"The Farmer's Children" by Elizabeth Bishop

Summary:

This story is about a family that lives on a very large farm 10 miles from the nearest town. On this farm lives a hard working farmer and his wife and there three daugters. And also the farmer has two boys from his previous marriage. These boys are eleven and twelve years old. The boys were named Cato and Emerson. And the stepmother named her three daughters Lea Leola, Rosina, and Garcie Bell. The farm had belogned the fathers grandfather. And the farm was very big even though they had sold of parts of the farm over time it was still very large. The original farm house was miles away from the new one. So they had to have some one sleep there so it would not get robbed. So the father dicided to have the handy man that worked on the farm stay there. The handy mans name was Judd. And Judd was always going out to the town with the father to do sell parts of the land. But they really went to go drinking. So Cato and Emerson were told by there father to sleep at the old farm house and watch out for it. And one night it was very cold and they did not want to go but they had to and they died because of the cold. And the father blamed Judd and fired him.




Characters:


Farmer: Is a had working farmer and the father of the children.

Farmer's Wife: The farmers wife and mother of the three girls.

Farmer's X-Wife: The famers x-wife and mother of the two boys.

Cato: The son of the farmer and his x-wife.

Emerson: The son of the farmer and his x-wife.

Lea Leola: The daughter of the famer and his wife.

Rosina: The daughter of the farmer and his wife.

Gracia Bell: The daughter of the farmer and his wife.

Judd: Was the worker that the famer hired. And had him stay in the old farm house.

About the Author:


Elizabeth Bishop was born on Febuary 8, 1911 and she died on october 6, 1979. She was an American poet and writer. Elizabeth was very inspired by the write Marianne Moore. Later on Marianne Moore suggested that Elizabeth should resive the Houghton Mifflin Prize for poetry. And she did end up winning the around. Then her first book was published and made 1,ooo copies.


Themes:
Revenge: The Farmer wanted to get revange on Judd because he blamed him for for his two boys dieing in the old farm house. Becuase Judd and him were always going to town he forced his two boys to look out for the old farm house and they died because it was so cold. So he fired Judd.
Cruelty: Forcing his two boys to be out in the cold watching out for the old farm house.

Meaning:
The meaning of this story is that the cold can kill you and you should not force you children to go into the freezing cold over night. And you should not make them sleep on hay in the snow over night. And also you shouldnt blame others for your mistakes and fire them.

Conflicts:
The conflict in this story was when the farmers two boys died in the old farm house.

Questions:

1. Why did the father make his kids spend the night in the old farm house if he new it was freezing out.

2. Why did he blame Judd for his kids dieing.

Reader Response:

I thought that this was a good story. Because it was about a family on a farm and i found the story to be very interesting. But the fact that the dad forced his kids to stay on the old farm house in the cold i did not like becuase his kids died and i also dont like that he blamed Judd and fired him.