"The Pines"
Fred Brown's house is on an unpaved road that curves along the edge of a wide cranberry bog. What attracted me to it was the pump that stands in his yard. It was something of a wonder that I noticed the pump, because there were, among other things, eight automobiles in the yard, two of them on their sides and one of them upside down, all ten years old or older. Around the cars were old refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, partly dismantled radios, cathode-ray tubes, a short wooden ski, a large wooden mallet, dozens of cranberry picker's boxes, many tires, an orange crate date 1946, a cord or so of firewood, mandolins, engine heads, and maybe a thousand other things. The house itself, two stories high, was covered with tarpaper that was peeling away in some places, revealing its original shingles, made of Atlantic white cedar from the stream courses of the surrounding forest. I called out to ask if anyone was home, and a voice inside called back, "Come in. Come in. Come on the hell in."
I walked through a vestibule that had a dirt floor, stepped up into a kitchen, and went on into another room that had several overstuffed chairs in it and a porcelain-topped table, where Fred Brown was seated, eating a porkchop. He was dressed in a white sleeveless shirt, ankle-top shoes, and undershorts. He gave me a cheerful greeting and, without asking why I had come or what I wanted, picked up a pair of khaki trousers that had been tossed onto one of the overstuffed chairs and asked me to sit down. He set the trousers on another chair, and he apologized for being in the middle of his breakfast, explaining that he seldom drank much but the night before he had had a few drinks and this had caused his day to start slowly. "I don't know what's the matter with me, but there's got to be something the matter with me, because drink don't agree with me anymore," he said. He had a raw onion in one hand, and while he talked he shaved slices from the onion and ate them between bites of the chop. He was a muscular and well-built man, with short, bristly white hair, and he had bright, fast-moving eyes in a wide-open face. His legs were trim and strong, with large muscles in the calves. I guessed that he was about sixty, and for a man of sixty he seemed to be in remarkably good shape. He was actually seventy-nine. "My rule is: Never eat except when you're hungry," he said, and he ate another slice of the onion.
In a straight-backed chair near the doorway to the kitchen sat a young man with long black hair, who wore a visored red leather cap that had darkened with age. His shirt was coarse-woven and had eyelets down a V neck that was laced with a thong. His trousers were made of canvas, and he was wearing gum boots. His arms were folded, his legs were stretched out, he had one ankle over the other, and as he sat there he appeared to be sigting carefully past his feet, as if his toes were the outer frame of a gunsight and he could see some sort of target in the floor. When I had entered, I had said hello to him, and he had nodded without looking up. He had a long, straight nose and high cheeckbones, in a deeply tanned face that was, somehow, gaunt. I had no idea whether he was shy or hostile. Eventually, when I came to know him, I found him to be as shy a person as I have ever had a chance to know. His name is Bill Wasovwich, and he lives alone in a cabin about half a mile from Fred. First his father, then his mother left him when he was young boy, and he grew up depending on the help of various people in the pines. One of them, a cranberry grower, employs him and has given him some acreage, in which Bill is building a small cranberry bog of his own, "turfing it out" by hand. When he is not working in the bogs, he goes roaming, as he puts it, setting out cross-country on long, looping journeys, hiking about thirty miles in a typical day, in search of what he calls "events" - surprising a buck, or a gray fox, or perhaps a poacher or a man with a still. Almost no one who is not native to the pines could do this, for the woods have an undulating sameness, and the understory - huckleberries, sheep laurel, sweet fern, high-bush blueberry- is often so dense that a wanderer can walk in a fairly tight circle and think that he is moving in a straight line. State forest rangers spend a good part of their time finding hikers and hunters, some of whom have vanished for day. In his long, pathless journeys, Bill always emerges from the woods near his cabin - and about when he plans to. In the fall, when thousands of hunters come into the pines, he sometimes works as a guide. In the evenings, or in the daytime when he is not working or roaming, he goes to Fred Brown's house and sits there for hours. The old man is a widower whose seven children are long since gone from Hog Wallow, and he is as expansively talkative and worldly as the young one is withdrawn and wild. Although there are fifty-three years between their ages, it is obviously fortunate for each of them to be the other's neighbor.
