"The Apple Tree", a story written by Trevanian, delivers to readers a town, a culture and a rivalry born of the fierce independence and lovable hypocrisy that is the Basque character. The Widow Etchiverrigaray and Madame Utuburu face off in a life-long test of virtue and reputation that pits their gardening prowess, their social status and their parenting skills against one another. This story is funny and indirect in its approach to characterizing the Basque people.
How does Trevanian juggle elements of character and humor within the confines of these two women? Do you trust this narrator? Is there something that adds dimension to these characters beyond what the narrator says directly about them and what they say and do themselves? Respond to one or more of these questions, or with original thoughts of your own, in the comments section below by Thursday, January 8, 2015.
Trevanian juggles the element of character very well in his story. From the first time he introduces each character he leaves no details out. Every person has their own backstory in which the narrator makes sure to explain in full depth. The descriptions of the two older women caused me to pick a favorite. Through the rest of the story I “rooted” for that character. Because of the hardship she must have endured with an unlucky husband and unintelligent son, I was in favor of Madame Utuburu. Through the authors great description and life he put into each character, I was able to visualize the story and ended up enjoying it!
ReplyDeleteI think that Trevanian Juggles the elements of characters well, but it can still be quite confusing. He narrates and introduces them very well with a lot of detail so that you know what has happened to them, but at times I felt confused when reading it. Once I finished the story, it all made sense but in the beginning, the narrator jumps right into it which left me scrambling for meaning. But then, as I got into the story, I started to like Madame Utuburu more than Madame Etcheverrigaray, which is rare for short stories. I liked her a lot more because of her relationship with her son. Even when her son traveled farther and farther away, she saved newspapers with pictures and praise from about him. I also thought it was sweet of him to send his mother things, but then he wasn't heard from which was saddening. Sometimes in short stories, it is hard for me too actually feel bad or good for a person in the story because the author didn't go into much detail. But I think the author/narrator made up for that so he was successful.
ReplyDeleteI also think there is a lot that adds to the dimension of the characters throughout the story. For example, a lot of the times after ending a paragraph, the author/narrator would do something like “… To say nothing of his taste.” I think that was very unique, and definitely not something I’ve seen before in a story of any sorts. Also, the narrator would give a lot of detail when explaining about the rivalry between them, specifically when describing the gardens. My favorite was when the narrator said “these drops of sweetened acid matured into expressions of praise or sympathy.” But I think my favorite part is at the end. Like most short stories it ended on a positive note and in this case, both Madame Utuburu ended up taking care of Madame Etcheverrigaray for several years.
The Apple Tree was a brilliant and unique story of lifelong rivalry. The rivals had similar lives. Each had a son and a beautiful garden. Hey spent their days bragging about their sons and working to make their garden the best. When one dies, the other realizes that the dead one drove her to be a better person. After the death of her rival, the remaining woman realizes that she has nothing to do anymore.
ReplyDeleteAfter her rival dies, the living widow takes a book written by her rival's son as a keepsake. She honors her rival by praising both sons.
The author included a lot of humor and originality here. For example the fight over the apples, the one-legged suitor, and the way the woman bickered and talked about each other. It made me want to keep reading.
I feel as though The Apple Tree is a great and unique story. I think the character are depicted nicely but it was hard too follow at times. It started out strange and difficult to follow but once I had completed the whole story it was as though all the pieces fit well. It ended on a more positive note than I thought it would. Both sets of rivalries actually lived very similarly, but still did not care for each other. They tended to gardens, bragged about their sons, and lots more. When one rivals son son dies she realizes how alone she truly is and how unsatisfied she is. The other rival took her sons book and honored both boys.
ReplyDeleteThe short story the Apple Tree is an amazing story about a lifelong rivalry, they both had similar lives. Both rivalries had a pretty garden and a son. The people who had the rivalry would spend their entire day bragging about their sons and work on their pretty gardens. After awhile one of the rivals dies and the other rival figures out that she was made a better person because that rival made her life so hard. After her rival dies she has nothing to, she has no one to be better then or to beat. She takes the womens boy in and praises both of the boys and she treats her rivals son like her son.
