Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Grapevine
I liked these two stories because to me there were easier to read than the others we have gone over. The language is different than some would like to read but I liked it because I grew up around a bunch of cajuns and could here every word pretty well in my head. The story of Henry was fun with the story of the bewitched land and that if you ate the grapes you would be killed within the year. If the story would have just started out with Uncle Julius then there would not have been the white people who are curious on the land and without them the readers might not have found the story less appealing to read if it was just a crazy story of magic and beliefs of blacks in the time. Without the care of the white family to get the land they wanted to make them succeed the book might not have sold and therefore the way the story was written to sell I would imagine.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Wes,
ReplyDeleteThat's really cool that you could understand the reading well. I personally had a hard time understanding the first story, "The Goopherd Grapevine's" dialect. But, I could follow it for the most part and definetly agree that it was easier than some of the previous stories we have read to follow. I also thought the way the story was written was to hold the reader's attention throughout and make us wonder if the new comers would end up believing Julius's story or decide to leave! I found the story entertaining as well and continously wondered what was going to happen to the characters and plantation in the story.
I thought some of the dialect was difficult to read, but now that you mention it, I can perfectly understand how the words were pronounced by characters such as Uncle Julius.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the thought that the way it writting was mainly focused on the objected to sell the book. It was prodominately written for white middle class people, because they were in fact the group that were reading at the time. Though i also believe that the book did well because of the way that Chesnutt presented the story to the audience. "Grapevine" was writen in a more upbeat and enjoyable fashion, while his second story "The Sheriff's Children" was a more direct and political style of writing.
ReplyDeleteI like how you considered the fact that the main story needed to be white in order to be a profitable text. It parallels the idea in that "Our Nig" was lost for 120 years because the narrator was not white. If makes you question if this text had been only narrated by someone who was black if it would have been lost in the archives like "Our Nig" had.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to me that you liked the dialect in these stories. I suppose I was one of the only ones, but i found the Grapevine VERY hard to read. If i read it aloud it got a little easier but was very difficult for the most part. I agree that the white character's voice was added so that the Sheriff's CHildren would sell to the while poplutaion
ReplyDeleteIt was great. I like it. Please share. Thank you.
ReplyDeletewww.bloglovin.com
This is my blog Try going in | ufabet | ไก่ชน | บาคาร่า
ReplyDelete