’ ‘At least I think he does. Well, he knows half of a card trick.’ ‘Half a card trick’s better than none.’”

Byars uses dialogue in this passage not only to describe the scene but also to characterize both Pete and his father. Pete is characterized by his pride in Tornado and his desire to master the card trick. As in the previous chapter, Pete’s father is characterized by his optimism. This passage also foreshadows the later scene in the novel, when Pete’s father talks about the possible need to share Tornado with the other family, but that half a Tornado would be better than none.

“Tornado dropped the three of hearts. ‘Good dog,’ I said. I felt really proud. I had a dog who could do a card trick, even though my daddy had to help. ‘Is that it?’ my daddy said. ‘Yes, sir. You can get back to the news.’ ‘The news can wait. Let’s try that trick again.’”

Pete’s father is characterized in this passage as perceptive and devoted to his children. While he initially says that he wants to watch the news, he sees how important the card trick is to Pete and instead stays to practice it with his son. Pete is proud of both himself and Tornado, which suggests his deepening relationship with the dog and the importance of Tornado to Pete’s childhood experiences.

“‘Telling that story always puts me in mind of the turtle.’ ‘Turtle? You never told us about a turtle.’ ‘Didn’t I? Surely I told you about the turtle.’ ‘No, you didn’t, did he?’ ‘No,’ said my brother. I said, ‘Was it your turtle?’ to get him started. It worked. Pete smiled.”

This conversation takes the reader back to the present and the family waiting in the storm cellar. The framing device demonstrates the novel’s theme of Stories as Sources of Comfort and Connection. The narrator evidently enjoys Pete’s stories and prompts him to start the next one, finding them a welcome distraction. Again, Pete’s decision to tell stories suggests that he is perceptive and has affection for the family members, wanting to comfort them during the storm.

“An hour went by. When Emma Lou went out again, the turtle was gone. You never heard such carrying on. ‘Who took Carey’s turtle? Mama, somebody stole Carey’s turtle!’ I expect you could have heard her all over the county.”

Throughout the novel, Byars balances humorous, low-stakes experiences with the darker themes of loss and natural disaster. This passage is an example of the former, as Byars emphasizes the ridiculous situation of Emma Lou screaming loudly about the turtle. The use of second person language in “you never heard such carrying on” and “you could have heard her all over the county” reminds the reader that the event is taking place within Pete’s story, where the other characters are listening to it in the storm cellar.

“As soon as he dropped the turtle, Tornado went wild. He started running around the yard and around the barn and around the house. Sitting there for an hour with a turtle in his mouth and not knowing what to do with it must have been the worst thing that could happen to a dog. The only thing to do was run it off. Well, it was catching. I started running along with him. Tornado would run around the tree one way and I’d run the other, and when we would almost bump into each other, it would make us run some more.”

This passage characterizes Tornado as having the self-control to wait with the turtle in his mouth, which he finds difficult. Pete empathizes with Tornado. His understanding of how his dog might have been feeling demonstrates their growing connection. Running around the tree together connotes a joyful childhood experience and develops the Power of Human-Animal Connection theme of the novel.

“It got the name because the cat used to come to our house every day at five-thirty to get something to east. We didn’t know where the cat came from, but it would jump up on the windowsill, and my mother would say, ‘Well, it must be five-thirty; here’s the cat.’”

Byars balances day-to-day and dramatic childhood experiences throughout the novel. The inclusion of this detail characterizes the routines and aspects of daily life for Pete’s family. Like Tornado, the cat is named in a very literal manner: Whereas Tornado is named for how he arrived with the family, the cat is named for what time it arrived.

“Before Five-Thirty came along, we had a part-collie named Babe who liked to dig holes anywhere and anytime she felt like it. If she was in the house when the mood hit her, she’d try to dig a hole in the carpet. Now Tornado was not a dog to go around digging for the pure pleasure of digging. If he dug a hole, it was because he needed it. He took a lot of pride in the holes he dug.”

The comparison emphasizes the Power of Human-Animal Connection and the fact that owning a dog is not a general experience but one that is very dependent on the animal’s personality. Tornado is characterized as purposeful and prone to digging holes thoughtfully, at least as Pete sees it. The word choice of pride emphasizes the connection between Pete and Tornado. Here, Tornado is proud of the hole he dug, whereas, in Chapter 3, Pete is proud of the card trick he and Tornado have learned together. This also suggests that Pete empathizes with the dog and potentially projects his own experiences onto the animal.

“I knew what he was doing—he was trying to get the feel and the smell and the memory of that cat out of his special place. And I knew he couldn’t. Even if he dug all the way to China—and he was already twelve inches on the way—when he got there, it would still be Five-Thirty.”

