American Realism
Charles Chesnutt’s
“The Goophered Grapevine”
Unit 3: The Destruction & Reconstruction of America
Directions: After reading this delightful little tale about a cursed plantation in postCivil War North Carolina, you are to do two (2) things with this story.
1. You are to summarize the following paragraphs, in their entirety, in one (1) to
two (2) sentences each, exhibiting that you know how to read and translate
the old man’s Southern dialect.
 Page 3: “But bimeby ole Mars Dugal’ fix’ up a plan…”
 Page 4: “Atter dat de [black folks] let de scuppernons ‘lone…”
 Page 5: “Sho nuff, it rain de nex’ day…”
 Page 6: “Now, ef you’d a knowed…”
 Page 7: “But long ‘bout de een’ er dat five year…”
 Page 8: “All dis time de gopher wuz a-wukkin’…”
2. You are to find four (4) examples of symbolic deconstruction and
reconstruction, hidden within Mr. Chesnutt’s story, and discuss these ideas,
providing textual examples as evidence for your argument. If you do not provide
textual examples with your opinions and ideas about destruction and
reconstruction in “The Goophered Grapevine,” this half of the assignment
will not be correct!!!
1. Symbolic example:
2. Symbolic example:
3. Symbolic example:
4. Symbolic example: