Mr. Carpenter

 Mr. Carpenter is an eighty-two-year-old widower who is focused on controlling how he spends his last days. Because he is feeling weaker and believes that he can no longer live alone in his modest two-room home in Baltimore County, he decides to move in with his daughter Clara while waiting for a spot at an old folks’ home. To that end, Carpenter wakes up early one Saturday morning and begins to walk along the superhighway to her home in Baltimore. The effort takes much out of him, but he is picked up by a young motorcycle rider. Carpenter finds the ride thrilling and fulfilling, a last taste of freedom before living with his daughter’s family, finding an old folks’s home, and moving there.

 Tyler explains his motivation by writing, ‘‘He had chosen independence. Nothing else had even occurred to him. . . . He could have chosen to die alone of neglect, but for his daughters that would have been a burden too—a different kind of burden, much worse.’’ For Carpenter, independence means living at a home with few possessions, needing no care from attendants, and not being a burden on anyone. In the end, Carpenter gets his wish and is dropped off at the home by Clara and Francie. Though his roommate, Mr. Pond, does not share circumstances, Carpenter is content to end his days there living on his terms, ‘‘gracefully till the moment of my defeat.’’

 Clara

 Clara is one of Mr. Carpenter’s four daughters. She is nearly fifty years old, married to a salesman, and the mother of six children. The fleshy, caring Clara lives in a stone house in Baltimore. She is surprised when her father shows up at her door on the back of a motorcycle. When Clara learns that her father wants to live in an old folks’ home, she is upset, as she and her family had planned that he would live with them when he could not continue to live alone. Though Clara does find him placement in a home, she tries to change his mind, but to no avail. Driving to the home for the elderly in tears, she gives into her father’s wishes and leaves him there.

 Clara’s Husband

 Clara’s husband is Carpenter’s son-in-law and works as a salesman. Like his wife and children, he tries to change Carpenter’s mind about moving to an old folks’ home. Every night that Carpenter is in his home, his son-in-law says, ‘‘Is it that you think you’re not welcome here? You are, you know. You were one of the reasons we bought this big house.’’ Despite such efforts, Carpenter goes into the home.

 Francie

 Francie is Mr. Carpenter’s thirteen-year-old granddaughter. She is Carpenter’s favorite grandchild. He enjoys listening to her talk about boys and love without self-consciousness. However, when Francie begins to question him about the past—which he regards as an attempt to change his mind about living in the home by showing the value of his life—Carpenter will not give an inch. Francie goes with her mother to drop him off at the old folks’ home, holding his hand tightly the whole way there and hugging him just as hard when they leave him in his room.

 Lady in Blue

 The lady in blue is the intake person at the old folks’ home to which Carpenter is taken. She checks him in, takes him to his room, and introduces him to his new roommate, Mr. Pond.

 Motorcycle Rider

 Early in ‘‘With All Flags Flying,’’ a motorcycle rider stops along the superhighway in Baltimore County to offer Mr. Carpenter a ride. He is a young man with long hair and a ‘‘shabby’’ appearance. Carpenter accepts the ride and enjoys the freedom he feels as a passenger on the bike. The motorcycle rider takes Mr. Carpenter into Baltimore and drops him off at Clara’s house.

 Mr. Pond

 Mr. Pond is Carpenter’s roommate at the old folks’ home. Described as fat and balding in his old age, Pond has been sent to the home by his son because his daughter-in-law is pregnant. Unlike Carpenter, Pond does not want to be at the home. Sitting in a rocking chair and reading the Bible, Pond offers the bed by the window to his new roommate, even though he has been using it himself. Carpenter ultimately takes him up on his offer and explains why he wants to be at the home, to which Pond replies ‘‘If you don’t care about being loved, how come it would bother you to be a burden?’’ Carpenter has no reply.

 Lollie Simpson

 Lollie Simpson is a schoolteacher Carpenter once knew. He admires her greatly for her simple plan for her senior citizen years. Though ‘‘thin and pale’’ at the time, she wanted to spend her last days sitting in an armchair, reading magazines, eating as much homemade fudge as she wants, and getting fat as she likes without any regrets or cares in the world. Carpenter’s plan for independence is greatly inspired by her.

Source:

Sara Constantakis – Short Stories for Students – Presenting Analysis, Context & Criticism on Commonly Studied Short Stories, vol. 31, Anne Tyler, Published by Gale Group, 2010