In their own ways, both "The Taste of Watermelon" and "Secrets" are stories of young men moving from childhood to adulthood. In 45 minutes of writing, please discuss how these two stories address the theme of coming of age.
Class 9B should begin this essay in class on Wednesday, January 6 and finish it by Monday, January 11.
Class 9A should write and finish this essay in class on Friday, January 8.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
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ReplyDeleteThe Taste of Watermelon, is a story by Borden Deal written in 1979. This story basically about the growing up of a teenager.
ReplyDeleteThere are 2 main characters. A sixteen year old boy who likes Willadean who is Mr. Will's daughtese. Mr.Wills has the largest watermelon and guards it with is life. The boy is new in town and he has two friends JD and Freddy Grey. To show his manly-ness I guess he decides to steal the watermelon. But feels really bad afterwards and owns up
The story is about a boy who is growing up and stealing a watermelon is one of the things that he will remember from his childhood for a long time.
Secrets is written by Bernard MacLaverty, in. This story is about a boy and his great aunt. The boy’s aunt is dying. This boy is around 18 and soon a man. In this story the boy has flashbacks of when he was young about the times with his aunt. One of the flashbacks is when he reads letters from a guy in the war called John and his aunt had told him not to. The boy was caught and was very guilty because the aunt was very upset with him. So he asked his mum if before she dies she said anything about him. She didn’t
Basically Secrets is about a boy growing up with flashbacks and Watermelon is about a boy growing up narrated normally
Coming of Age
ReplyDelete“The Taste of Watermelon” and “Secrets”
The Taste of Watermelon was written by Borden Deal in 1979. It is a short story about growing up. The story talks about a 16 year old boy who has to deal with growing up. The boy is obviously going through a hard stage so he doesn’t really know what is happening to him. He likes a very pretty girl, Willadean who is Mr. Will's daughter. Mr. Wills is the best watermelon grower in the area. He grows watermelons, then shares them with the town. Mr. Wills though is growing a very special watermelon. It is the biggest one he has ever grown and actually it is much, much bigger than any normal sized watermelon. The 16 year old boy is in a new neighborhood, so he is trying desperately to fit in, this makes him believe that stealing the watermelon would be the best chance he could ever have. JD and Freddy Grey, his friends are pushing him to go for it, but he is frightened. He supposable does this for Willadean and for his pride. He thinks by stealing it he will fit in and be happy. Mr. Wills has a gun which is very frightening but still, he steals the watermelon and he and his friends eat as much as they can of it and then they destroy it. The boy then has a problem Mr. Wills wanted to share the watermelon with the people of the town, but now he cannot. Will feels sorry and brings back seeds from the broken and destroyed melon. He then decides to help Mr. Wills plant and harvest the seeds.
Secrets is a very short story written by Bernard MacLaverty, in 1977. The story of Secrets is about a very curious boy and his great aunt. The story talks about coming to age. There are a very few characters. The boy who is very curious and disobedient, the great aunt, who is very sensitive and kind, but can get mad at times, and the mum who doesn’t really talk much. This story is based both in the present and in the past. The past part of the story is when the boy is about 10 and the present part is when he is around 17 or 18. The plot of the story is about a 10 (something in that range) year old boy who has a hobby, collecting stamps. He was allowed to take stamps of his great aunt’s postcards, but when she tells him where he is not meant to look he gets all excited and when he is not meant to he goes there, he opens the forbidden cards and starts to read them. They were about his great aunt’s personal life and when she finds out about it and tells him off. She tells him that she will not forget that day. Then they go into the present again and it shows the grown up boy who is watching his great aunt dying. He asks his mum who was near her if she said anything, but his mother didn’t reply. The boy lives with the guilt all his life.
Both the story’s deal with Coming of Age. I think though that they are both different. One is about a boy who learns not to poke his nose into people’s business and the other is to respect people’s property, and that sometimes it is not good to go with the crowd. In The Taste of Watermelon” the kid asks for forgiveness, whilst the other kid in Secrets doesn’t. The boys are different.
Coming Of Age
ReplyDeleteBoth The Taste Of Watermelon and Secrets deal with the topic of coming of age. The Taste Of Watermelon was written in 1979 by Borden Deal. It is about a 16 year old boy liking this girl Willadean. He wants to impress her and his friends JD and Freddy Grey. He decides to steal Mr Wills watermelon. Mr Wills is Willadean's father and the best watermelon grower in town. He has grown an enormous watermelon that will be his seed melon. The main character steals the melon right under Mr Wills' nose when he is guarding it in the night. However, he finds out that Mr Wills wanted the Melon to give to his wife to please her. Due to his anger for the melon being stolen, the boy decides to admit to what he has done.
