We have now spent two full periods reading Borden Deal's short story "The Taste of Watermelon" but have not yet finished with our reading. For the first part of the period today, let's finish reading the story. Though the story's conclusion is very interesting, we won't spend to much time today discussing it. Instead, we will spend the final portion of the period beginning to write a "SCASI" essay about the story. This essay is to be completed before Friday, 4 December. This should only take about 20-25 minutes of homework time. If you haven't done so already, also be sure that you have memorized Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Sonnet 29" before our next class!
Taste of Watermelon
ReplyDeleteTaste of Watermelon is written by Borden Deal. Taste of Watermelon is written in the year of 1979. It is a short story. He is an American author who is dead! He has been dead 25 years.
The Taste of Watermelon is set in the country side where a bunch of farmers live. It is set in the states because of the language used. For example ‘golly’ and ‘gosh’. It is set in around the 1970s, the time it was written in.
There are 4 main characters I would say. There is Mr. Will who is an old man who is a farmer and every night he guards his huge watermelon with a gun. Then there is a boy who steals the watermelon and eats it up with his friends. He then after he steals it feels really bad and collects the seeds from the floor and gives them to Mr. Wills
The story is basically about a boy who steals the watermelon from Mr. Wills and together with his friends; Freddy, Gary, and J.D., they eat as much as they can of the watermelon and destroy whatever is left. The boy goes home and watches Mr. Wills as he realizes that his watermelon has been stolen. He freaks out and starts destroying all the other watermelons and the boy after a night of not sleeping together with his dad collects all the seeds he could find and gives them to Mr. Wills to plant a field of watermelons for the following year. Mr. wills accepts his apology and is pleased to hear that the boy would love to help Mr. Wills in planting all these seeds. Mr. Wills is happy .
The author uses 1st person. I personally prefer reading stories written in first person so I as the reader can make a character. When a story is written in first person it is usually more emotional and personal. The language used in this story is pleasant. It is not to formal or informal. The dialogue is funny as it is written in Old American Farmer Language like when they use ‘golly’ and ‘gosh’ I find it very amusing. There isn’t too much description in this story which I absolutely hate so
I think the main point of this story is to entertain. Yes there is a morale behind everything like in this case it is basically don’t steal and if you do have the courage and decency to own up. But still it seems to me as if the idea of this story is that the writer wanted to write a story that would interest people and they would enjoy reading it. I don’t think that he wanted to send a message across to his readers.
It was a great story and I really enjoyed it. It was a bit on the longish side but still enjoyable. The idea was original and really interesting to read. There was a good amount of suspense in this story and it was balanced out between boring bits and funny of interesting bits. As I said before the description wasn’t over done which I can’t stand so on a whole it deserves a
oh yes all the boxes are smiley faces :)
ReplyDeleteThe Taste of Watermelon
ReplyDelete“The Taste of Watermelon” is a short story written by Boren Deal in 1979. It is about the narrator, a 16 year old boy, goes off and steals Mr. Wills’ ‘Seed Melon’ an incredibly large watermelon. He had just moved to this area and wanted to prove things to the people and his new friends. He wants to challenge Mr. Wills.
It is set in somewhere in the South of the USA in the late 1970s or early 1980s. It is set in a small town, we know this because the way he describes the town, and the fact that it is only a small neighborhood. It is mostly set during the night, with a full moon lighting up the area.
The main character is the narrator, a young 16 year old boy who has just moved to this town. He wants to prove himself to his friends and to Willadean, a girl he likes. He also wants to defy Mr. Wills. His friends, J.D. and Freddy Gray seem to support him in what he does, but are not sure of him yet. Mr. Wills is a very enthusiastic farmer who grows very good watermelons. He has grown his head melon and does anything he can to protect it. There is also Willadean but we do not get a lot of detail about her. There is also the narrator’s Mother and Father. We do not know much about his mother but we know his father is a very supportive and understanding person.
Part #1
It starts with the narrator thinking back to the summer when we went to steal the melon. It says how they all think Willadean is attractive. Then the narrator and his friends go out for a swim in the river and they marvel over the very bright moon. The narrator gets caught up with talking about the seed melon and decides to go and steal it. He says that he gets the taste of watermelon in his mouth, but then it turns to the taste of fear. His friends tell him that there is Double-ought buckshot in Mr. Wills’ shotgun but he thinks it is only salt. Mr. Wills is asleep when he goes to steal the melon. He crawls in to the melon and rolls it to the cover of a tree where his friends are without a problem. They go to eat it but they cannot finish it. He gets caught up and smashes up the remaining melon. He goes to his house where he sees Mr. Wills wake up and see that his melon is gone. Mr. Wills lets out a howl and runs around destroying his melons. The narrator’s father runs to stop him but Mr. Wills punches him and he falls over but he keeps trying. Eventually Mr. Wills calms down and goes into his house but before that the narrator runs into his house and goes to his room, scared of Mr. Wills. He doesn’t sleep that night. When he wakes up he gets a bag and picks up the seeds from where he smashed the melon and asks his father to come with him to tell Mr. Wills what he did and give him some of the seeds. When he goes he asks to see Mr. Wills and he looks horrible. He tells him that he stole it and offers the seeds. After a bit of talking Mr. Wills agrees that he himself did as much damage as the narrator did. The narrator asks if he wants help with next summer’s crop and he agrees as he never had a helper because he did not have a son. He also asks at the end whether the gun had real shot in it or if it was just salt and it was just salt.
ReplyDeleteThe story is written in the first person and there is some ambiguity to who the narrator is as we do not hear a name. It would be very easy to not mention in his name in something written in the first person. It is written as if it were in the South of the USA and anywhere between the 1960 to the early 1980s. The way he uses a hyperbole to show that it was taking a long time to get to the melon was good.
It is obviously hinting towards the theme of a teenage rebel trying to prove things to his friends and a girl. In the beginning it shows that the whole story was a memory of when the narrator 16 in the summertime. He wants to show that everyone was stealing watermelons and it was a game. He also wanted to show that teenagers do some stupid things when they get caught up with proving themselves to their friends and to adults.
I enjoyed this story a lot. It was a very strange story but you could see where it was going. It was strange in the beginning with the title and the theme being about watermelon. I think that the writer was relating to what happened in this story, probably not very much like this story.
Part #2
The Taste of Watermelon.
ReplyDelete‘The Taste of Watermelon’ was a short story written by Borden Deal in 1979. The story is about a young sixteen year old boy who wants to prove himself to his friends by stealing Mr.Wills’ Seed Melon which Is Mr.Wills’ Largest Watermelon. He also does this to ‘challenge’ himself and to try and get Willadean, Mr.Wills’ Daughter.
The story is set in the southern region of the US and it is in the late 1970s. It is set in a small farming town, as the boy describes ‘All the other fathers’ work as farmers unlike his dad. It is mostly set at night but there are parts in which day is the setting of the story.