Pete again demonstrates an intimate awareness of what his dog is thinking and feeling in this passage. He empathizes with the dog’s need to erase the memory of the cat from the hole, which had previously been a special place only for him. Byars uses overstatement with the reference to digging all the way to China to emphasize the big feelings and lofty goals that characterize childhood experiences.

“He took the loss of his lying-down hole hard. He never, to my knowledge, went in the pine trees again. Not even when we went in there to cut our Christmas tree—our half of a Christmas tree, I might say. As far as I know, Tornado never dug another hole. And every time Five-Thirty came around, he looked the other way.”

The inclusion of the Christmas tree detail suggests the passage of time and that Tornado was present in the family across seasons and in various important times of Pete’s life. Whereas some of Pete’s assumptions about how Tornado is feeling are not substantiated, this one is aligned with his behavior as well. That Tornado didn’t go in the pine trees again suggests that Pete is right about how his dog is feeling and that his other instances of empathizing with the dog and interpreting Tornado’s thoughts may also be accurate.

“He closed the door and sat down. ‘Do you remember anything else about Tornado?’ I prompted. ‘I remember one time. This was the saddest day of my life. I hate to tell it.’ ‘Please,’ I said.”

Byars uses dialogue to demonstrate the relationship between Pete and the narrator and to emphasize the power of story. The narrator prompts Pete for the story, then when Pete says he “hates to tell it,” pleads for the story anyway. Based on his previous behavior of mentioning a story right before telling it, Pete evidently intends to tell this story in spite of the fact that it makes him sad. The narrator’s request for another story, even a sad one, indicates the continuing fear and need for distraction the family members are experiencing in the storm cellar.

“I stopped where I was. To save my life, I couldn’t have taken another step. The bags of nails fell from my hands onto the sidewalk. It was as if they nailed me down.”

Byars uses gesture to indicate Pete’s emotional state. The paralysis Pete experiences, as well as the fact that he drops the bag of nails, suggest how distraught he is that someone else owns Tornado. Byars uses a simile to suggest that Pete’s inability to move is like being literally nailed to the ground by the fallen nails.

“‘My girl carried on something awful when she found that dog was gone. She’s always been real fond of him. Her grandfather gave him to her.’ ‘My boy’s gotten fond of the dog too,’ my daddy said. There was a long and terrible silence.”

Byars builds suspense in this passage regarding what Pete’s father will do about giving Tornado back to the other family through the gradual dialogue and the long and terrible silence. This creates empathy for Pete, who is observing this scene while feeling unable to move. Characterizing the silence as “terrible” as well as long suggests the emotional weight of the moment.

“‘Let’s go home, Petey,’ he said, using the name he called me when I was little. Then he fell silent. Even my daddy couldn’t find the good in this. The truck was pulling away from the curb. Tornado was in the back. I tried to get one last look at my dog, but my eyes were too full of tears. If my daddy had not helped me into the truck, I’d be standing there to this day.”

This passage is an important moment in Pete and his father’s relationship. Pete’s father is very aware of how Pete feels, which he demonstrates by calling him the nickname he used when Pete was a child. Despite his persistent optimism, as seen when their house loses its roof in the tornado, in this instance, Pete’s father is unable to “find the good in this.” The details of Pete’s eyes being full of tears and that he would still be standing there if his father hadn’t helped him move demonstrate his extreme emotional distress.

“Pete paused to wipe his eyes. That story always made him cry. It made me cry too. I wiped my eyes on my arm and then wiped my arm on my shirt. ‘Go on,’ I urged. He took a deep breath to help himself continue.”

This passage uses physical details to emphasize the connection between Pete and the narrator. As the two “I” speakers in the story—the narrator in the present tense and Pete when he is telling stories—the two characters are paired. In this passage, Pete wipes his eyes, and then the narrator does the same. Byars’s use of repetitive language, like “That story always made him cry. It made me cry too,” emphasizes the similarity between the two characters’ experiences and demonstrates the power of storytelling to prompt strong emotion. Pete still feels emotional about the story, even though it occurred in his childhood and even though Tornado eventually returned. The narrator feels emotional about the story even though it is not his own experience.

“There was an emptiness about my room that matched the one inside me. The whole house seemed empty—the whole outdoors—the whole world.”

Pete understands his emotional distress in relation to his surroundings, noting that his room’s emptiness is representative of his emotional experience of emptiness. The repetition of “the whole” and the use of em dashes for punctuation in the second sentence of the passage indicate the magnified nature of the experience. Pete views his emptiness as growing from the house to the outdoors to the world. The em dashes indicate Pete’s fluid thought process of extending his emptiness from the room to the house to the outdoors to the world.