The Hoosier Schoolmaster E-book- A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana

  The schoolmaster is the hero of this tale in all meanings of the word. He is the central focus of the story and the character we most identify with and admire. The students and community members, on the other hand, are portrayed in either a negative light or, if they are decent people, with a good measure of condescension. Many of them are shown to be schemers who are mean spirited and even villainous. Those with good qualities tend to be portrayed as helpless puppydogs who need the schoolmaster to bring out their good qualities or rescue them from their miserable circumstances. Though the novel is not religious in nature, the author's training and vocation as a minister spreading the gospel pervades this tale, with education standing in for religion. The schoolmaster is a kind of educational missionary who finds his flock in the bondage of ignorance, shows them the enlightened road to knowledge and understanding, then is saved from the evil forces of the community by one of his grateful converts.