The main character of the story is a sixteen year old boy, who has just moved to this small village and is trying to gain his friends, J.D and Freddy Greys Respect. He very much likes Willadean, Mr.Wills daughter but finds it hard to ask her out because of Mr.Wills. He is a brave young lad as he steals Mr.Wills’ Seed Melon and his friends J.D and Freddy Grey support him when he does this. Mr.Wills is a very Strong man, and he grows melon seeds in his back yard, he is very protective about them so he guards them with a shotgun loaded with salt rocks. Willadean is Mr.Wills daughter and she seems to be quite nice, nothing like her father and lastly there is Sam, the narrator’s father, Sam is a small man compared to Mr.Wills but he is kind and supports his son in every way when he goes to apologies to Mr.Wills.
It starts off with the narrator talking about when he first moved here and how his friends still don’t ‘Trust’ him yet. He then goes on and talks about Willadean and how all three of them like her, the narrator and his friends decide to go out for a midnight swim at the lake and after spending time at the lake, the narrator decides to steal Mr.Wills’ Seed Melon. His friends go to back him up by staying in some bushes watching while the narrator crawls towards the Large melon, after getting the melon to move down the grove that the narrator had made coming up J.D and Freddy gave him a hand rolling the melon towards the lake where they would eat only a small amount of it before they became full. They decide to smash the melon as the narrator thinks it’s the only way but once they all leave and the narrator returns home to find Mr.Wills frantically looking for his Melon, he becomes terrified. The narrators father decides to stop Mr.Wills before he hurts someone but ends up getting thrown about, after a while Mr.Wills stops and the narrator runs home because he can’t bear seeing Mr.Wills like this. The next morning the narrator goes out and finds the seeds of the melon that he destroyed and asks his father if he would accompany him to Mr.Wills’ house to apologies. Mr.Wills looks like a wreck when he comes to the door, and when the narrator apologies’ to Mr.Wills he seems to be angry and questions him about why he did it. Mr.Wills eventually says that it is his fault aswell as the narrators so he forgives him, the narrator then says that he will gladly help Mr.Wills plant the seeds for next year’s crop. The narrator then asks another question about if his shotgun was filled with double-ought buckshot, Mr.Wills breaks one of the shells and salt comes out of the bullet.
ReplyDeleteThe story is written in the first person so we do not get any idea of the name of the narrator, it is also hard to tell exactly where the narrator has set his story as there is no indication of a place where the narrator is staying. It is also hard to tell the year in which the story is set as again there is no indication on the year, but from what is written it is probably set in the late 1970s, early 1980s.
The story seems to talk/hint about Teenage Rebels in the 1900s, and how it was sometimes used to prove your worth to your friends, the story is a memory of the narrator when he turned sixteen and notices certain things about girls. The story also shows how some things teenagers do are stupid as they do not think of other consequences rather than the obvious ones.
I liked the story very much as there was the nice twist at the end where the ‘Big, Mean, Man’ has a kind nature underneath when you get to know them, I also quite enjoyed it as it was not too difficult to understand and it was easily followed. All in all I liked the setting and how everything was described.
“The Taste of Watermelon” was written by Borden Deal (an American novelist) in 1979, who has also written many other novels and short stories. This story is more in the realistic-fiction category. It is mainly about a young boys craving for the taste of watermelon, thrills, and how they grew up on the country side.
ReplyDeleteThe story, “The Taste of Watermelon”, was probably set in the country side somewhere in the USA, seeing as that was where Borden Deal had lived his whole life. There are many melon patches full of many delicious melons, and there are “water holes” where the narrator and his friends, J.D. and Freddy Gray, go swimming. It is set in the summer when the narrator was 16, but there is no clear date as to when that was.
The characters in the story include: The narrator himself, Willadean, Mr. Wills, Sam (the narrators father), J.D., and Freddy Gray. The narrator of the story was sixteen when he had stolen the watermelon, and he is friends with J.D. and Freddy. Willadean is a girl that goes to the school that the boys’ attend as well, and they seem to be interested in her, she is also the daughter of Mr. Wills. Mr. Wills is a farmer, who owns the best pumpkin patch where you are able to find very tasty watermelons. He is the one that supplies the ‘best watermelon in town’. Sam is the narrators father, but isn’t described very well. J.D. and Freddy Gray are the friends of the Narrator, and don’t give him (the narrator) that welcome feeling at first because they were by themselves before.
Part ONE
The story starts out with the boys discussing Willadean and how they wouldn’t even dare to approach her, seeing as she was the daughter of Mr. Wills. “We were all afraid of Mr. Wills.” But although they were afraid of Mr. Wills, they still enjoyed tasting the watermelons that he grew. So, one day they see a huge watermelon sitting right in the middle of Mr. Wills pumpkin patch, all big and plump. It was Mr. Wills’ seed melon, the one whose seeds he was going to use to plant next year’s crop. So, to try and show that he had courage, the narrator came up with the ‘brilliant’ idea to go and steal the watermelon. J.D. and Freddy Gray (the friends) think he is crazy, or that he might get himself killed because Mr. Wills had a gun (which they thought was filled with actual bullets instead of salt) and looked ready to use it. So, the Narrator gathers up his courage and ends up crawling over to the huge melon and steals it himself. Then him and the boys barely eat a third of it, become full, and then literally destroy the watermelon by smashing it up as much as they could. Of course, they felt sad about not having eaten at least half of the juicy watermelon. Then later, when Mr. Wills finds out his watermelon had been stolen, he cries out like an animal which frightens the narrator and everyone who’d heard it. When Mr. Wills explained that he needed that watermelon not only to have seeds for the next crop, but wanted to let his wife (who was sick) to taste the watermelon, the narrator felt bad. So, the next day, the narrator went over to Mr. Wills’ house with his dad (in fear of getting killed) to confess that he had taken the watermelon and that he felt sorry for his actions. Then he offered to plant next year’s crop with him, and Mr. Wills gratefully accepted the help with a smile, and did not kill the narrator (like he thought Mr. Wills would.)
ReplyDeleteThe story itself is told in the narrator’s point of view, retelling a story that happened to him when he was younger. It explains how it was to grow up as a boy in that time, on the countryside, and how tempting it was to do things that were thrilling and not allowed. One of those things could be stealing a watermelon, because that is exactly what he did. He was very descriptive and explained well how it felt to want to just test someone of authority, or higher authority than himself, and the want to do something that he normally probably wouldn’t have. The author also used hyperbole quite a few times. One time was when the author was stealing the watermelon from Mr. Wills’ crop. He says, “It took about a hundred years to push that melon out of the field.” As to show how long it took to get the melon to move.