This story deals with coming of age as the main character has to prove himself to his friends and Willadean by attempting to steal a very valuable watermelon guarded by a man with a shotgun. But this boy also admits to his mistakes very bravely as Mr Wills is a very tough man.
In secrets, an 18 year old boy talks about his memories when he was 10 when his great aunt was dying. This boy was collecting stamps at the time and asked his great Aunt if he could have some of hers. After a set of stamps have been steamed off, he reaches for another pile of letters. However, his great Aunt tells him not to reach for that pile. When she leaves, the boy goes into the pile. He finds letters form a man named Brother Benignus. He is a soldier writing from World War 2. There are 3 letters. One where Brother Benignus is at the front line. Another where he is talking about a past memory when he first kissed her. The final letter is when he is in hospital where we assume he implies that he needs to break up with her. When his great Aunt comes back she is so furious that she calls him 'filthy dirt'. We then believe that she dies. Secrets isn't as clear initially at showing the boy's coming of age but we can tell as this boy has matured from what happened before.
The Story “The Taste of Watermelon” is a story which was written in 1979 by Borden Deal.
ReplyDeleteThe story is mostly about growing up and dealing with age. The main character in this story is a sixteen year old boy who likes this specific girl named Willadean; he is new in town and has two friends, JD and Freddy Grey.
Willadean’s father Mr. Wills is a watermelon grower; Mr. Wills at that moment was growing a very large watermelon, probably larger than you can imagine!
So in order for the boy to fit in and get Willadean to like him, he had decided that he must steal the watermelon. So in the end he does steal it, and apologizes to Mr. Wills for stealing it.
The story mainly about young adults, and deals with age with or by something happening as for example - stealing the watermelon, in my opinion boys are like that, they always want to seem better than everybody else and by that they have to proof everybody else around them by doing something bad. However, sometimes it has to be the right thing to do to continue.
The story “Secrets” was written in 1977 by Bernard MacLaverty.
The story mostly deals with age once again. The main character of this story is a guy around eighteen years old, but since there are some time-traveling involved with remembering back in time, the guy who is right now eighteen years old (doing his A-Levels) turns back into a young boy around 11 years.
The story is about this boy liking to collect stamps when as a child. His great aunt would allow him to steam off the stamps from postcards which she receives from Brother Benignus.
The boy becomes very curious about the letters, which his great aunt told him not to touch. So he reads some of the letters when his great aunt is not around.
The letters are from John, which are likely to be break up letters. Great aunt catches the boy and tells him that she lost trust in him and will not forget this till the day she dies.
But forward in time, when the boy is eighteen years old of age, and doing his A-Levels, his aunt died and he becomes curious about whom these men can be. The story shows “coming of age” by changing the time of appearance from when the boy was a child and when he was much older.
The story deals with coming of age a little bit more then the story of “The Taste of Watermelon” The boy seems to take much more responsibility for his own actions where as in the story of “The Taste of Watermelon” there wasn't anything like that appearing.
By Christina Lomakina
COMING OF AGE – by Sara Welander 9b
ReplyDeleteIn “the taste of watermelon” by Borden Deal written the year 1979, the theme of coming of age is expressed by these boys being in their teenage years and passing the time when they were small boys by starting to notice girls in a new way. This is shown in the story by the 3 boys talking about this girl Willadean Wills. They don't mention if they like her or not but they do talk about the way she walks and how they seem to like it. Then further in the story the narrator says that they all knew that all of them had a 'crush' on her. Another example of coming of age in “the taste of watermelon” is how the narrator feels that he now has the courage to steal that watermelon, but if he was younger he wouldn't do it. This shows that he is coming of age by him taking control and chancing the charges which he wouldn't of done if he was younger since he then only obeys not wanting to break any rules. He also did this to prove his courage to his friends and that he wasn't a 'scared little boy' any longer. This of course the boys thought was very stupid at first thinking that he would be killed by Mr. Wills. But after he actually stole it the 2 boys realise how brave he was and how he had come of age.
In “secrets” by Bemard Maclaverty written the year 1977, the theme of coming of age is expressed throughout the whole story showing in every other passage how the narrator grows from a curious, mischievous boy to a wise, forgiving man. This is shown in the first flashback of when the narrator was little, collecting stamps from his Great Aunt Mary. When he came across a drawer which Great Aunt Mary then forbid him to ever open, he didn't really care of the conse quences but later on in the flashback opened it ignoring what his Great Aunt Mary said. This shows how this boy was very young at the time and hadn't yet learned about personal privacy and how it could be greatly important to most people. Then later on, after he was scolded by Great Aunt Mary he then understood how important this was for her and that he never should of opened the drawer. It was around then he came of age learning this lesson. So after Great Aunt Mary died, the narrator, now a polite gentlemen going in university, regrets what he did thinking that his great aunt had never forgiven him for what he did. This shows how coming of age can happen through learning important life lessons.
Coming of Ag
ReplyDeleteBoth ‘The Taste of Watermelon’ and ‘Secrets’ deal with the topic of a boy ‘coming of age’ in different ways. The Taste of Watermelon written by Borden Deal in 1979 is set in rural America, on a farm, and is about a 16 year old boy who is new to the area. His friends, JD and Freddy Grey are about his age, and all of them fancy Willadean, the prettiest girl on the farm, and also Mr. Wills’ daughter. Mr. Wills is the best farmer on the farm, and has grown a prized seed melon, three times bigger than anyone had ever seen before, and is apparently guarding it with double-ought buck shot in his gun, instead of rock salt. On a bright night, the main character decides to steal the watermelon, so he crawls 200 yards into the garden, and takes the melon right out from under Mr. Wills’ nose. When Mr. Wills finds out that they stole the melon, he goes furious, and destroys every other melon that he owns, explaining that is was for his wife in the summer. The next morning, the boy tells Mr. Wills what he did, and offers to help him plant all the seeds remaining from the melon.
This shows coming of age in two ways: firstly, it is a sort of tradition for the farm boys to steal the melons. So when he steals this huge melon on a bright night, it is a huge achievement, and he is respected by the boys for doing it. Secondly, he apologizes to Mr. Wills, and offers to help him out all next year planting the seeds, showing how mature he is to Mr. Wills and his father.
Secrets, written by Bernard McLaverty in 2004 is firstly set in modern day times, then flashes back to when the main character (18 years old in ‘modern times’) is about 10 years old. He goes to visit his Great Aunt when he is 18, as she is dying. When he arrives, he sees here lying down, looking dreadful, so he goes into another room, where the flashback begins. He is with his great aunt when he is a child, about 10 years old, and is looking for stamps to collect, his aunt gives him some postcards from her cabinet to have the stamps from. The boy spots some old letters bunched together that his aunt seems to be very protective of. When she is gone, he secretly opens the letters, and reads a few of them. The first one is about a soldier on the front lines writing to her about his love for her. The next letter is about a memory that he treasures, the time that they first kissed. The third is about him in hospital, and it is implied through little facts that it is a breakup letter. When he gets caught by his aunt, she calls him dirt, and she tells him that she won’t forget this, even on the day that she dies. When she actually does die, he (the boy, now an 18 year old again0 asks his mother if the aunt spoke anything of him when she was dying. She denies it, and the young man is deeply saddened.
This story shows the coming of age by the main character realizing that what he had done in the past was very wrong, and that he first thought not much of the punishment, but later realizes its true severity.
Coming of Age*
ReplyDeleteComing of Age in ‘Secrets’ and ‘The Taste of Watermelon’
ReplyDeleteBoth ‘Secrets’ and ‘The Taste of Watermelon’ have an underlying ‘rite of passage’ in their story lines or something the main character in the story does to move on from being a child. This ‘ritual’ is more obvious in ‘The Taste of Watermelon’; however in both cases the main character does something they shouldn’t have been doing. In ‘The Taste of Watermelon’ the character is not caught, but because of guilt he hands himself in, whereas in ‘Secrets’ the character is caught in the act and scolded accordingly.
In ‘The Taste of Watermelon’ the antagonist is a 16 year old boy living on a farm in the US in the 60s. At the beginning, the boy is still very much an innocent boy that works hard and isn’t overly wild. However one moonlit night, for reasons that made no sense whatsoever, the boy decides to steal a very large watermelon from a man who guards it with a loaded shotgun. The man is also father of the girl, (Willadean) that all the boys fantasize about because of her beauty. The main character goes through a tough mental and physical challenge as he works his way to the huge watermelon. When he finally returns to his waiting friends with the watermelon, he feels triumphant as if he has proved himself to his friends and himself.
However when he sees what stealing the watermelon did to its owner, he did the only thing he could think. He gathered any of the seeds from the crushed watermelon and went to Mr. Wills’ house where he apologized for what he did and promised to make up for it by working for Mr. Wills. At the end of the conversation he realized that Willadean had been standing behind the door watching. In this series of events, the boy has proved himself to his friends and to Willadean. He lost his innocence by stealing something very precious from another man. At the same time he started to become a man by stealing the watermelon and making up for it.
‘Secrets’ has a less obvious coming of age theme, however the main character (this time and ~10 year old boy) still performs a ‘trial’ that removes his childlike innocence because he knew exactly what he was doing and that he shouldn’t have been doing it. In this story, despite its being told in the 3rd person, the main character gives into curiosity created by reverse psychology. Initially the boy and his aunt have a good relationship, he is collecting stamps and she willingly lets him have some of her old ones from her past. When he reaches for a pack of letters she did not mention, he is warned not to touch them at all. Of course, being an inquisitive young boy, he snuck into his Aunts room and opened the letters he was specifically told not to open. Inside he finds about his aunt’s life as a young woman and her love for a priest who was in the war, all very personal and treasured details about his aunt’s life. Before he can finish what we assume is a breakup letter, his aunt returns home and finds him before he can fully cover his tracks. Her reaction is very strong; she slaps him and calls him dirt, the same child that earlier that day she enjoyed having around and loved. After that incident the boy is no longer an innocent young child, but a child that his aunt will hold a grudge on for a long time, a disobedient child.
The Taste of watermelon and Secrets are two very different stories that both address the issue of coming of age in a different way. Secrets , it isn’t as obvious , where as in the taste of watermelon it is more obvious.
ReplyDeleteSecret’s tells about a young boy , maybe around six or seven years old who discovers his great aunts past and pain by reading letters from a lost love from the war . Then it shows him in the present where he is about eighteen and he regrets that he hurt his aunt and hopes she was able to forgive him whenn she dies. The boy in the present is sitting A-Levels and comes to his house to find his great grandmother on her death bed. After she is gone he asks his mother if his grandmother said anything about him on her death bed. She hadn’t so he never will find out whether or not she forgave him.
The Taste of Watermelon tells about the story of a young boy , sixteen, who wants to prove himself to his friends, to the girl he likes and mainly to himself . So he steals the fiercest neighbours seed melon, on the brightest night of the year. He and his friends then eat what they can and destroy the rest. Mr Wills go mad with rage and destroys all the other melons in his melon patch. The boy thene feels bad for what he did when he finds out the melon was for Mrs Wills, who was sick. In the end he brings the seeds back to Mr Wills in hope that he will forgive him and volunteers to help Mr Wills plant next years crop.
Both these stories have similar themes. They both involve teenage boys stealing something , a watermelon and someone’s past, and at the end of both stories both boys are seeking forgiveness from elders for mistakes they made. In both stories the boys grow up and try to right wrongs they made in the past. Some were sucessful , like in ‘ the taste of watermelon ‘ where as in ‘ secrets ‘ he isn’t as sucessful in recieving his great grandmothers forgiveness. They were both stories about boys coming of age and sort of realizing that what they were doing was wrong or childish and tried to right their childish wrongs.
The Taste of Watermelon was written in 1079 by Borden Deal. The short story is about the growing up of a boy who moves away to a new place in his teenage life. In the story there are 2 main characters, one of which is a sixteen year old boy who has fallen in love with a girl called Willadean who of which is Mr. Will's, (a man who has a large watermelon patch that he depends on and guards by himself with a shotgun) daughter. The boy has two friends, ‘JD’ and ‘Freddy Grey’. The Narrator wanted to show how confident and ‘macho’ so he decides to steal the grand watermelon, but then he started to feel guilty.
ReplyDeleteSecrets is written by Bernard MacLaverty in 1077 . This story is about a boy and his aunt or great aunt. The story is switched around (or flashbacks) so the end is at the beginning and the start is in the middle, this makes the story more interesting. This boy is around 18 and at the start of the story, it says about the aunt close to death. One of the flashbacks of when he was young is when he reads letters from a man in the war called ‘John’ and his aunt had told him not to read these letters as they were very personal to her, but he does. The boy was caught and was practically ignored by the aunt throughout her life. So he asked his mum if before she said anything about him, She hadn’t spoken good, or bad about him.
The Taste of water mellon is about a normal teenage boys life growing up where secrets is about a boy growing up with his grandma including flashbacks of his days when he was young.
Secrets & The Taste of Watermelon
ReplyDeleteComing of Age
The short story “Secrets” was written by Bernard McLaverty in 1977. This story is about a man and his great aunt.
