Man without a face...

Despite the fear and doubt that is raised in Norstadt by the rumors, he has hope.  He trusts and has faith in McLeod because he wants to learn.  Norstadt feels as though as if McLeod teaching him will be the only way he can become as smart as his sisters.  Norstadt is not very intelligent compared to his younger sister which bothers him and he wants some freedom of choice to be educated his own way.  Everyone has their own mind.  Rumors may question your mentality, but they should not make up your mind.  Your heart decides whether or not someone is trustworthy.  When Norstadt is with his friends and they began to talk about McLeod negatively, Norstadt did not know what to say and he would sit there with the dull look in his eyes.  I believe that the dull facial expressions he had were battles between his heart and mind.  He would want to believe that McLeod was bad and he should not learn from him, but his heart would want to put his trust in McLeod that nothing bad would happen to him either.  Norstadt is eager to learn and he just desires to be as intelligent as his peers, so that adrenaline of understanding and comprehending his educational studies shows the tenacious mentality he has to accomplish his endeavors.  McLeod does not want Norstadt to believe what other people say because everything people says is not true.  But he questions Norstadt because if he believed what people said, then McLeod would know whether or not Norstadt was actually interested in education.