The theme, or the Idea, of the story was basically about growing up and becoming more mature as you do so. It shows how, as you mature, you feel more guilty about the actions you take and that it makes you think more clearly. And since it is told in the first person, with the narrator looking back on the summer he was 16, it shows that he still remembers how guilty he felt even years after it.
I thought this story was very well written, and wasn’t as boring as I thought it would be. I didn’t expect to read about someone stealing a watermelon, or how hard it would actually be to do so. So the story was a good read, but I thought it was a little too long on some points. I also liked how realistic the story was, and wasn’t just someone’s thoughts on certain things. Overall, I think this story was great.
--Tatiana T.
The Taste of Watermelon
ReplyDeleteEssay
The story was written by Borden Deal, who died in 1985. He was an American novelist and writer of short stories. The story was set in the United States of America in a small village of the countryside.
The main characters in the short story were, Freddy Grey and J.D. who are the narrators friends, Mr. Wills who is the father of the beautiful girl, and of course the beautiful girl – Willadean. The narrator has known his guy friends, Freddy Grey and J.D. for years since he moved to this place and started going to school. Willadean is this girl that the narrator is interested in, she is tall and slender. Mr. Wills who is Willadean’s father who everybody was afraid of. He has bright, fierce eyes under heavy eyebrows.
The story is about this boy (the narrator) who moved to this certain place and started going to school, was never interested into girls, but he did have an eye on this girl called Willadean. Last year she was nothing compared to who she is now. The narrator mentions how her walk started to turn him on, and how beautiful she really was. But he was afraid to get close to her, cause of her father Mr. Wills who would shake anybody’s soul inside them, with his yelling and always being angry. He had been growing this specific watermelon for a really long time but the narrator decides to steal it at night, most probably to get closer to Willadean, to show that he is not afraid of Mr. Wills where as he really is. He brings his friends Freddy Gray and J.D. with him for support and to help him out, the boys tell him not to do this terrible thing, but unfortunately, he does it. In the end Mr. Wills gets sad after finding out that his watermelon has been kidnapped and bursts out into tears. The narrator does not get closer to Willadean unfortunately and doesn’t even try anymore.
The style of the story is written in 3rd person. It uses a lot of hyperbole sentences to make it sound and look more dramatic has really warm atmosphere which really gives the love atmosphere away, which explains a lot of details in certain paragraphs of the story ‘The taste of watermelon’.
Maybe the narrator would be able to add some alliteration to make it seem more dramatic. And I would add some more details about the characters to get a much better idea of the characters and be able to picture the characters in your head, to make it seem much easier to you.
I enjoyed reading this story. I found it interesting because of the theme of the story, which is basically – love. Because this boy (the narrator) is in love with this girl Willadean and to get closer to her, he decides to steal her father’s watermelon which he had been growing for a really long time. As well as making him extremely mad for once to see the father’s reaction. In the end, the father burst into tears and was very sad for losing his ‘baby’ watermelon; he loved his watermelon so much that Willadean thought he loved the watermelon more than his own daughter. It just really interested me. Want to read more of these stories.
By Christina Lomakina
The taste of watermelon
ReplyDeleteThe taste of water melon seemed to take place in a somewhat western town in America. Seeing by the speech and how the author described the characters you can tell that it was written quite long ago. The author Borden Deal writ the story to persuade an old western touch (Tennessee/ Texas). Borden Deal was writing the story in first person. The main character tried stealing the crazy mans seed melon.
The characters in the story where Willadean who was the daughter of Mr. Wills (the guy who got his melon stolen), Mrs. Wills, considering that the story was written in 1st person the characters parents where named mom and dad, There where the two friends Freddy Gray & J.D, and of course the main character.
The actions that took place in the story basically set the stories plot. First of all the 3 friends started to notice small things about Willadean such as the way she walked and talked, Following that there was the boys discussing how and when to steal the melon down at the swimming hole. Then whilst leaving the Creek the main character decides to go and steal Mr.Wills seed melon. This then lead to the destruction of the melon after the three boys couldn’t eat it all. Mr.Wills then went berserk after realizing that his melon was stolen. After a huge confrontation between dad and Mr.Wills the main character decided to face Mr.Wills and give some of the seeds that he could salvage from the water melon massacre.
The style of the story was written in first person in whom the author got the fact of being a teenager is all about sitting back and enjoying life. He doesn’t mention school in school or anything so in this he was saying that life’s a game play it well. The style was written in a very chilled language.
The main idea of the story was again to say that life’s fun. It was also about stealing melons and winning the heart of Willadean by doing something completely stupid and making it up to the person you did the thing to(telling the truth)
Ryan
Evita Otigbah
ReplyDeleteThe Taste of watermelon
“The taste of Watermelon” was written by Borden Deal an American novelist that was born in 1922. The story was written in 1979.
The story takes place in the countryside of America where there are lot of farms and a lot of people plant watermelons. The main action takes place at night during the summer time.
The main characters in the story are Mr. Wills who planted a really big watermelon the teenagers of the town are scared of him and the narrator but in the story we are not told his name he referred to as boy or you he is a sixteen year old boy. Then there are sub characters like Freddy grey and J.D the narrator’s friends. Willadean the daughter of Mr. Wills the boys like checking her out and she has a mum called Mrs. Wills. There is also the narrator’s dad who compared to Mr. Wills is a small man.
The narrator goes down to the water hole with his friends J.D and Freddy Grey, they get onto the subject about the watermelon and how Mr. Wills’ gun is not filled with salt but an actual bullet and that he would kill anyone that tried to steal his big watermelon. The narrator reacts to this statement and his friends ask him if he was planning to steal the watermelon and he says yes. The moon was in the sky and the night was as bright as day. Then the narrator even adds that he was going to go do it at that instant. The narrator manages to seek into the patch by crawling in and he roles the water melon out of the patch and his friends help him take it to the water hole, there they eat it and they can’t finish it so they jump on it and destroy it. When the narrator goes home he sees Mr. Wills has noticed that his watermelon is missing and he is in rage. The narrator then goes to bed and wakes up early in the morning and walks down to the water hole and collects the seeds of the watermelon and asks his dad to go with him to see Mr. Wills. The narrator then tells Mr. Wills that he stole and ate the watermelon and that he will help plant it with him for next year.
The story is told in the first person. The style theme of the story is a sense of adventure and triumph. The style is really interesting because the narrator just had to steal the watermelon and destroy it. It was the only thing that made sense to him. Like he wanted to show Mr. Wills that he could steal it and his friends that it was serious. There is a lot of in speech used in the story and also there are examples of hyperboles “It took about a hundred ye4rs to push that melon out of the field” because it did not actually take a hundred years but it seemed like a long time.
The main idea of the story is I think accomplishing a goal. Like for the narrator he would have regretted and he would not have felt right if he did not steal the watermelon and have the sense of pride that he stole from Mr. Wills and he confessed about it in front of Willadean.
