# Miss Nancy Sawyer — The Hoosier Schoolmaster character guide

> Miss Nancy Sawyer in The Hoosier Schoolmaster by Edward Eggleston.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Miss Nancy, kissing good Miss Nancy Sawyer, Nancy Sawyer, Miss Sawyer

**First appearance:** 0023-xxi-miss-nancy-sawyer

## Snapshot

Miss Nancy Sawyer opens her door to the half-starved Shocky when no one else will, choosing catnip-tea and sore-eyed strangers over the tidier claims of respectability.

## Who they are

Miss Nancy Sawyer is the neighbor whose unglamorous charity keeps Shocky housed and fed, drawing quiet criticism from Aunt Matilda for neglecting the means of grace to wait on everybody. Her willingness to take in a pauper child, and her readiness to fetch his half-blind mother, exposes the gap between Flat Creek's professed Christianity and its practiced stinginess. She matters because her small mercies give Ralph a moral ally and Shocky a refuge while the schoolmaster's own troubles gather.

## In the story

### [XXI: Miss Nancy Sawyer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_hoosier_schoolmaster_se/chapters/xxi-miss-nancy-sawyer)

Ralph's former Sunday-school teacher, a kind and motherly spinster who takes in Shocky.

### [A Charitable Institution](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_hoosier_schoolmaster_se/chapters/xxiii-a-charitable-institution)

Generously offers to house Shocky's mother and urges Ralph to fetch her.

### [XXIV: The Good Samaritan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_hoosier_schoolmaster_se/chapters/xxiv-the-good-samaritan)

Exemplifies true Christian charity, using her slender income to help others and orchestrating the rescue of Mrs. Thomson and Shocky from the poorhouse.

### [Into the Light](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_hoosier_schoolmaster_se/chapters/xxxiii-into-the-light)

Facilitates Ralph and Hannah's meeting and rejoices in their happiness.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_hoosier_schoolmaster_se/characters/miss_nancy_sawyer
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_hoosier_schoolmaster_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_hoosier_schoolmaster_se/characters