ReplyDeleteIn this story " The Apple Tree" i think the characters were very clear on how the families lived, what there back story was. They women acted as if they were so different from each other but in reality their lives were very similar. I think that is a great depiction of how it is a lot in our world today how we all want to be better than the others. but in this story they wanted a great son to brag about and a great garden to gloat about. The end really shows how sometimes it takes something bigger to open someones eyes. But over all the apple tree was a good story!
ReplyDeleteThe short story, "The Apple Tree" was truly the story of two woman, who were really two sides of the same coin. Although the two woman disagreed and fought over that apple tree, they lived very similar, but not identical lives. Each married, each had kids, and each grew old, to a point. I thought the story was festinating as these two women allowed their rival to last a life time, and then into their children's lives. Personally, I don't think we should allow such petty things to rule our lives. Honestly, who cares that you have a nice garden? Unless it can feed you and your family, it's a useless waste of land. In the end, however, I will admit that the story, while hard to read, due to the scanning, was an interesting turn of events, and somewhat enjoyable to read.
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ReplyDeleteThe narrator in this story is very neutral in telling this story. It’s clearly a story of duality and rivalry, but no bias is shown. Each woman receives respective page time, and each has her story told with respect to their strengths. Their sons are compared equally, both with opposing talents, but talents nonetheless. The narrator does a good job of painting a picture for the reader regarding the timeline, but I don’t trust the narrator. To me, the narrator sounds juvenile. It could be a young girl or boy in the village who is telling a story based on the stories he/she has heard in their Youth. Religion is referred with the innocence of a child, as if the Christian God and Jesus are the only gods the adolescent has ever known. That being said, the narrator is clearly well versed in the village lore. He/she characterizes people who it sounds like they’ve never met. Trevanian creates a small town sense of a tight knit community. Everyone knows these stories, they’ve known them since they could talk. Its common knowledge to them but to outsiders like the readers, its an elegant and cleverly woven story. It's a very entertaining story, keeping the reader engaged and curious about the fates of these two staples in the community.
ReplyDelete"Do you trust the narrator?"
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, not entirely. I feel like some of the things he describes are heavily exaggerated, which is weird considering its a story that he's telling me that I have no way of telling whether its real or not.
"Is there more to the characters than what the narrator describes?"
No, I don't exactly believe the characters have any depth beyond exactly what the author, or narrator implied through the narration. The story didn't intrigue or hold my attention for very long, and i found myself having to force myself to read it rather than the story carrying me along.
Clarence Corbett
ReplyDeleteIn "The Apple Tree" two women feud over an apple tree that lies on both of there properties. This shows the complexity of two characters both internally and externally.
"Do you trust the narrator?"
Personally I don't think I do trust the narrator. Many of the narrators points or additions to the story are religiously based as well as very judgmental. Thinking that this story happened because of the wrath of god already makes the narrator biased as well as judgmental. The narrator is deciding what is right and wrong based on what they he/she thinks god would think.It is also obvious that he/she (The narrator) sees themselves as above these people The narrator also believed that people could be pregnant for six months so clearly they aren't too bright.
The basis of this lore is also set in past tense, and said to be long ago. Many times as stories travel through word of mouth and over time. Through these examples it is clear that the narrator is not reliable and that we should take everything they say with a grain of salt. Which is sort of unfortunate because I wish a story this funny was true.
Clarence this is a beautiful response to the "Apple Tree" you may need to have more faith in the narrator because he might be your dad.
DeleteTru Tru i agree with Tommy
DeleteEyyyy De
Deleteayeee
DeleteWhat did you think of Clarence's response?
DeleteI think Clairence's response is wonderfully written and he put a lot of time and effort into it. He definitely deserves an A++++++++ on it.
DeleteThe thing I'm most proud of is how wonderfully he related the narrator's summaries to a grain of salt, very visually accurate. It's almost like Clarence could be the narrator.
