Summary Of Gary Blackwood's Story 'Noah Count And The Arkansas Ark'

In Gary Blackwood’s story, “Noah Count and the Arkansas Ark”, he demonstrates the value of education by showing how the son’s point of view regarding his family’s lack of education changes over the course of the story. In the beginning of the story, the son feels smarter than the rest of his family, because he has had more education than them. In the middle, the son starts to feel embarrassed by his family because of the way that others talk about them. In the end, the son starts to feel more appreciative towards his family because they were right all along.

At the beginning of the story, the son feels smarter than his family. He feels this way because he has had more education than them. As it states in paragraph 7, “I sighed. “Them things got no basis at all in science.” I’d been going to school for a while, you see, and thought I knew just about everything. . .” he thought he knew almost everything. Another example of this is in paragraph 4, ““Rain?” I said. “There’s nary a cloud in the sky!” Which shows that he thought that he knew more than he did at that time.

An example of this is in paragraph 12 when they were talking about the name that the Father had gotten from the other citizens, Noah Count, “To me it was just downright embarrassing.” In paragraph 13, it also provides evidence of the son’s embarrassment, “Lucky for me school was out, or I’d’ve had my hands full, fighting all the boys that would’ve called my Daddy crazy.” Which shows that the son feels embarrassed to even be seen with his own family because of how they are treated like they are