Overall I really enjoyed reading the story it was humorous. It also gives the readers and insight of what sixteen year old boys think about doing in their free time.
Nathan back
ReplyDeleteThe Taste of Watermelon a short story wrote by Borden Deal published in the (1979)
The story is set in the United States in a small village where growing Watermelons takes place each year. The boys of the village try to steal the water melons this is not seen as a crime but the farmers guard the crops with shot guns loaded with salt so it won’t kill but it will hurt if you get caught. Stealing water melons has almost become a tradition.
The main character a sixteen year boy who moved to the village with his parents. He goes to school with his friends Freddy Grey, J.D and Willadean. Willadean is a girl who the boys have a crush on, her dad Mr. Wills has the best water melon patch in the town and he has a giant seed melon growing in the centre. Mr. Wills does not share his melons with the other people and guards his seed melon day and night with his shotgun.
The action takes place on a moonlit night. The Narrator and his friends go out to swim in the creek when they start talking about the giant seed melon of Mr. Wills when the Narrator says he is going to steal the melon. He says this because he does not feel that accepted by his friends and he wants to challenge the older man also in a confused way he wants to prove something to Willadean. So he goes alone into Mr. Wills back garden his friends wait outside in fear because they believe that Mr. Wills has his gun loaded with real bullets, so he crawls to the centre were the seed melon lies he breaks the stem and roles the massive melon out of the field and hopes Mr. Wills does not wake from his guard spot on the porch. They manage to carry the melon away and they eat all that they can and stomp the rest into the ground. Mr. Wills wakes and goes crazy about the loss of his seed melon and destroys the rest of his crop by stomping on them.
Borden Deal has used a very effective style and captured the feelings of a teenage boy. By making the Narrator do a risky dare devil thing to gain recognition with his friends and himself. Borden Deal has also put in things that are a bit of a mystery to the reader for example when the boys finish eating all the melon they could, they stomp the rest into the ground and say “There was nothing else to do” this is portraying the characters of the sixteen year old boys and the way they feel. Also the way he ends they story is very interesting. With an almost idealistic ending where they Narrator confess about what he has done and is forgiven and Mr. Wills turns out not to be as bad as he seem and speaks and laughs about what has happened and says he was intending to share the melon with everyone else and it turns out he loaded his gun with salt not real bullets like people had believed.
The story has a moral but I think it is only the small part of the story and the main idea is to create and interesting story that people will enjoy. The moral is saying people are not as bad as they can seam and that if you have done something bad and you feel guilty own up.
I enjoyed reading the story and particularly like the ending and the description given when they are stealing the melon.
SCASI Essay – 'The Taste Of Watermelon'
ReplyDeleteThis essay is about a short story called “The Taste Of Watermelon” by Borden Deal in the year of 1979.
This story isn't set in a specific location, but we do know it is probably somewhere in one of the southern states of the USA. It is where most of the men's occupations are farming and raising watermelons. The time is somewhere around the 1970's in the summer.
The characters in the story include the narrator, a 16-year old boy who just moved to this place with his family the other year. Then there are his two best friends Freddy Gray and J.D. There is also Mr. Wills who is the father of Willadean, the girl who all 3 boys like. Mr. Wills is a big, fierce man, the greatest farmer in the community.
In the story the narrator explains mainly how he and the 2 other boys discussed so much about Willadean and how they like her. Then he describes her father, Mr. Wills, who raises beautiful and big watermelons, leading him to be the greatest farmer in their small community. The 3 boys are very scared of Mr. Wills and it is that why they don't dare to ask Willadean out on a date. Later on in the story the narrator tells the reader how one night with a full moon the 3 boys go to the creek and go skinny-dipping. Afterwards though, the narrator tells the 2 other boys that he will steal Mr. Wills 'seed melon', which happens to be the biggest watermelon in the county. Mr. Wills even guards it every night with his shot gun so that no one steals it. He wanted to do this so that he could prove himself to his friends, Willadean, and Mr. Wills that he is not just the new boy but a very brave one too. So he steals the watermelon and the 3 boys eat most of it up. But when the narrator sees how upset Mr. Wills gets from the stolen watermelon, he regrets immediately what he did. So by the end of the story he apologises to Mr. Wills and promises that he will help him raise the leftover seeds of the melon for the rest of the year.
The story is written in 1st person and in a quite objective tone, meaning it has the point of view of this 16- year old boy. The language style is quite informal, dramatic and in some cases, descriptive (concerning the watermelon).
The theme of “The Taste Of Watermelon” is mainly drama, regret and how to prove yourself to your friends. The morale is to never steal to show off to your buddies, because you will always end up regretting what you did knowing that you hurt someone's feelings.
The conclusion of the whole story is that the narrator regretted a lot what he had did, and didn't feel good about it at all, knowing that it wasn't only the biggest watermelon in the country, but also the watermelon which Mr. Wills was going to give to his sickly wife who would of probably shared it with the whole community anyway. The taste of watermelon seemed to be very important to all of the citizens of that town, something very valuable to have. Personally, I really liked this story. It was very exciting and entertaining how the boy stole the watermelon but was also very worried and scared of Mr. Wills and his shot gun. How important that watermelon was to everyone doesn't make sense to us in the 21st century. But for them it is the most precious possession anyone could have there. It holds sentimental value. I really enjoyed this story, it was filled with drama and comedy, and I'm sure everyone else enjoyed it as well :)
The Taste of Watermelon
ReplyDeleteThis was written by Borden Deal in 1979. The story is set in the 1970s in a southern state in the USA. We believe it is a southern state as there are many farmers there. It takes place in a farm based area with a creek. Above the creek is Mr Wills’ farm.
The main characters in the story are the narrator. Mr Wills, the farmer of the huge watermelon. His daughter is called Willadean; the narrator thinks that she is beautiful. The narrator’s Dad also plays an important role. The narrator has 2 friends that he mentions called Freddy Gray and JD.
The story starts with the narrator telling us about his friends and Mr Wills and his seed watermelon. However, the climax comes when the narrator tells his friends that he is going to steal Mr Wills’ seed watermelon. He is warned that Mr Wills would be able to see him as it was a bright night with the moon out. Mr Wills would therefore be able to shoot the Narrator with his shotgun loaded with double-ought buck-shot (used to kill deer). Farmers would usually load their guns with rock salt to scare them off. The narrator was able to steal the watermelon by rolling it down a track that he made on the way up from the creek. Mr Wills gets livid when he finds out his watermelon is stolen, so the narrator decides to tell him that he stole it as Mr Wills wanted the melon for his wife. The narrator decides to give him the watermelon seeds and apologises for what he did. He also finds out that Mr Wills’ shotgun was loaded up with rock salt instead of buckshot.
