Essay about The Goophered Grapevine

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Study questions for Chesnutt’s “The Goophered Grapevine”

In the first paragraph of the story, why doesn’t the narrator want to tell us the name of the town? I believe the main reason that the narrator doesn't want to tell us the name of the town is because the town is unfamiliar. The only thing the narrator knows about the town is what he has been told of by his cousin. It is unfamiliar to the narrator. Why tell us the name of the town when he knows nothing about the town. To me it is his way of explaining to us how little he knows.
What is significant about the fact that although the town is a principal city in North Carolina, it has only four or five thousand inhabitants, “of all shades of complexion?” I believe that the significant factor of the small town having four or give thousand inhabitants of all shades and complexions boils down to one thing. I feel the importance of this is to show the reader how this small town is so populated with slaves. I kept forgetting that the beginning narrator did buy this property during the times of slavery. This really shows you that this town is heavily populated with slaves. That why it says four or give thousand inhabitants “of all shades of complexion.”
Why does the first paragraph end with the contrast between the narrator’s first view of the town and what he learned later on? Show how this sentence offers foreshadowing, prepares us for the story. Also notice what this sentence reveals about the audience for the story. What stereotypes is Chesnutt challenging in this sentence? What is he letting his audience know? To start off, the reason for the contrast in the first paragraph is to show the reader how wonderful the town is. Later on in the story we find out about Henry, and what he struggles with during the changing of the climate. I believe that this foreshadows the changing climate and how it is bad for the grapes as well as Henry. Again he is letting the audience know about the struggles of keeping this thriving business during the harsh changes.
What is significant about the shift in narration to Julius? Why didn’t the first narrator simply continue to tell the story, summarizing what Julius had told him in standard English language? What is important about the fact that Chesnutt renders Julius’s own speech, his own choice of words, exactly as he might have spoken them? Is this how characters spoke in literature before this time? Discuss how Chesnutt, like Mark Twain, wrote the kind of literature Howells called for in “Criticism and Fiction.” The significant piece about the shift in narration is to really put the reader in the mind of the first narrator. Imagine being the first narrator and listening to that story. Just like it was very hard to read it was probably really hard to hear. The author wanted the reader to feel the emotions of the first narrator. I really didn't enjoy reading this story because of the this, but it really made me feel as if the story was being told to me straight from Uncle Julius’s
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