Chapter 1 and 2 (The Water is Wide)

“I was becoming convinced that the world was a colorful, variegated grab bag full of bastards.”

I chose this sentence because it brings to life what Mr. Conroy discusses throughout the first two chapters. This sentence is a well written sentence because it helps to relate Conroy’s life experiences with how he feels about them. It is a very powerful sentence that can be interpreted in many different ways. This sentence was brought about by the events Mr. Conroy had witnessed and experienced. The assignation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the concentration camps at Dachau he visited, and the pure racist remarks and gestures that were common for both races, for truly no reason at all.

The first chapter of this book is explaining who and what kind of person Mr. Conroy is. It goes into detail about his upbringing in the American South during a time when racism was extremely popular. This chapter explained what type of household Mr. Conroy lived in and how he was brought up to be. It was a chapter that was necessary for the readers to read in order to understand what and why certain events will occur later in the book. This is the background chapter that sets the time, place, and gives the reader the setting to relate to throughout the book. It also begins Mr. Conroy’s journey to becoming a teacher at the Yamacraw School.

Chapter two begins to explain what type of atmosphere Mr. Conroy enters when he begins at the school. It is amazing to me how illiterate these children were in such high grades. It was so sad to read and visualize what Mr. Conroy was facing with these children. The type of person chapter one described Mr. Conroy as foreshadows to me what great things he will do for these students. I cannot wait to read more and find out exactly what all he does to help them and see how much they accomplish at the end of his class.