The story is written in the first person which gives us a clear perspective into what is happening. The story is also structured very well and simply. Some of the vocabulary used like ‘gosh’ and ‘golly’ seems old fashioned American and makes the teenage boys seem venerable.
The theme seems to be a typical American farmer type story. The characters seem like country people and the setting is definitely country-like. There is also a clear indication of a boy becoming a man. A lot of courage is shown by the Narrator when confronting Mr Wills.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story. I believed that it was very entertaining. This and The Signalman are currently my 2 favourite short stories.
I will write about story "The Taste of Watermelon" It was written by Borden Deal in 1979.
ReplyDeleteCharacters- Willadean who was beautiful girl daughter of Mr. Wills. Boys which were in love with her Freddy Gray and J.D also narrator whose name we don’t know. Parents of narrator and mother of Willadean which wasn’t feeling well.
In this story narrator telling us his life in the town where everyone have a farm. He is 16 years old boy and he has friends JD and Freddy Gray. However they do not trust him so well manly because he came from big city and his father still works there. To prove himself he decided to steel the biggest watermelon from Mr. Wills’s farm on the full moon night. Also he wanted to do it for Willadiene in which he was in love. His plan success he stole watermelon after what all boys ate half of it.
On the way back home narrator saw Mr. Wills crying in the middle of the farm on the place where melon was growing. He felt that he did something wrong and on the next day he brought to Mr. Wills seeds to say sorry even though he was scared to be shot.
This story is written from first person whose name didn’t mention in the story but we know that it’s a 16 yea old boy. Language used in this story is informal and old like «golly" and "gosh".
I think that this story trying to teach as not to steal anything from others. That eventually you will fee really bad for what you have done.
"The taste of watermelon" I really enjoyed this story. It’s interesting and easy to read.
Polina
The taste of Watermelon
ReplyDeleteThe story ‘The Taste of Watermelon’ was written by Borden Deal in 1976 and is a recollection of one particular summer when he was 16 years old. It takes place in 1960’s Untied States, in a rural farm town area. The story itself takes place over two days.
The main character is presumably Borden Deal, a 16 year old boy, innocent by today’s standards, somewhat daring but a good boy nonetheless. Borden had only lived in the area for about a year and he was still bridging the gap between him and his two friends J.D and Freddy Gray. Then there is Willadean Wills who was the prettiest girl in the area, a girl the boys dreamed about but couldn’t do much more thanks to her father Mr. Wills. Mr. Will is a large man, and a very good watermelon farmer.
The beginning of the story is mainly Borden remembering the time and what it was like being 16, Willadean, Mr. Wills and watermelons. Then he starts to recall one particularly moonlit night when he, J.D and Freddy Gray went down to the creek to swim. The boys talk about Mr. Wills’ giant seed melon, three time bigger than anyone has seen, and Willadean. Suddenly Borden makes a spontaneous irrational decision to go and steal Mr. Wills’ melon all by himself in bright moonlight.
The next page or so is the tension building up, especially since Mr. Wills is supposed to be guarding the melon with real buckshot in his gun, as Borden crawls along the ground towards the melon. He is constantly waiting for Mr. Wills to spot him, right up to the point when he reaches the melon and he realizes how large it is and that he won’t be able to carry it out of the field. After considering writing his name on the melon, he instead slowly rolls it out of the field. All the way down to the creek where JD and Freddy Gray were waiting. They then lug the melon out of site, carefully split it open and stuff themselves silly. Afterword’s, when they realized what they had done they destroy the huge melon leaving a mass of melon pulp.
When he arrives home, Borden sees Mr. Wills go into a wild rage when he notices his missing seed melon; he then proceeds to destroy the rest of his melon patch. Seeing this, Borden feels guilty and runs to his room to get no sleep at all. The next day Borden returns to pulpy mass and gathers as many seeds as he can, he then gets his father and walks to Mr. Wills’ door, the bag of seeds in his hand. After some tense moments of confession and offering to help plant next year’s seeds, Mr. Wills calms down and tells Borden that he only had rock salt in his gun. Throughout the discussion Willadean is watching form behind the door…
I enjoyed the freedom of the story, the laidback 60s farmer style where the boys go swimming in the creeks, without technology and internet etc. the story is written almost as in reminiscence of good times. The story is also has a sense of friendliness, the characters relations are like those in tight-knit communities.
‘The taste of Watermelon’ talks about an idea, or a practice that I had never heard about before, that is the idea of Watermelon stealing, how boys and men would steal other men’s watermelons (not in huge quantities) and it would be considered like a games or if you were younger perhaps even a rite of passage, but certainly not a crime. There is also the idea of paying for what you have done, the way Borden does his best to mend what he had done and genuinely wants to help make up for his mistake.
The Taste of Watermelon
ReplyDeleteThe story is called “The taste of watermelon”, and it is written by Borden Deal. It is a short story, and it is named like that because generally it is about a watermelon.
The setting of the story is in 1970’s. It is in USA towards the South, in a rural village where many farmers live. The setting is not so well described in the story.
The main character is a sixteen year old boy who is the narrator, he lived in the village for about a year, unlike his friends J.D, Freddy and Gary. There is also Mr.Wills who is a strange character because he protects a watermelon with a shotgun every night. There is also Willadean who the prettiest girl in town, and the narrator likes her., she is Mr.Wills’s daughter. In the story there is also narrator’s dad.
What happens in the story is this: the narrator is being friends with J.D, Gary and Freddy, all them kind of like Willadean and she is the prettiest girl in that village. Even though they are sixteen, they are not dirty minded. Mr.Wills grows this huge watermelon in order to get seeds and grow others next year, but this is his seed melon which is important, so he protects it more than his daughter, he protects it with a shotgun every night. The narrator wants to steal the watermelon in order to show off in front of his friends and to impress Willadean, he steals it, they eat it, but then he decides to tell that he stole it. He says it and Mr.Wills makes him work with him on the farm in a nice way(not forcing him).
The style of the story is very rural like, and stupid like because some people in the story are being overprotective to the watermelon and some decide to risk their life to steal the watermelon which is an irresponsible and just silly thing to do, especially when you are sixteen.
The idea of the story is obviously young time, considering that the narrator is old when he writes the story, and he is sixteen in the story, so it’s the “When I was young…” type of story. It has a moral, not to steal watermelons(lol), but seriously it is not to show off. It got him nowhere, he had to work for a year and I don’t think that the girl got impressed so much, but it might have been what he wanted because if he would help for a year he would be closer to the girl.
I enjoyed this story, it gave this warm and sunny atmosphere which was really nice, and the story itself was easy to read and interesting at the same time.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSaaaaaam :)
ReplyDelete-Taste Of Watermelon.
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The ‘Taste Of Watermelon’ was written by Borden Deal in 1979, making it a quite recent story. The main idea of the story is about watermelons, as you can tell by it’s title.