DeleteExactly, thats so true maybe Clairence is Etcheverrigaray.
DeleteClarence is truly an inspiring blogger.
DeleteIn "the apple tree" 2 similar women have a childish "feud" over who's garden was better. Throughout the story, this idea is re stated a lot, and I couldn't really understand %100 of the story. Do I trust the narrator? No, I do not trust people I've never met just because they wrote a story. Now do I trust the author to get the point of the story across to me, Most likely considering that was stressed in the story. These characters didn't show enough character for me to be able to understand what they are like. Im not going to lie and say it was just so meaningfull to me and it just had so much in common with my life, because I don't garden or have kids, I couldn't understand what was going on, so there was my honest feelings.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the story of "The Apple Tree" two widows fight over a tree that lies on both their properties. Trevanian juggles elements of character and humor within the confines of his story by going in depth with each character he introduces. He used humor to soften some of the hardships the characters must overcome like “having a drink… or two” in memory of characters who passed. Do I trust the narrator? I do. I believe he gets the main points of the story across while using humor and hardship. My family has always used comedy to make low times more bearable and I think that’s what Trevanian is going for. Because the narrator took plenty of time to explain each character and their back-story there wasn’t much room for interpretation or to learn something on your own about the characters. Overall I enjoyed reading the short story
ReplyDeleteWhat adds dimension to the story and to the characters would be that these two women with their life long compotation over boys, husbands, sons, vegetables, and apples have actually developed a very strong bond throughout their relationship. Their bond with each other seems and also feels more like a friendship even when they didn’t call it a friendship because they act like enemies. Their fighting and keeping track of each other gave them a purpose for living and gave another dimension to their lives. Each women was forced to do their best because they were always trying to do better than each other, and prove that they were the best. Also they wanted to prove that they were the best to their village, but also to themselves. This other dimension was best demonstrated when Widow Etcheverrigaray passed away. At that time Madame Utuburu felt that she had very little to live for. She even gave up growing her vegetable garden. She realized that the competition added on to her life. Over all she did everything she could to honor the memory of Widow Etcheverrigaray.
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ReplyDeleteThough “The Apple Tree’s” narrator is clearly a Basque and can’t be expected to relay this story impartially, it is also clear that only a Basque could be trusted to tell it, for it is their cultural insight and deep sense of place that give this story meaning. “The Apple Tree” revolves around the rivalry between Madam Utuburu and the widow Etcheverrigaray, but the unidentified narrator plays a very important, if not the most important, role in the story. It is through his voice that we come to know the women, their village and their traditions. If Trevanian chose this character to perpetuate Basque culture, he was successful and every sentence contained information that, though subtly disguised by humour, made such a foreign and obscure people seem like old friends. The narrator says very little of the setting, an element of the short story which we devoted much time to in class. We know that the story is set in a Basque village sometime after WW1, but other than that “The Apple Tree” is rather devoid of the sensory imagery that we were encouraged to incorporate into our own work. There is brief description of the old woman's gardens and of the church yard they visit after the death of their shared love interest, but all of this comes in conjunction to the narrative. This information doesn’t seem necessary in the piece and if the narrator had devoted significant time to such details it would have seemed out of voice and incongruous with the rest of the tale. Instead, the narrator creates place by defining the character of his village. Though little is said about the surrounding, by the end of this story we feel intimately connected to it through our understanding of its inhabitants.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Trevanian juggles the characters well however the story was still sometimes confusing for me. The way it was written and the type of language that was used made it feel as if it was written or originated from something from a long time ago, which it did. I think he did a nice job of explaining the rivalry in the beginning of the story. I don't trust this narrator because it's mostly religious based and he believed that everyone got punished by the wrath of god and that to be unlucky was a curse. They also believed that pregnancy was only 6 months which is clearly wrong so I don't see him as very trustworthy. I thought it was interesting that the narrator put Widow Etcheverrigaray and Madam Utuburu in a similar positions. Both of their sons moved away however Widow Etcheverrigaray saved the newspaper articles from her son that he had sent to her and she didn't cut them out because she was afraid that she would cut out the wrong part of the article out. This was endearing and a very motherly thing to do.