The man is around 18 years old, but he has flashbacks to the time when he was much younger, about 10 years old. His great aunt dies in the present part. In the flashbacks which the man has, the great aunt is younger, and she got very mad at him because he read her secret and very private letters because he was much too curious. This occurrence made him feel guilty and we can see that in the last part of the story. There the man cries because he thinks that the great aunt has never forgiven him and now she was dead.
The story is much about growing up. The boy was very curious when he was young and did things he better didn’t.
I think that the boy never had time or the courage to say sorry to his great aunt. That’s why he was so sad when it was too late to do so. I think he also learned a lot from his mistake. I guess he will never be so curious again in his whole life.
The other story, “The Taste Of Watermelon” was written by Borden Deal (1922 – 1985) in 1979. This story is about a boy a his friends. They live on the country side and seem to be very innocent, but they start to think more about girls as they got older. The boy steals a watermelon in the story, because this was what the boys did in that region. But this watermelon was the biggest of all and the owner got really mad and the boy felt so bad that he went to the owner nad apologized. In the end the man forgave the boy.
The story is narrated by the boy but by then he is already older.
“The Taste of Watermelon” is about growing up. We can see that in the boy’s behavior. He is in his teenage age and does thinks without really having a reason for them. He stole the melon to show off in front of his friends but also it was somehow connected with the girl. That the boys started to realize girls also shows us that they grew up.
Both stories are about growing up. In both stories, the boys do something, they later regret. The difference is that the boy in ‘The Taste of Watermelon’, the boy managed to say sorry. SO both stories are also somehow about forgiveness. In both stories are shown things that the boys learn and that helps them in later life, I think, so that both of them won’t do their mistakes ever again. To do a lot of mistakes is part of growing up.
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ReplyDeleteComing of Age
ReplyDeleteIf the stories are compared, they are both about the mistakes that these two boys made when they were a boy or a teenager. When you look at ‘The taste of Watermelon’, the things that show that it is about a teenager growing up is that he does something wrong as a teenager, and also he is starting to be interested in girl, and also that he is having problems with his friends, which is probably something that many people his age go through. The think he does wrong is stealing the country’s best farmer’s favourite watermelon and later feeling guilty. The narrator tells us in the story that before he wasn’t really interested in girls, but when he saw this girl, (in particular the way she walks) he was attracted. In the story the narrator explains how his friends seem to be keeping a distance from him since he is new to the area, and this is probably something many teenage kids his age are going through.
When you look at ‘Secrets’, The theme that shows up that this boy is growing up is that when the boy was younger, he read the letters that his aunt specifically told him to leave, and when his aunt figured out she told him that she would never forget what he had done until her death. He realises what he had done was very wrong because when children do something bad they do not realise that they are risking the loss of someone’s trust completely. Another way that this story shows growing up is how when the boy is young he is really bonded with his great-aunt and he is very sad when she tells him to leave. It seems he has not done anything to gain the trust of his aunt since she dismissed him and this shows signs of growing up because as children go into their teenage years I think they don’t have as much of a bond with their relatives as they did when they were ten years old or younger.
Coming Of Age
ReplyDeleteBoth the “Taste of Watermelon” an “Secrets” talk about the coming of age in a different way. “The Taste of Watermelon” was written by Borden Deal and it is set in 1979 in a Farm Village somewhere in America. The narrator is a 16 year old boy who had recently moved their and had made 2 friends by the names of JD and Freddy Gray, all three of them like a beautiful girl called Willadean, who just happens to do Mr.Wills’ daughter and he isn’t someone to be trifled with. Mr. Wills is a farmer and a good one at that and he is growing a very large melon seed, three times larger than a normal one and one night the narrator decides to steal said melon and although he successfully steals the melon and then destroys it after him and his three friends cant eat anymore, when Mr.Wills finds out that it is missing destroys every other pumpkin in the patch and says how the melons were for his wife. The narrator decides to apology to Mr.Wills and helps him plant the seeds again.
In this story the coming of age is one; trying to prove to his friends that he is to be respected and can be a part of the group and two; responsibility, when he apologies’ to Mr.Wills for what he has done because he knew it was wrong.
“Secrets” is about a teenage boy and his great aunt who is dying, when she is on her death bed he thinks back to the days of when he was a 10 year old boy and remembers collecting stamps and asking his aunt if she had any stamps that he didn’t have, when she said he could have a look at the postcards he went and picked out the ones he didn’t have and steamed them off. When he was curious and touched one of her letters his aunt immediately said “Do not touch those” as they were her own private letters. When his aunt goes out to church, the boy secretly goes up to her study and takes a peek at some of the letters from John (His Great Aunts Husband Presumably) after reading some of the letters he hears his aunt come up and when he closes the cupboard his aunt asks what he was doing and then finds out that he was reading her letters without her permission and tells him to get out and says that he is dirt and will always be dirt and she will remember this till the day she dies. The boy now about 18 years old thinks about this and asks his mother if his aunt said anything about him before she died, sadly she said no.
In this story the coming of age is one; when he thinks back he realizes that what he had done was wrong and wishes he could take it back and two; at the end he takes responsibility for what he had done, he only wishes his aunt would have forgiven him before she died.
COMING OF AGE
ReplyDeleteTaste of Watermelon is written by Borden Deal in the year of 1979. In this story narrator telling us his life in the town on the 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 from the gun.
In this story the cming up age is that the boy feel guilty after what he did. He went to mr.Wills even though he was really scared of him and apologized for what he did to his watermelon.
Secrets was written by Bemard Maclaverty in 1977. This story is about one boy and his great aunt. In this story boy is having a flashback in a times when his aunt and he were much younger. He was really sad about one memmory. Once he read really prived letters of her aunt and found out her secret and in that day aunt cought him and was really angry. The boy was crying when this flashback came because he thinks that his aunt will never forgive him for this and the boy will never know it because his aunt is already dead by now.
This boy is feeling guilty for what he've done.
In this story the coming of age is that the boy is taking whole responsobility for his actions. Also he understood that what he did is wrong.
This both stories are about growing boys but we can learn different things from them. "The taste of watermelon" I think that this story trying to teach as not to steal anything from others. "Secrets" this story made to teach us not to look in someones buisiness.
POLINA
The Taste of Watermelon, is a story written by Borden Deal in 1979. This story is basically about a teenager wanting to impress another girl.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few main characters. A sixteen year old boy who does not give us his name but he likes Willadean. Willadean is Mr. Will's daughter. Mr.Wills has the largest watermelon patch and has just grown the largest watermelon around and he guards it with is life and a gun. The boy is new in town and he has two friends JD and Freddy Grey. To show his manly-ness and to prove to Willadean that he is not scared he decides to steal the large watermelon. But after he does it he feels really bad for Mr. Wills.
Secrets is written by Bernard MacLaverty. This story is about a boy and his great aunt. The boy’s aunt is dying. This boy is 19 years old and soon a man. In this story the boy has flashbacks of when he was young and living with his aunt and all the times he had with his aunt. One of the flashbacks is when he reads her letters from a Tommy in the war called John even though his aunt told him not to look or read them. The boy was caught fishing through them and was very guilty because the aunt was very upset with him. She called him dirt and made him feel like a pointless being. So after his aunt died he asked his mum if she said anything before she gasped her last breath. The mother told him that she didn’t. So he knows that she did not forgive him for it, and that he will have to live with that burden on him for the rest of his life.
The taste of watermelon was written by Borden Deal in 1979. The ‘Coming Of Age’ in this story is shown by these 3 boys who have been friends since they were little. We can tell they are growing up when they start to notice this girl Willadean Wills in a whole different way and all of them have a crush on her. The biggest example of them growing up is when the narrator decides to steal the biggest watermelon in Mr.Wills watermelon patch. He doesnt know why he wanted to steal it but we know he wouldnt have done this if he was any younger. He might of done it to prove himself to his friends, to show them he was much more mature and not a scared little boy any longer, but we arnt sure. Also with him breaking the rules it gives us the impression he is growing up, since he no longer listens and behaves to what people tell him to do. After stealing the watermelon his friends were shocked, but proud of him and he had proved to them he had grown up.
ReplyDeleteSecrets was written by Bernard Maclaverty in 1977. The main thing that the narrator is growing up here is that he is a man now and is having flashbacks to when he was a little boy collecting stamps from his Great Aunt Mary. He then came across a cupboard which Great Aunt Mary had forbidden him never to open. He did open it and began to read some of the letters now knowing how personal they were. This shows us he was very young and foolish. Aunt Mary had told him off very harshly and even though he felt some regret he hadnt thought much of it, until he was much older and aunt mary had passed away. This shows us that he has grown up and now knew how personal those letters were. Both stories all in all show us how life lessons can really make us think and grow up most of the time.
The Taste of Watermelon, is a story written by Borden Deal in 1979.
ReplyDeleteThis story is about the growing up of a teenager basically.