The story is set in a quite village in the middle of the summer it seems to be set in the states because of some of the language used ‘golly’ etc... The house’s all seem to be farmhouses with massive fields. It is set in the time when it was written.
The charecters of this story are the narrator who doesnt tell us his name in this story. He is a young 16 year old boy and has 2 friends called J.D and Freddy Gray who were also both 16. All 3 boys like Willadean a preety young girl who is the daughter of the mean farmer Mr.Wills who owns a huge watermelon patch and guards it with his life.
The main action of this story is when the narrator tell’s his friends he is going to steal Mr.Wills seed melon, which is said to be 3 times bigger then any other watermelon. It is the biggest watermelon anybody has every seen and Mr.Wills would guard it every single night by sitting in the loft of his barn with a gun full of salt at the ready. The narrator starts crawling threw his field on a very bright night and when he gets to the melon he has great difficulty trying to rip it off from its roots. Once he manages he tries slowly rolling it over him and down to the creek where his 2 friends are. He manages to do this without Mr.Wills watching, when he gives it to his friends they all enjoy eating it and then they smash the left overs.
The style of this story is quite personal because it is written in the 1st person. It is also quite emotional and the language used in it is very easy to understand, even though some of the words arnt used nowadays. The story also doesnt go into great descriptions, only at the watermelon stealing part.
The main idea of this story is about teenage boys proving something to one another. The thing they try to prove is bravery by stealing a watermelon, and they also think it will impress Willadean. This story seem’s to be something the writter has done, because he writes it in 1st person, but we dont know this for sure.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was pleasent to read, and i found the language used quite amusing. This story was by far the best we have read ! :)
‘The Taste of Watermelon’ was a short story written by Borden Deal in 1979. The story is about a young boy who moves to a new location and wanted to ‘prove’ himself to his new friends. He did this by stealing a giant watermelon from ‘the crazy farmer (Mr. Wills.) This was dangerous because this watermelon was guarded with a shotgun, also the ‘crazy farmer’ was a local girl called Willadean father who was very pretty and he wanted to impress her.
ReplyDeleteThe Story is set in the south of the United States at around 1970. The town is on a rural area as the main job there is to be a farmer.
The Main characters where the narrator who was a 16 year old boy just moved to this new place, J.D., Freddy Grey who where his new friends who supported him when he went to steal the watermelon and Mr. Wills who was the farmer protecting this giant watermelon.
The Plot of the story is the boy wants to prove to his friends that he’s cool and he wants to show that he’s brave, so he decides to steal world’s biggest watermelon. Before he went to steal the watermelon the 3 boys went for a swim in the river nearby. His Friends watched him from the bank as he crept up the small slope towards the great seed watermelon. When he finialy reached the watermelon he had to chop the roots and push the watermelon back down the river. When they finialy got the watermelon back to the river they ate over half the watermelon then destroyed the other half so they could hide the evidence of them eating it. That night Mr. Wills finds out its missing and destroys most of his other regular sized watermelons on a rampage. This is when the narrator realises he did something really bad and when he goes to apologise to Mr. Wills when he tells him it’s for his sick wife. This is when he feels really bad and offers to help out at the farm to show how sorry he was.
The story is written in 1st person and we don’t actually find out the narrators name. The way he talks about himself makes it more personal and emotional, also It is easy to understand.
The ideas of the story is that when the narrator turned 16 he started to notice girls in a different way and he wanted to impress them and his friends since he moved area it was a good time and opportunity to do it - Stealing the watermelon is how he did it.
I Liked the story a lot and thought it was humorous at the same time as interesting and was easy/ fun to read. It was also cleaver how there was a mean old man in the village like almost every village.
Taste of Watermelon
ReplyDeleteTaste of Watermelon is a short story written by Borden Deal in 1979. The author, Borden Deal was a very good American writer. The Taste of Watermelon is a very interesting story about how people take challenges and how other people react to the bad things people have done.
The Taste of Watermelon is set in the country side of USA. It is also written and set in the 1970 because of the language and the way they talked. It is mostly set on a farm area with a few people living nearby. It is also set in the woods were the children sneak the melon out to. Also you can tell it is in the countryside because of the language they used.
The character of the story are, Mr. Wills who is an old man who farms a lot and the only thing he does at night is guard his precious melon. He owns a gun so he is a very scary figure to be near. Also there is the 16 year old boy who steals the watermelon from Mr. Wills. He is a very sneaky character. He goes for the prize whilst also wanting another prize. What I mean is that even though he is going to show himself off and show he is as good or even better than any of the others he hangs out with, he also wants the girl. He wants to show off to her so she likes him as well. Besides him there are his friends Freddy Grey and J. D. These are the people he stays with. They are both ‘naughty’ and love to fool around. Willadean is Mr. Wills’ daughter. She is very pretty to all three of the boys and they all want to ask her out, but her father is tough and none of them have the guts.
The story is about a 16 year old boy who plans on stealing the biggest watermelon in the neighborhood. Unfortunately it was Mr. Will’s. He owned a gun and was a very tough man. But still he managed to steal it and him and his friends rolled it away and cut it open and ate it. But after they ate most of it, they didn’t want it to be there still, so they destroyed whatever was left of it. That night Mr. Wills realizes that his watermelon has been stolen. He gets mad and starts to destroy all the other watermelons in his field. After the boy realized what he had done, he picked up all the seeds he had destroyed and gave them to Mr. Wills. He then tells Mr. Wills what he had done and Mr. Wills, very kindly accepts his apology and accepts the help he offered to give for destroying the watermelon.
In the story the author uses the first person. This makes the story more emotional and sad. It also points out that he regrets his actions and shows more emotion. The style of the story is very different and interesting. The style is also personal as for it shows the feeling of many people to others. The theme of the story is adventure and conscience because the boy, the main character couldn’t take the pain Mr. Wills was feeling and admitted he had destroyed the seed. Also the story uses a lot of exaggeration, which makes the story more, yet logically less realistic, if you know what I mean.
The main point of this story is to show sadness and forgiveness, it shows anything bad that anybody does should be forgiven. Also the boy felt sad and sorry for Mr. Wills and so he confessed. It also shows that 16 year old boys like to risk their behind, or even their minds for a girl.
I really enjoyed reading this short story, its was fun, exciting and it was pleasant to read.Also the language of how the people talked was fascinating, I liked it. I enjoyed this story the most out of all the ones we read so far! :)
The Taste of Watermelon
ReplyDeleteThe short story ‘The Taste of Watermelon’ was written by Borden Deal (1922 – 1985) in 1979.
The story is set in a village in the USA. It is some time around summer and most of the men are farmer and they are growing watermelons.
The story has a narrator. He is sixteen and we don’t know his name, but we know that he moved to this place a year ago. Then there are his friends Freddy Gray and J.D. and a girl called Willadean. All three boys like her but they never say it. They seem to me very innocent. Then there is also Willedean’s father Mr. Wills. He is the greatest farmer in the community. Mr. Wills’ wife is sick and has to be cared for.