ReplyDeleteThe structure of this story was well thought out I think but poorly executed because in the beginning the narrator sort of dropped you in the middle of the action so sometimes it was a little hard to follow but the rivalry was interesting because while they could have been bonding over all the stuff that happened for example when their sons left and the apples falling from the tree and their gardens they were too busy trying to hate each other before they realized that, that wasn't the best thing and Madame Utuburu found that she wasted her life on trying to out due Widow Etcheverrigaray but she gave up and took care of her and honored her memory instead.
I believe that the Trevanian displays both characters very well in the story. One of the funny aspects of the story that I picked up on is how they're is definitely some humor when describing or illustrating the scene when the tree describes the widow's features. This helped emphasize the rivalry/hatred between the two widows by putting a lot of detail and attention into the scenes involved with the tree.
ReplyDeleteDo I trust the narrator? Of course this man wrote the story. Even though some of his ideas and details may have been a bit off, he's like the dude with the pen. Whether or not someone doesn't believe him, he described the widows very similarly with great detail to create 2 characters that see each other as rivals. His description of the 2 widows rivalry could of almost renamed the title: "Etcheverrigaray vs Utuburu."
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ReplyDeletethis story is interesting. I didn't really like it, its not my style of reading, but cant say its a bad piece of literature. I like how they portray and play out significant social norms in our society with regualr everyday activities. I like how they used gardening as their term of warfare for their fued. I didn't like how hard it was to follow along, i found myself rereading and spending more time then i would have liked on passages hear and there. they way i saw this story as I'm sure it was meant to be seen or portrayed as was that the widows may have been the main charcacters and the story may have been about gardening, but each on of the elements in the story have a much bigger meaning to them. They represent bigger elements of life and how they all interact, all with in the setting of normal everyday activities. Or what would seem like a harmless feud between two.
ReplyDeleteIn the story, "The Apple Tree" by Trevanian, the author displays moral themes along with humor incorporated in the story. The plot consist of two widows who spend their time fighting over an apple tree that lays on both of their property or about bragging over their sons. The humor is that these women actually spend time fighting over something so ridiculous. However when one of the widow dies, it expose a truth for the other. That her nemesis was an essential key part of her life. She no loner felt motivated to strive for her best, but rather just to sit around and do very little with her life. This theme of, "you don't know what you have till it's gone" is exposed based off the stand point of the narrater. This is why i trust the narrater, because the story is clearly read based off the morals of the narrater, however not a very non-bias stand point.
ReplyDeleteI kind of liked reading the story "The Apple Tree". It's a good story about a never-ending rivalry- with people who have such similar lives! Both rivalries had a nice garden and a son of their own! The ones with the rivalry would take their time to go around bragging and talking about what they had and how fortunate they've become- their nice son and their pretty nice gardens. One girl rival eventually (after her rival dies) learns that she's better off and she's happier without the other rival because all that person did was make her life difficult. But then later on, she finds herself alone and bored with no one to fight with (sort of like the animated movie 'Megamind' when the blue guy finally kills the captian America guy? and then he's bored because he has nobody to play with or battle against!) and so she becomes bored...just to sum it up. I wouldn't trust the narrator. The narrator wrote a good story, but hasn't given me any reason to trust them? Also, this was a long time ago! Kind of like the game "telephone"- it could have gotten mixed up along the way of people who told it!
ReplyDeleteThe story of The Apple Tree was a about two women who fight for a apple tree on there properties. Trevanian used humor in describing the widows as well has giving us a good view of who they are. This story was very interesting in the way that the two women interact. Do i trust the narrator? No way. He used a lot of one sided arguments and religious view points in the story. I feel as if i met Trevanian i wont not like him personally because of the way and style of which he describes his fueding widows. I see the widows more as friends then enemies. They probably talk to each other more than they do other people, and given such i would think that they would or could be best friends.