That first morning, while Bill went on looking at his outstretched toes, Fred got up from the table, put on his pants, and said he was going to cook me a pork chop, because I looked hungry and ought to eat something. It was about noon, and I was even hungrier than I may have looked, so I gratefully accepted his offer, which was a considerable one. There are two or three small general stores in the pines, but for anything as fragile as a fresh pork chop it is necessary to make a round trip from Fred's place of about fifty miles. Fred went into the kitchen and dropped a chop into a frying pan that was crackling with hot grease. He has a fairly new four-burner stove that uses bottled gas. He keeps water in a large bowl on a table in the kitchen and ladles some when he wants it. While he cooked the meat, he looked out a window through a stand of pitch pines and into the cranberry bog. "I saw a big buck out here last night with velvet on his horns," he said. "Them horns is soft when they're in velvet." On a nail high on one wall of the room that Bill and I were sitting in was a large meat cleaver. Next to it was a billy club. The wall itself was papered in a flower pattern, and the wallpaper continued out across the ceiling and down the three other walls, lending the room something of the appearance of the inside of a gift box. In some parts of the ceiling, the paper had come loose. "I didn't paper this year," Fred said. "For the last couple months, I've had sinus." The floor was covered with old rugs. They had been put down in random pieces, and in some places as many as six layers were stacked up. In winter, when the temperature approaches zero, the worst cold comes through the floor. The only source of heat in the house is a wood-burning stove in the main room. There were seven calendars on the walls, all current and none with pictures of . Fading into the pastel on one wall was a rotogravure photograph of President and Mrs. Eisenhower. A framed poem read:
God hath not promised
Sun without rain
Joy without sorrow
Peace without pain.
Noticing my interest in all this, Fred reached into a drawer and showed me what appeared to be a postcard. On it was a photograph of a woman, and Fred said with a straight face that she was his present girl, adding that he meets her regularly under a juniper tree on a road farther south in the pines. The woman, whose appeareance suggested strongly that she had never been within a great many miles of the Pines Barrens, was wearing nothing at all.
I asked Fred what all those cars were doing in his yard, and he said that one of them was in running condition and the rest were its predecessors. The working vehicle was a 1956 Mercury. Each of the seven others had at one time or another been his best car, and each, in turn, had lain down like a sick animal and had died right there in the yard, unless it had been towed home after a mishap elsewhere in the pines. Fred recited, with affection, the history of each car. Of one old Ford, for example, he said, "I upset that up to Speedwell in the creek." And of an even older car, a station wagon, he said, "I busted that one up in the snow. I met a car on a little hill, and hit the brake, and hit a tree." One of the cars had met its end at a narrow bridge about four miles from Hog Wallow, where Fred had hit a state trooper, head on.
The pork was delicious and almost crisp. Fred gave me a potato with it, and a pitcher of melted grease from the frying pan to pour over the potato. He also handed me a loaf of bread and a dish of margarine, saying, "Here's your bread. You can have one piece or two. Whatever you want."
Fred apoligized for not having a phone, after I asked where I would have to go to make a call, later on. He said, "I don't have no phone because I don't have no electric. If I had electric, I would have had a phone in here a long time ago." He uses a kerosene lamp, a propane lamp, and two flashlights."
He asked where I was going, and I said that I had no particular destination, explaining that i was in the pines because I found it hard to believe that so much unbroken forest could still exist so near the big Eastern cities, and I wanted to see it while it was still there. "Is that so?" he said, three times. Like many people in the pines, he often says things three times. "Is that so? Is that so?"
I asked him what he thought of a plan that has been developed by Burlington and Ocean Counties to create a supersonic jetport in the pines, connected by a spur of the Garden State Parkway to a new city of two hundred and fifty thousand people, also in the pines.
"They've been talking about that for three years, and they've never given up," Fred said.
"It'd be the end of these woods," Bill said. This was the first time I heard Bill speak. I had been there for an hour, and he had not said a word. Withoout looking up, he said again, "It'd be the end of these woods, I can tell you that."
Fred said, "They could build ten jetports around me. I wouldn't give a damn."
"You ain't going to be around very long," Bill said to him. "It would be the end of these woods."
Fred took that as a fact, and not as an insult. "Yes, it would be the end of these woods," he said. "But there'd be people here you could do business with."