The story starts with telling us that Mr. Wills grew the biggest watermelon they all have ever seen. This was his seed-melon and Mr. Wills was very proud of it. Some people said that Mr. Wills cared more about his melon than his wife or daughter. The narrator and his two friends once meet to go swimming in a very moonlit night. They started to talk about Mr. Wills and his melon. The narrator all of sudden said that he was going to steal the melon, though he not really planned to. He just said it to show off in front of his friends and than there was no back anymore. So he went to the melon-field and crawled up to the huge melon. Though it was a moonlit night and Mr.Wills was protecting the field with a shotgun, the narrator managed to get to the melon and roll it back. Then the boys ate it but it was so much that they couldn’t eat everything so they destroyed the leftover but they felt depressed because of all the waste. When the narrator came home, Mr. Wills realized that his seed-melon has been stolen and he got mad. He started to destroy all his other melons in his field. The narrator’s father ran to him and tried to keep him from doing this, but it was no use because Mr.Wills was filled with too much energy and was too strong. Then Mr.Wills also started to tell what he was going to do with melon. He meant to give it to his wife because she loved melons and he wanted to use the seeds to grow the next melons. The narrator felt really bad and couldn’t sleep that night. The next day, he went to the placed where they have destroyed the melon and then picked up all the seeds he could find. Then he went to his father and told him about what he has done and he begged him to come with him when he spoke to Mr. Wills. The father agreed to go with him and then the boy confessed what he has done to Mr. Wills. He gave Mr. Wills the seeds and apologized. Mr. Wills said, that the boy destroyed one half of his crop, but he destroyed the other half when he was mad. So they both were blamable. This year was no good. But with the seeds the next year will be better and the boy promised him to help him with the farming.
The story is written in 1st person and the narrator is already older when he tells us his story. He speaks about his childhood, when he was sixteen. The story has a moral, to tell the truth, and it also tells us not to do any prejudice. Many people thought that Mr Wills cared more about the melon than about his wife but they shouldn’t say that because they didn’t know that the melon was actually for his wife. And Mr. Wills turned out to be a nice man in the end.
The way the boys speak is very innocent and country-like.
The theme of the story is childhood and growing up. The story shows us how teenage boys try to impress the others and also how they start to think more about girls.
I really liked this story especially because it had a happy ending. I expected that Mr. Wills would shoot the boy when he found out that he stole the melon. It took me by surprise that the man said that he was also half blamable and that in the end, he also complimented the boy as being very honest and helpful.
Caroline Schiller
Taste of Watermelon
ReplyDeleteTaste of Watermelon was written by Borden Deal in 1979, and is set in rural America, based on a farm. The story is a flashback of the narrator, and flashes back to when he was 16, and had just moved to a farm with his father, and was spending time with his friends.
The story is set in rural America in the 60’s on a typical farm. It is a small villiage/town with a few people living in it, but not busy at all. There has not been much modernisation here by the looks of things, and is just a normal farm villiage, that seems to specialize in watermelons. The story is also set in summer time.
The main character of the story is the narrator, who is flashing back to when he was 16 years old, and living on a rural farm, and mainly remembering one summer. He tries to gain the respect from his friends, as he is the new boy on the block, and wants to gain attention. His friends, JD and Freddy Gray seem to be close to the narrator, and they all seem to like Willadean, the prettiest girl in the villiage (we don’t get that much information on her). There is Mr. Wills, Willadean’s father, and a huge, strong guy, who is also an excellent farmer, and seems to value his prized seed watermelon, even pretecting it every night with his shotgun. Some of the less major characters are the narrator’s father, who seems to be a normal father, and Mr. Wills’ wife, who we don’t get much information about either.
The story starts with the narrator flashing back to the summer when he was 16, and when he was enjoying summer with his 2 friends: JD and Freddy Gray. They are all keen towards Mr. Wills’ prized possesion: a watermelon, atleast 3 times bigger than anybody has seen before. It is his seed melon, from which he plans to plant a whole crop of giant watermelons the next year. The friends are swimming on a bright night, when, for a reason even the narrator can’t describe, the narrator decides to steal the watermelon on that night. The friends think that he is crazy, saying that Mr. Wills guarding his prized melon has double-ought buck shot loaded into his gun, instead of rock salt. Ignoring this, the narrator, considering his actions, eventually takes the watermelon, with great difficulty, and the friends dig in, hidden by the creek. When they are all full, they have barely eaten half of the melon, so they destroy the melon. That same evening, Mr. Wills descovers his missing melon, and goes on a rampage destroying his other melons in frustration. He reveals to the narrators father that he was going to share the melon with the whole community, and then use the seeds to plant his crop. Feeling rather guilty, the next day, the narrator gets a bag, and fills it up with the seeds from the melon, and along with his father, they go and see Mr. Wills. Rather scared, the narrator apologizes, and the two both decide that they will both plant the seeds next year, with Mr. Wills telling the narrators father how lucky he is to have a son like that.
The story is written in first person, making the story very personal, and giving peoples opinions, but it doesn’t reveal the name of the author. Also, there is no indication of the house, or the whole family of the narrator, or of his friends. The story is very much based on the rural farm life in the states, and is based in the 1960’s (presumed, but could vary to the 70’s). The story was written is a way that revealed a lot about the narrators thoughts and feelings in the story.
ReplyDeleteThe main ideas of this story are that new people have to prove their worth to the others around them, and also dips into showing off. It may even dip into rebellion, the game of stealing watermelons from one another, trying not to be caught, and to get the attention of certain people (in this story, Willadean). The 16 year old narrator in this story wanted to show off by stealing the huge and over-protected watermelon in the worst conditions, and prove himself to his friends.
I liked this stort a lot, and when i first started reading it, i thought it was stupid, and was going to be a boring story. But it turned out to be one of my favourite stories that i have read this year, and i found it to be a very good story.
The Taste of Watermelon – SCASI Essay
ReplyDeleteThe title of this story is ‘The Taste of Watermelon’ and the author is Borden Deal. The title of the story gives the subject of the story; it is about watermelons. The story was written in the year 1979 and it is not futuristic or set earlier than that date.
The story is set in a rural area where most of the people farm for a living, and it is an out of town place, although the main character’s father goes to town to work. The story is probably set in the year is was written, which is 1979 because in that year there was technology but it was not a lot, and there was also farming, and in this story people farm for a living and the technology is not very advanced; the farming methods seem to be traditional.