ReplyDeleteThe element of character was juggled very well. Initially, what I thought was interesting was the emphasis in detail. Each character is described with great depth, and the author does a great job comparing them. He leaves no detail or hanging questions. He builds character and self imagery very well. The only issue is the vocabulary and description is so hefty it gets very confusing for me. Also, I was very confused and unaware of what was going on. I had to re-read so much because I just became very lost. I think it is a strong piece of literature, it was just very hefty and a lot to interpret.
ReplyDeleteThis is a classic tale of how we let little things in our lives get in the way of the big picture. In the story "The Apple Tree" by Trevanian,the two woman are a classic representation of this theme. They let something as simple as an apple tree in their garden cause a lifetime of drama. This feud also blinds them from what potentially could have been a great friendship in their lives. The two women were actually quite similar to each other, and their children could have had much better experiences knowing their parents were on each other's good sides. We see at the point of the story when one of the rivals die, that the other truly struggles. We see that without a rival, the living woman has nothing to do, and finds herself bored with no one to quarrel with. I am sure that if the deceased of the two woman had been the first to die, she would have had the same type of boredom as the one that actually lived. All in all, this story had a good theme and was well written, but at times definitely a challenge to decipher the language and style of Trevanian.
ReplyDeleteThis story gave great depth into detail and the drama of the characters in the short story. But it seemed to me that they got too many small arguments get in their life a little to far. Just a simple tree caused a lot of thrill into these characters lives. The author spent a lot of time describing the characters and the events that happened in the story so it seemed that he didn't put that much enfaces into the actual story to itself. Too much events and drama happened. It just kept on going back and forth between these people. The was know resolution to the issues that they had. No paragraph stayed on the same topic. But the story itself was well designed. It was a good idea, i just thought that it could have been written better and more easy to understand.
ReplyDeleteThe humor used by the author is an odd humor, and a dated one as well. When I read the piece for the first time I didn't find that much to be funny, besides the fact that two people would actually argue about an apple tree. The beauty of a tree is not something I could relate to interpersonal conflict. After reviewing the reading, I guess the cover up by the two women and their "shortened pregnancies" was the main humor. Claiming that their sexual activities were explained by God. I liked the story overall, the struggle between mothers is something that we can relate to today, showing off their children, trying to 'best' each other, again, some humor we can appreciate. I think it would be neat to see some artwork associated with this paper, maybe art or a short film, showing the tree and the struggle over its claim.
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact that the narrator often contradicts himself I do trust the narrator. I believe that the contradictions made by the narrator are intended to make the reader infer parts of the story making them feel more of a part of the story. I believe that all of what the narrator is saying may be a little untrue because much of the story is things that he says he heard second hand however I believe that this does not matter what matters is the story itself. Through the narrator the author speaks on many levels. The author uses the narrator to imply things that are not directly spoken. For example the narrator tells of how the woman in their town always have short first pregnancies. In saying this he is implying that the women in the town are often pregnant before they get married. The two women in the story have been rivals since they were young, however in their late years they come to rely on one another’s presence. The story shows how sometimes one comes to rely on people in ones life that they think of as an enemy. After their husbands died and their sons left the woman reliance on one another began. The competition between the two of them for the better garden kept them going and gave them something live for. Everyone needs something to live for, something that one of the woman realizes after the death of the other following the funeral for the man over which their feud had begun. With the death of the other woman who she had competed with for years the woman no longer felt the need to tend to her garden or anything else she used to do. The story ends in a sweet, hopeful way with the surviving woman walking down the street holding both the pillow her son had given her and the book the other woman’s son had given her. She had realized the importance that the other woman had in her life and found a way to hold onto her. She kept herself alive by keeping the memory of the other woman alive. This story shows two lonely women trying to find a purpose. Everybody needs something to do even if it’s just competing for the better garden or showing people a pillow and book.
