Peach In Ruins

“We talk slowly, two women trying/ in a difficult time to be wise./ Roots in the cellar drains,/ I say, and she replies/ that the leaves are getting heavier/ every year, and the fruit/ harder to gather away.” (7-14)

The sweetness of the peaches can be heavy, sad or even joyful like as the peach tree makes sugar for the fruit, bear could

From the beginning of the poem, the speaker tells of his naïve, consuming world of blackberries. Because the

Chapter 25, "Mr. Ara," begins with the gathering of neighborhood boys in front of Ara's market. August Gottlieb, Ulysses, Lionel, and other youths of Ithaca have just taken part in the theft of an apricot from Old Henderson's tree. Standing in front of the store, the boys revere the apricot as an item of sacrament. August, the boy who physically plucks it, is held in high regard for his bravery and efficiency. Although the apricot is hard and green and far from ripe, it has a deeper meaning to the young boys of the small town. The fruit is an item obtained in spite of the possible danger of getting caught by Henderson; it is considered an extremely well earned keepsake. The boys

One of the most pervasive themes in this passage is that of a spreading decay that is taking over the society. This is first expressed in quite a literal sense, as an actual decay of fruit and produce, which spreads like a virus across the American countryside and farming lands. Due to the economic mismanagement of the farming industry, fruit and other produce are left to rot and decay on the trees because they are not picked by the farmers. The text gives many examples of different fruits being left to decay on the farms. We see, for example, the cherries, that are described at first as “full and sweet”, being left to turn into seeds which “drop and dry with black shreds hanging from them”. The purple prunes, which now “carpet the

Out in the yard of an old married couple, there grew a peach tree that flourished with fruit every year, and every year the routine was the same. When summer arrived, each day the old couple would walk outside to pick the ripest peaches on their tree. Some days, they would walk home proudly with a basket full of ripe peaches, giddy with excitement for what they might bake with their prized fruit. But every once in a while, they would come home with very few peaches, allowing them to solemnly eat their fresh fruit instead of a concocted sweet treat.

[A]n old lady…asking him over and over again to make sure he brought apples when he came…because apples were contraband and could not be imported into Dominique which was true because only French-grown fruit and vegetables could arrive at that port or be sold in the stores.

Lee then transitions back into talking about his sixth-grade class with his teacher in the fifth stanza. The class was given a persimmon, which the teacher refers to it as a “Chinese Apple” (line 43). This specific phrase is italicized making it stand out, maybe it being referred to a “Chinese Apple” sounds odd, but because Lee is from a Chinese culture, he knows more about this fruit than his fellow classmates (line 43). He discusses how he knows that this fruit is not ripe and he chooses not to eat it. This specific instance seems like this is a time in which Lee

"Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiter in New York - every Monday there same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves.” (P.43)

"The garden is delightful. The fruit trees and flowering shrubs form a pleasant variety. We have green peas almost fit to eat and as fine lettuce as you ever saw. The mockingbirds surround our evening and morning. The weather is mild and the vegetable world progressing to perfection. We have in the same orchard apples, pears, peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums of various kinds, figs, pomegranate, and oranges. And we have strawberries which measure three inches around." (“Biography Of Nathanael Greene”)

Simple bushes bloomed berries of all sorts, every tree blossomed branches full of fruit, and even the beauteous flowering stalks grew great harvests at their roots.

'The fruit at the bottom of the bowl' is a story about a man (William

The woman is wearing a long light pink dress; with one hand she is picking cherries from another tree further away, and in the other hand she has a basket full of cherries. With the woman there is a man walking towards the tree bare foot with long ladder. The man is wearing a white long sleeve shirt and blue shorts that resemble a light denim. In the background, we are able to see a lot of trees that look like the two cherry trees that are clearer. The trees seem to be going up a hill and are in rows close to each other. Closer to young George Washington there is a house. The house looks as if it were made out of red bricks. There are five visible green windows, the windows are divided into four sections that if seen closely look as if they had small pleated openings. There is a small star in the middle of the wall above the window. There are only five windows but it is implied that there are six but the curtain is covering the last

from the trees. He put the berries in the offal but soon he found that

The speaker then goes on to say that “For all that struck the earth, No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, went surely to the cider-apple heap as of no worth” (33-36). The bruises on the fruit represent the mistakes or misused chances, maybe even failure, but the fact that these bruised apples considered worthless and discarded seems to be an epiphany to the speaker. He is realizes that while these apples were bruised, cider still came from them. The discarded apples act as metaphors for all of the mistakes that he has made in his life, and he now understands that they are in fact not worthless, as much knowledge can be gained from examining one’s mistakes.