Line #25 Literature/TheYearling


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4	[[quoteright:312:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_yearling.png]]
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6	''The Yearling'' is a 1938 UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize-winning novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, which was made into a 1946 film (directed by Clarence Brown, starring Creator/GregoryPeck and Creator/JaneWyman), a 1983 anime series (''Kojika Monogatari'') and a 1994 TV series (starring Peter Strauss and Creator/JeanSmart).
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8	Ezra Baxter (Peck, Strauss) and his wife Ora (Wyman, Smart) live on a hardscrabble farm in the backwoods of central Florida, along with their preteen son Jody, in 1878. Ezra is a loving father but Ora, haunted by the memory of her other children who died in infancy (six in the novel, three in the film), has a hard time showing affection for her son.
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10	Jody, who has pestered his parents for a pet, finally gets a deer, with the support of his father and the grudging acceptance of his mother. Jody forms a deep bond with his little "yearling", whom he names Flag. But when Flag starts getting into the family's crops, he becomes a serious problem for the Baxters, who need to harvest their crops to survive.
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12	----
13	!!Tropes:
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15	* AdaptationalAttractiveness: The Baxter parents are described as being rather plain in the book, but are portrayed by two attractive young actors in the movie.
16	* {{Bambification}}: Jody and his pet deer, whom he names Flag. As per the trope, Flag is a darling and deeply lovable at first. Then the trope is subverted when Flag grows to eat the Baxters out of house and home, becoming too dangerous to keep and too tame to drive away. Killing the deer symbolizes the end of Jody's innocence.
17	* BearsAreBadNews: Old Slewfoot the bear will sometimes eat the Baxters' livestock.
18	* ABoyAndHisX: A boy and his fawn. %% Add more context to describe their relationship and what effect it has on them. %%
19	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Jody returns, but Flag is dead and the novel implies that Ezra might not recover from his illness.]]
20	* CirclingVultures: How Jody finds the fawn. The vultures are circling over its mother.
21	* ComingOfAgeStory: One of the themes is Jody growing up and accepting adult responsibility. At the end, Ezra notes that he's not a yearling anymore.
22	* CueTheSun: When the sun finally comes out after six days of rain that have badly damaged the crops, it's a dramatic moment, complete with a fancy long shot and a soaring musical cue.
23	* DeathByNewberyMedal: Really, that deer had to die.
24	* DeathOfAChild: Jody's little buddy Fodderwing dies. And then there's all the other Baxter children who died in the backstory.
25	* DeterminedHomesteader: Ezra, hacking out his small farm in the jungles of Florida.
26	* DownOnTheFarm: A tiny little farm that Ezra has hacked out of the wilderness of central Florida.
27	* TheFilmOfTheBook: Seven Oscar nominations, winning for Art Direction and Cinematography (color).
28	* [[GenderBlenderName Gender-Bender Nickname]]: Ezra's nickname is "Penny" in the books because of his height. You can probably guess why a good deal of adaptations leave this out.
29	* PetBabyWildAnimal: Jody takes in Flag after its mother is killed by Penny. [[spoiler:He's later forced to kill it after it grows to become a problem.]]
30	* SchmuckBait: After Ezra and his two hunting dogs nearly kill Old Slewfoot the bear, only for Ezra's gun to misfire, Ezra decides he needs a better gun. Ezra goes to see the Forresters. Without ever saying anything untrue, he manages to convince Lem Forrester that a third dog, which is actually quite harmless, is an excellent hunting dog. Lem Forrester trades him a gun for the dog.
31	* ShooTheDog: After his father tells Jody to kill Flag the deer, after Flag has wrecked their tobacco crop and two of their corn crops, Jody instead tries to shoo Flag away. Unfortunately Flag comes back, leading to...
32	* ShootTheDog: Ora does, but being a poor shot, she only wounds it. Jody has to put his deer out of its misery.
33	* SuckOutThePoison: After being bitten by a rattlesnake, Ezra does this for himself. Then he has Jody shoot a nearby deer and cut out the liver to leach the poison out. Apparently it works--and this is how Jody acquires the deer. Flag the fawn is the dead deer's orphan.
34	* TitleDrop: A "yearling" is an adolescent deer. The word gets applied to Jody as well.
35	* TokenGoodTeammate: Fodder-Wing and Buck to the Forresters.
36	* WouldHitAGirl: Jody has no qualms for it, as when he throws a potato at Eulalie Boyle [[DisproportionateRetribution for simply making fun of him]].

Context Literature / TheYearling