There are 2 characters. A sixteen year old boy who is not given a name and Mr.Wills who has the largest watermelon and guards it with his life. The narrator is new in town and he has two friends, JD and Freddy Grey. To show his manly-ness and love for Willodean ( who is Mr.Wills daughter) he decides to steal the watermelon. But feels really bad afterwards and owns up to it..
Secrets is written by Bernard MacLaverty. This story is about a boy and his great aunt. The boy’s aunt is dying. This boy is 18 years old and soon a man. In this story the boy has flashbacks of when he was younger and about the times he had with his aunt. One of the flashbacks is when he reads letters from a tommy in the war called John, he had written letter to her and she had told him not to read them. The boy was caught and was very guilty because the aunt was very upset with him. So he asked his mum if before the aunt had died, if she said anything about him, and the mum told him that she didn’t. So the boy would have to live with that guilt for the rest of his life.
Basically Secrets is about a boy growing up with flashbacks and Watermelon is about a boy growing up.
The coming of age in “The taste of watermelon” and “Secrets” . In” The taste of watermelon” it gives us an inside of what a teenage boy thinks about and how the main character had to do something , had the urge to do something and did it. It also shows how it let him develop because he was able to become friends with a man he thought was scary.
ReplyDeleteIn “Secrets” it is about a young boy that reads the letters of his great aunt an he is very curious and inquisitive on what happened to the people in the letters and about her past which really portrays young people because little children what to know things and like asking questions.
In both the stories the main character does something wrong in “Secrets” he reads the letters when he was told not to and in “The taste of watermelon” the main character steals the big watermelon but he is forgiven unlike in “Secrets” where the boy still thinks about his aunt hating him.
Coming of Age Essay
ReplyDeleteThe taste of watermelon who is a story written by Borden Deal in 1979. This story is about a boy who is sixteen years old and he likes a girl who is Willadean who is the daughter of Mr. Wills. That man has a very big watermelon and he is very proud of it, and the watermelon is very big. And he is just moved so he wants to fit in and when he is talking about the melon his friends let him say that he wants to steal the watermelon, after that he has saying that he gets frightened but he can’t go back. Then he goes and steals it and he is doing that while Mr. Wills is watching. He is very proud when he has it and he let it see to his friends. After that he went to Mr. Wills to say that he did stole the water melon and his friends thought that it was really stupid but he did it and felt that he was going older and that he had come of age.
The short story Secrets is written by Bernard McLaverty in 2004. This is a real story that is coming of age because first it set in that his aunt is dying and there he is 18 years old. He is going to his aunt and he sees her lying down and she looks very bad so he goes in another room. And there he is thinking about when he was a child and he was around 10 years old. He is collecting stamps with his aunt and he is going to some rooms and he sees things from his aunt and he is looking around and finds some letters of his aunt and he is reading them. When his aunt sees him that he is reading her secret letters from the past she gets angry and she tells him that she never forgive him till she dies. Then it goes back where he is 18 and he goes to his mother and when he heard that his aunt has died he asks if she said anything about him. But she didn’t say anything so he will never know is she forgave him.
So the two stories are about coming of age and the Taste of Watermelon is about teenage boys who did something and are about that growing up. And Secrets is about a boy who is flashing back about what he did when he was younger and he is thinking about that when he is around 18.
Anne-mieke
In “The Taste of Watermelon” the boys in the story start to look at girls in a new way, and this is how the story comes into place. The main character wants to impress Willadean and get the glory of stealing Mr. Wills’ great watermelon. In “Secrets” the boy looks into his Aunt’s mail when he knows he shouldn’t have and he seems to just be curious.
ReplyDeleteIn “The Taste of Watermelon” there is a much greater theme of coming of age, in fact the whole story comes about because of the coming of age, him impressing a girl. The main character thinks hard about this, and finally decides to do it. Many times he thinks that it was a bad idea and it would be impossible, but in the end he does it. This is defiantly a thing that shows his age; his new interest in girls, his quest for the glory of stealing this and even the foolish boldness about it.
In “Secrets” the boy is a very curious 10 year old who looks through these letters. Later on we learn that these letters were very important to his aunt. He also realizes that these must have been important to her. They gave him an insight into his aunt’s early life and her love. This shows coming of age very differently; it shows how he becomes curious when he is told not to look at these letters. When his aunt catches him, she slaps him and calls him dirt. This is something very shocking since she enjoyed having him around before.
Both stories talk about coming of age in a different way. They both don’t see the severity of what they do, until it is too late. They also both get the same lesson; sometimes you will be punished, and sometimes you will not be and you can apologize. The main character in “Secrets” goes from an innocent curious boy to a guilty child. Also, in “The Taste of Watermelon” he turns into more of a man, by achieving something that no one had done before.
