Blackberries- Leslie Norris

This story focuses on a young boy. He gets a haircut, and his mother takes him to buy a cap that he wants very badly. The boy seems in awe of his mother's strength and presence and very bonded with his father. His father comes home late, and eats his dinner- sharing it with his son. He tells them that on Sunday, just the two of them will go for a walk. They go to Fletcher's wood, a place the boy has never been- but that his father has fond memories of. They pick and eat blackberries, and decide to take some back to his mother. They have nothing to put them in- so they use the boys cap. When they get back, the mother scolds them. The mother and father have a fight, and the boy cries- and realizes sometimes you have to be alone and that they are all different.


What does it mean? Symbols/signs

I feel in these writings the blackberries represent maturity. They are plump, juicy, and at their seasonal peak. The people that seem elderly eat them, the man with abandon- the woman more carefully. The man is clearly more spur of the moment- the woman more contemplative. When the young man in Norris's Blackberries eats the blackberries with his father, he enjoys them- but the second he gets home, he is forced into uncomfortable realizations about his family and life. I like the imagery, and I would not choose another.