Bill said, "There ain't no place like this left in the country, I don't believe - and I travelled around a little bit, too."
Eventaully, I made the request I had intended to make when I walked in the door. "Could I have some water?" I said to Fred. "I have a jerry can and I'd like to fill it at the pump."
"Hell, yes," he said. "That isn't my water. That's God's water. That right, Bill?"
"I guess so," Bill said, without looking up. "It's good water, I can tell you that."
"That's God's water," Fred said again. "Take all you want."
Analyzing Meaning:
1. Why does Bill go "roaming"? What do you think the purpose of these journeys is?
2. Why do you think McPhee ends this piece with several refrences to God? How does the dialogue about "God's water" help us understand Fred and Bill even more specifically?
Discovering Rhetorical Strategies:
1. Which senses does McPhee concentrate on most in this description? Choose on paragraph to analyze. In one column, write down all the sense the description arouses; in another, record the words and phrases that activate these senses.
2. What "tone" or "mood" is McPhee trying to create in this excerpt? Is he successful? Explain your answer.
3. McPhee relies heavily on description to make his point. What ohter rhetorical modes support this narrative essay? Give examples of each of these modes from the essay.
Please post what YOU think the answers to these questions are. Then someone here will be happy to give you feedback. Please keep in mind that we are here to help you learn how to do your own assignments, not to do them for you.
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1. Based on the information given in the passage, it can be inferred that Bill goes roaming in the forest because he enjoys being in nature and exploring the woods. The purpose of these journeys is to find and experience "events," such as encountering wildlife or unexpected encounters with other people like poachers or moonshiners. It seems that Bill finds a sense of freedom and fulfillment in these journeys, and it is a way for him to connect with the environment around him.
2. McPhee ends the piece with references to God to highlight the spiritual connection that Fred and Bill have with the natural world. The dialogue about "God's water" suggests that Fred and Bill have a reverence for the natural resources in their environment, seeing them as gifts from a higher power. This helps us understand their deep appreciation for and connection to the land they live on. It also emphasizes their resistance to the proposed changes and development in the area, as they see it as a threat to the sanctity of the woods and the natural world.
Analyzing Meaning:
1. In the passage, it is mentioned that Bill goes roaming in the woods, taking long, looping journeys of about 30 miles in a typical day. The purpose of these journeys is to search for "events" - surprises or encounters that give him a sense of adventure and discovery. This could include coming across wildlife, encountering poachers or moonshiners, or simply immersing himself in the natural beauty of the forest. It seems that Bill finds solace and excitement in these journeys, and they provide him with a sense of purpose and connection to the pines.
2. McPhee ends the piece with references to God to emphasize the spirituality and deep connection that Fred and Bill have with the natural world. The dialogue about "God's water" helps us understand their appreciation and reverence for the resources in their environment. It suggests that they see the land and water as sacred and believe that they are part of something bigger than themselves. This reinforces their resistance to the proposed development in the area, as it would disrupt the harmony and natural beauty they cherish. It also adds a sense of humility and humility to the characters, highlighting their simple and grounded way of life.
Discovering Rhetorical Strategies:
1. In the passage, McPhee uses vivid and detailed descriptions to appeal to the sense of sight, touch, and taste. For example, when describing Fred's house, he mentions the peeling tarpaper, the old rugs on the floor, and the crispness of the pork chop. These descriptions create a visual image of the setting and evoke a sense of texture and flavor. By engaging multiple senses, McPhee makes the description more immersive and allows the reader to truly envision the scene.
2. The tone or mood that McPhee tries to create in this excerpt is one of nostalgia and appreciation for the natural world. Through his descriptions of the forest and the characters' connection to it, he conveys a sense of awe and wonder at the beauty of the pines. The dialogue between Fred and Bill about the potential development in the area adds a tinge of sadness and resistance to change. Overall, McPhee is successful in creating a mood of reverence and concern for the preservation of the natural world.
3. In addition to description, McPhee also employs narrative and dialogue to support his narrative essay. The narrative structure allows him to present the characters and their relationship with the pines in a more engaging and personal way. By including dialogue between Fred and Bill, McPhee gives voice to their perspectives and insights about the proposed jetport and the importance of the pines. This adds depth and authenticity to the essay, making it more relatable and convincing to the reader.