Coming of Age
ReplyDeleteHaving compared the stories, they both express the mistakes that the two boys made when they were in their teenage years. When you look at, ‘The taste of Watermelon’, the aspects that show that it follows a teenage boy growing up, are that he knowingly commits a crime to suit his own gains, and that he’s also beginning to pay attention to the girls around him. Problems and strains with his friends also occur. These are experiences to which many people his age can relate, and are even going through right at this moment. The ‘crime’ he commits, is stealing the favourite watermelon from one of the country’s top farmers and then later even feeling guilty about his deed. In the story, the narrator tells us he wasn’t really interested in the opposite sex until he saw a girl who caught his eye with the unique way in which she cast her legs as she casually roamed about. Furthermore, the narrator explains an increased tension between his friends and him, due to them seeming to be keeping a distance from him, as he is new to the area.
Taking a close look at, ‘Secrets’, the theme that reveals itself to my mind is that some children only fully realize the mistakes they made, when they’re older. An example given, for instance, is that the boy read his aunt’s letters, even after she made it clear he was not to. When his aunt realized he had nontheless done so, without regard of paying heed to her warning, she promises him that the memory of this ‘betrayal’ would never fade from her mind until the day she died. Later when he has matured slightly more, he regretfully realizes the true nature of what he has done, as children in their ignorant bliss do not fully understand their actions and how it holds the power to shatter the bonds of one’s complete trust with them forever. Another light in which the narration represents growing up, is the small boy has grown deeply attached to his aunt, and his so let down and disheartened when she tells him to depart from her. It appears to him, that he has not done enough to gain the trust of his aunt. This kind of attachment is different between a young boy, a child, and the views and feelings that a teenager would share with a relative. The adolescents seem not to care as deeply, as they did when they were younger, having slowly lost these tight bonds as they grew up.
bye mike :)
Coming of Age
ReplyDeleteThe Taste of Watermelon
This is a short story written by a famous writer known as Borden Deal in the year of 1976. In ‘The Taste of Watermelon’, the aspect of it is mainly dealt with growing up out of his childhood. An example can be of when he moved in the neighborhood, he thought that the only way he could fit in is to steal the watermelon seed of Mr. Wills the farmer. This deals with a ‘coming of age’ sort of thing because the narrator remembers those events, and that you wouldn’t need to do such drastic things just to fit in or prove something to your friends. Also, this links to a ‘coming of age’ thing because he also steals the watermelon to impress a beautiful girl he likes, Willadean, and to prove something to the farmer himself that he can slip past his aim just like that. Also, since his friends were convincing the 16 year old boy and pressuring him about the situation. It leads him to do such actions which were not necessary. It is as if the only way he could fit in is to do something he didn’t want to / was scared to do.
This deals with coming of age because the narrator thinks that the only way he can fit in with his 2 friends, or to have a chance with Willadean is to do drastic actions to possibly impress them.
Secrets
In ‘Secrets’, it is mainly about an 18 year old who is remembering past events of when he was only a child of 10 years old. At this time he had been going through a rough stage since his aunt had died. When he was 10 years old, he seemed to be fascinated by stamps and enjoyed collecting them quite a lot. He was also very curious when he doesn’t know something that comes across his mind or sight, as whenever the aunt tells him not to go somewhere or not to look into a certain cupboard; his curiosity would overcome him and would be disobedient enough to see what was there to hide. Apparently these things were about his aunt’s personal life, which were meant to be kept secret from some people.
I think the way this story deals with ‘coming of age’ is because he is remembering what had happened to his aunt, and possibly wondered what was there to hide.
In "The Taste of a Watermelon", the ocming of age is all about a boy doing something that meks him a man. In this story he stole a watermelon, he did this in order to show off how brave he was was in front of his friends and a girl he likes. To me, the real coming of age for his is that he actually tells himself that he is guilty, unfortunately he does not become much close with a girl, though he actually catches her atention, because the stole the most important watermelon from the girl's father. And he probably won't have a lot of time with his friend, ho will probably forget him because he is working for the guy from whom he stole the wateremelon.
ReplyDeleteIn "The Secrets", ther is coming of age because the young bo actally does somehting he is told not to do, and it is not eating a bar of chocolate, it is reading his auntie's personal love letters. He is blamed for it until she dies, so his auntie did give revenge by not speaking to him.
Both of these stories are about coming of age. Both deal with boys, doing somehting they aren't supposed to be doing.