Goophered

When I first started reading The Goophered Grapevine I couldn’t believe that the bulk of the story was written in a difficult dialect. Although it was somewhat hard to read and took a few times to go over a paragraph I started to become entranced by the words that Uncle Julius was using, and couldn’t wait to keep reading. There were many possible themes that could have been picked out in the tale, such as race and the slave era. But there were two things that jumped out at me when reading this short story, first was Anne and second was the clear and crisp image I was given throughout the story.
Anne is a very interesting character, and even though she doesn’t get many words in, she is the reason for the move and the purchasing of the vineyard. She is immediately viewed as weak because she is said to be sickened by the weather in the North, she is then viewed as a very proper lady who became “weary” while walking around the grounds. It is interesting to see her so interested in the man’s story and her inquisitiveness surprised me.
The other aspect of the story that engrossed me was the vivid picture I was able to form about the vineyard, Uncle Julius, and the slaves that used to work on the grapes. I almost thought of it as a flashback when Uncle Julius started to talk about his master when he first purchased the grounds. While he is talking about these stories, the reader can really picture the people and what was going on. Overall I thought it was a great story and kept me interested the entire time.