Lieutenant Tybalt Baker Character Analysis in The Wednesday Wars

Mrs. Baker's husband, Lieutenant Tybalt Baker, is a soldier with the 101st Airborne Division fighting in Vietnam. When his airplane goes down, Lieutenant Baker is missing for months, but he is found and rescued in June and comes home at the end of the novel. His telegram to Mrs. Baker shows that he's a romantic and a poet. He bought Mrs. Baker the pet rats Sycorax and Caliban as a gift when they were still cute babies.

Lieutenant Tybalt Baker Quotes in The Wednesday Wars

The The Wednesday Wars quotes below are all either spoken by Lieutenant Tybalt Baker or refer to Lieutenant Tybalt Baker. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

It also didn't help that Mrs. Baker kept wiping at her eyes during her grading. She'd told us that she had a terrible cold, but she hardly needed to tell us. Her eyes were mostly red all the time, and the way she blew her nose could be pretty impressive. Sometimes while sitting at her desk, she'd just stop doing whatever she was doing and look somewhere far away, like she wasn't even in the classroom anymore.

Related Characters: Holling Hoodhood (speaker), Mrs. Baker, Lieutenant Tybalt Baker

Page Number and Citation: 161

Explanation and Analysis:

Lieutenant Tybalt Baker Character Timeline in The Wednesday Wars

The timeline below shows where the character Lieutenant Tybalt Baker appears in The Wednesday Wars. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

The Vietnam War and Political Unrest Theme Icon

...her "murderous intentions." Her face doesn't even change when the PA announces that her husband, Lieutenant Tybalt Baker , will be deployed to Vietnam soon, and all the students should wish both Lieutenant... (full context)

...Sycorax and Caliban's cage. Sycorax and Caliban are pet rats. They were cute babies when Lieutenant Tybalt Baker bought them for Mrs. Baker, but they soon got big and scabby, with clacking yellow... (full context)

...Mrs. Baker anxiously watching the images of soldiers in Vietnam, looking for a sign of Lieutenant Baker . Soon after, a nurse X-rays Holling's hips and proclaims him fine but bruised. Mrs.... (full context)

...telegram and read it as they put it on Mrs. Baker's desk. It says that Lieutenant Baker 's helicopter went down, and he's missing in action. (full context)

...shakes his head, while Heather is silent. Holling keeps an eye out for news of Lieutenant Baker , which he believes the entire town is doing as well. (full context)

...learning that American troops have begun Operation Pegasus, an operation to find missing soldiers like Lieutenant Baker . (full context)

...Mrs. Baker light candles. He prays that bombs don't drop on his town and that Lieutenant Baker , Danny, and Heather are safe. When he gets home that afternoon, everyone else is... (full context)

...get a drink of water, and Holling reads the rest of the telegram. It's from Lieutenant Baker himself, saying he'll be home in time for strawberries. (full context)

...end of the school year. She's done this every year, though Holling reasons that since Lieutenant Baker usually went too, he probably liked camping and Mrs. Baker just went for his sake.... (full context)

...that Bobby Kennedy died. Holling thinks that if he hadn't heard the good news about Lieutenant Baker , he would've given up on being a Presbyterian. (full context)

...doesn't sleep that night. He watches the stars and thinks about Mai Thi, Mrs. Bigio, Lieutenant Baker , Danny, and how in five years, he'll have to register for the Vietnam draft.... (full context)

...forbids talking to teachers outside of school and asks Mrs. Baker if she really thinks Lieutenant Baker will be home for strawberries. She says she's sure, agrees that teachers know the future,... (full context)

...he doesn't want to know the future, but he asks how Mrs. Baker knows that Lieutenant Baker will come home. She reminds Holling of Don Pedro, standing alone at the end of... (full context)

Eleven days later, Lieutenant Baker comes home. All of Mrs. Baker's class is on the tarmac holding boxes of strawberries... (full context)