There is the main character of the story who is the narrator who is a sixteen year-old boy whose name is not mentioned throughout the story. His friends mentioned in the story are Freddy Gray and J.D, but they seem to be keeping a distance from the narrator because he is new to that area and also because their fathers are farmers whereas his father works in town. There is the narrator’s father, but he is not one of the important characters in the story. There is Mr. Wills who is a large scary man who is supposedly the best farmer in the country, and there is his daughter, Willadean, who all three friends are attracted to. Last of all, there is Mr. Wills’ wife, and she seems to be a weak woman and is only sometimes seen sitting on the front porch.
In the beginning of the story, the narrator explains his live in the place he has newly moved to, which is out of town where most people farm. He tells us who his friends are and about the girl that they all are attracted to, and also her father who is a tough and scary man, and he is the reason they cannot comfortably approach Willadean. They learn that Mr. Wills is growing the biggest watermelon in the whole country and when they go swimming in the lake at night they have a long discussion about it. Unexpectedly, the narrator decides to steal the watermelon. His friends are astonished, because they know how protective Mr. Wills is of his watermelons and they are scared that his shotgun is loaded with real bullets and not salt. The narrator carries this theft out and they eat merely the heart of the huge watermelon and not knowing what to do with the remains of the huge watermelon, they decide to step on it until it has completely disappeared into the ground. That night, when Mr. Wills sees that his watermelon is missing, he shouts and the narrator’s father goes and asks him what is wrong. The narrator decides to pick up all the seeds he can from the site of the destruction of the great watermelon and take it to Mr. Wills. Mr. Wills is very mad at first but after the narrator explains he understands and is not as mad. The narrator decided to help him grow next year’s seed melon. In the process of explaining, he also wins Willadean.
This story is written in past tense and in first person. The style of this story is probably ‘teenage’ or ‘growing up’.
The themes in this story are how teenagers make mistakes that can ruin their lives. Also, there seems to be a moral in this story telling the reader that if they do something bad, they should either tell whoever they did the bad thing to that they did it, or obviously not do it in the first place.
When I first saw the title of this story, it was quite funny because it is quite random, but when I read the story I actually thought it was one of my favourite stories because it really has a lot of meaning to it, and like the other stories, every paragraph creates suspension which makes me want to keep reading until the end without stoping.
The Taste of watermelon
ReplyDelete“The taste of Watermelon” was written by Borden Deal. The story was written in 1979.
The setting of the story is in the countryside of America where people have farms and grow watermelons.. The main action takes place at night.
The characters in the story are Mr. Wills who plants watermelons, the narrator but in the story we are not told his name but he is a sixteen year old boy. Then there are his friends who are Freddy grey and J.D . Willadean the daughter of Mr. Wills, and her mum called Mrs. Wills. There is also the narrator’s dad.
The narrator goes to the river with his friends J.D and Freddy Grey, they get talking about watermelons and how Mr. Wills’ gun is either filled with salt or actual bullets and that he would kill anyone that tried to steal any of his watermelons especially his big prize one. The narrator and his friends think about it and ask him if he was planning to steal the watermelon. He then proceeds to telling them that he is planning to. The moon was bright in the sky and it was a dangerous night, but the narrator insists that he was going to do it now. The narrator manages to seek into the patch by crawling in and he reaches the watermelon and roles the water melon out of the patch, it was a hard job but when he managed, his friends helped him take it to the river. There they ate it and since they were not able to finish it they jumped on it and destroyed it. When the narrator goes home he sees Mr. Wills shouting and getting really angry because he noticed that his watermelon was missing. The narrator then goes to bed and decides that when he wakes up early in the morning he will walk down to the river and collect the seeds of the watermelon and ask his dad to go with him to Mr. Wills and give them back. The narrator then tells Mr. Wills that he had stolen and eaten the watermelon and that he will help plant it next year.
The story is in the first person. The theme of the story is adventure. The style is strange because the narrator just stole the watermelon and destroyed it. It was the only thing that occured to him that would impress Willadean. There is a lot of speech used in the story and also there are examples of hyperboles like “It took about a hundred ye4rs to push that melon out of the field” but it did not actually take a hundred years but to him it seemed like a long time because it was so big and heavy.
The main idea of the story accomplishing a goal. The narrator felt he had to steal it to prove his love for Willadean and it was also the sense of pride that he stole from Mr. Wills and he confessed about it in front of Willadean.
Overall I enjoyed reading this story. It was funny and it also shows us what teenage boys think at that age.
The Tast of Watermelon basically describes how the "taste" of the melon changes the adoloscent character of the narrator.It shows also how he repents as he cant bear Mr.Wills' state of mind.He then thinks of all the reasons he did it for; to impress Willadean,Freddy and J.D. and most of all himself.
ReplyDeleteThe taste of watermelon is a creative piece of work, maybe biographical as it relates the story of the author in his boyhood. The main theme in this story is temptation, how the author is tempted to steal the watermelon of the most notorious farmer in town, other themes like friendship, teenage lust and guilt are entwined. We can see a collateral meaning of the story, that pertains to the scene in the Bible where Adam and Eve are tempted to eat the forbidden fruit. This observation is significant as the author felt extremely guilty after seeing Mr Wills going berserk, his guilt was so profound that he even went to avow the apathetic act.
ReplyDeleteAnother theme in this story is schadenfreude. This is apparent when the boys derive pleasure out of stuffing themselves with the fruit and "annihilating" it when they are tired eating, not having an ounce of empathy for Mr Wills, who will be obviously shattered.
The opinions of the people in the story are also significant. In the beginning of the story, it is let out, felt by the reader, that Mr Wills is the most obnoxious farmer in town, that never shares his triumphs, that are his watermelons. It is also said that he cares more for his watermelons than for his family, especially ignoring his feeble wife. But in the end, when the author confesses the crime, what the reader thinks is inevitable to happen, fails to. Instead of being harshly tormented, questioned, or even beaten, the author is just sentenced to help Mr Wills reap a huger watermelon with the seeds he assimilated to give to him.
Teenage lust has also something to do with the author wanting to defy Mr Wills, Willadean's father. As any young boy in town, he is enamored by the charming girl and wants to lure her. Basically, he wants to get her attention, and does so by making a heist in her father's watermelon field and indirectly belittles his friends as they also are interested in Willadean.
I've Got a question:
ReplyDeleteWith close reference to the story, show how far, you sympathies with Mr. Wills and the narrator.
Can you please show me how to answer these type of question?
@Parvesh You should start by introducing both of them, and then distinguish between their personalities(2 or 3 paragraphs) and then probably use 2 paragraphs to include facts and opinions about them and whom you like the most by justifying your answer. Then in the conclusion paragraph, write about your own thoughts and why you think it's important to sympathise with the characters
ReplyDeleteHow symbolic is the giant watermelon in the story ? Think about its colour, its parallel to Mr Wills - soft in the inside but tough on the outside !
ReplyDeleteHelp plz :D
Guys Same answers have been written millions of times. Whats wrong with you man
ReplyDelete