Lessons from The Harvest by Tomas Rivera

In the story there are many emotions that the reader feels. They all vary from pity to curiosity. Most of these emotions revolve around the character Don Trine. In the story I had many views of how my perspective on Don Trine and my focus on him changed throughout the story. The overall mood of the story was a nurturing feeling and a connection with the characters.

Don Trine is a shadowy character in the story. You are left to think of curiosity among the other characters. While I was reading I felt curiosity in the beginning because Don Trine's actions seemed so strange from a normal day. From my life experiences I began to wonder if a good character at heart like Don Trine could have had some haunting past. When he went to the field I didn't believe the characters, but I felt curious. I think the author had purposely written the story to make us curious in the beginning to show how incorrect our first impressions on someone are. I also felt curious when the boys followed him because they were nearing to the truth.

Don Trine's actions had been discovered by one persistent boy. At the end of the story when you Don Trine put his arms in the ground to feel the moving of the earth the mood was a sense of warmth. I had felt what the boy was feeling when he saw Don Trine. At this point in the story everything slowed down and you started to think like the author. I felt what the message the author was conveying and it was to slow things down and take time to absorb the things around you. The author created many feelings that would be close to how a normal person would react if this situation were real. He shows how experienced Don Trine was.

I found many connections between the characters in the story. I had a real connection with the boy. Although I have never been in a situation quite like this one I felt the boy's feelings would have been the same as mine. If I were in his place and all the townsfolk were talking about how Don Trine could have been a thief, I would also get curious enough to follow him like the boy did. However, when the time actually came when he saw Don Trine's true actions, I wouldn't have seen it with such mature eyes.

In the story the moods of the characters and yourself change as the story unfolds. Your first expectations of Don Trine weren't the outcome. The author had purposely created the story in the way he did. He let the story unfold through the eyes of a boy. He had a message he conveyed through the maturity of the boy in the end. When Don Trine felt the movement of the earth, the boy knew that there was something deeper. He knew he was taking the time to observe the world outside and that was the message the author was trying to let out.