ReplyDeleteThis story bored me initially, but it only took a couple of paragraphs for me to realize that there was more to it than the seemingly pathetic existence of two old women. As the story progressed, I began to notice a theme. The way that the women had a sort of symbiotic relationship. At this moment I knew almost exactly how the story would end. One of them would die, and the one lucky enough to survive would have to find a way to do so, and without a doubt she would turn to memories of her old nemesis. Despite this realization, I still managed to enjoy the story, as I found the writing style interesting; one that I have never come across. The narrator never mentioned an identity, yet I noticed how they kept mentioning the name of God. This, along with a few other small tells, lead me to assume that they were a Basque villager.
ReplyDeleteThis story is interesting but not my cup of tea, but any way i thought the conflict between Etcheverrigaray and her neighbor that is just as crazy as her the author did a very i repeat very good job on making the two women a character in the story the author painted a great picture of these old women and this is what i believe made the story.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story “The Apple Tree”, Trevanian adds a dimension to the story by having a rivalry between two older ladies who are extremely similar. The two ladies all throughout their lives decided that they were going to compete with each other. It didn’t matter if it was men, their children, their garden, or the amount of apples that they collected. These ladies were always competing. On page three Trevanian states, “Thus it was that ironic Fate brought the two rivals to live and grow old side by side on the edge of the village, each with no husband, and each with only one son to absorb her love and color her expectations.” Both of the ladies used to have a husband, and had one child. They lived very similar lives all throughout their lives, however their rivalry was the most important thing to them. The two ladies just never could get along. The two women spent their days watching over their gardens so that way they could compete against each other for the best garden. When apples from the tree that was right in the middle of both of the ladies properties would fall, the ladies would argue over whose apple it was.
ReplyDeleteTrevanian takes this rivalry to a whole different dimension once Widow Etcheverrigaray. All that these ladies cared about all of their lives was their garden. Once Widow was dead, Madame Utoburo stopped growing her garden. On page 324 the author states, “No one to prompt her to greater efforts at gardening and to greater praise from the village. No little victories to warm her throat with flushes of pride, no little defeats to sting her ears with flushes of same. Nothing left to talk about..” Widow dying was the worst thing that could have happened to her. It was almost as if Utoburo’s life was now pointless since her rival is gone.
Do I trust the narrator? The narrator is just a character. It’s more like do I trust Trevanian, who is portraying his ideas through the narrator. The story of , “The Apple Tree,” comes through the narrator from a perspective of just another townsperson. Through his voice I came to understand the interesting aspects of this town and it’s rivalry between the two women who are somewhat pitted against each other by the gossipy, contradictory, boringness of the religious old timey town itself. External judgements fueled the women’s rivalry. Who is a better mother? Wife? Who has a better garden? More apples? Who is more pious, and pure? These are all things every woman in this town is judged upon, but these two women in particular were so alike that they were compared to each other constantly. If they didn’t have the rest of the town to impress, than their rivalry wouldn’t have continued so long. Or would it have? Maybe they would have because they needed to impress God. Reminds me of Puritan-y stuff. When you read about early-American puritan societies, everyone is pitted against each other in the name of God. Especially women. And women were blamed for everything too. The sons weren’t held accountable for their actions and characters, and neither were their fathers, the women were. The gardens were not judged by the soil, sunlight, or the particular crop year, the women were blamed. And it’s funny that what really got them fighting was something so simple as the apple tree that they shared. It’s sad to think about how their lives could have been if they were best friends. They could have raised their boys together, and been sad together when their boys both left them for the world. They could have had gardens together, traded tips and vegetables. They could have gone to church together and made apple pies together. But society pits women against each other and it’s sad. Jealousy and competition are something that girls are raised on. I think of how much work women could have gotten done together to change the world that is biased against them. But instead the patriarchies (religious and not)...(many religious ones though) pressure women to compete against and judge each other. I interpreted the ending to kind of reflect that when Madame Utuburu personally grieves the death of Widow Etcheverrigaray, because the woman was so apart of her life, but maybe not how she should have been.
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