Before reading this story I was simply interested in the title. The Farmer's Children by Elizabeth Bishop. How many possibilities does that leave open, not because it is so deep but because it is so simple. How much simpler can you get than to be a farmer living off of the land and then to portray an even simpler subject the farmer's kids. I had quickly come up with some ideas in my head of setting, chracters and plots. I had imagined a little old farm house with ma and pa kettle and their children out playing in the yard but what could this story possibly have that would put it into a book entitled "The Best American Short Stories of the Century" with such a simple basis.
As I began reading it was just as I had imagined. The children were shoved out of the house so some much needed chores could be done by the mother and the children were eager to go out and play. They did not play with their playstation or get on the computer and surf the internet but rather were content with using something that has been somewhat lost, the child's imagination. So far so good it is still simple. The children are then assigned the task of having to go to watch over the barn and at first this seemed to me like such a huge responsibility for these young immature boys but when considereing the times and the life of hard working farmers it all had credibility. The story starting to have a little excitement almost forced you into believing that something bad was going to happen to the children but because of the story's simplicity I was too afraid to even take a guess as to what was going to happen. And then it happened, something did happen to them and it was not a twisted someone broke into the barn and murdered them but they went peacefully in their sleep.
Did you have any ideas in your mind of what this story was going to entail before actually reading it and only knowing the title?
Do you think that any one person should be to blame for the death of the two young boys, Cato and Emerson?
Do you feel that the father had a right or even a reason to fire Judd?
Posted by HollyWaite at April 26, 2005 09:45 PM | TrackBack