Reading Notes: Week 8 Extra Credit Reading

Title: Mr. Rabbit Meets His Match Again
Author: Joel Chandler Harris
Link: Story link.

Plot:

• Rabbit and Buzzard go into farming together and have a fantastic crop yield. However, when it comes time to divide up profits, Rabbit gives nothing to Buzzard.
• Rabbit acts as if he is in a worse spot than Buzzard, to garner sympathy.
• The two decide to raid a gold mine across the river.
• Buzzard carries Rabbit over the river, as Rabbit does not wish to get wet.
• The two stop to rest on an island in the middle of the river and Rabbit tells Buzzard that he has a secret gold mine of his own, and that they should go back to it.
• Buzzard laughs at Rabbit's suggestion and shakes his wings, as if to dislodge Rabbit into the water.
• Rabbit panics and begs Buzzard to stop.
• In his fear, he tells Buzzard about the half of the crop that he didn't share and promises to divide the yield 50/50.

Buzzard threatens to dislodge Rabbit into the river below. Illustration by A. B. Frost.

Setting:

• Same deep south "Everywhereville" as last time.
• There is a town (Eatonton, GA) that has a statue of Brer Rabbit and loosely claims that he "lived" in the briar patch there.

Characters:

• Brer Rabbit: Up to his tricks again, and determined to get rich quickly.
• Brer Rabbit's flaw is that he genuinely believes that he is the craftiest person in every room he walks into. This leads him into trouble when he underestimates his peers and rivals.
• Brer Buzzard: Also crafty, but is originally taken advantage of. He uses his natural abilities (flight) to maneuver into a situation where Rabbit is powerless and then bargains from there.

Writing Style:

• My thoughts about the dialectic writing are the same as last time: I really like the flavor that it adds, but I'm still too apprehensive to really use it in my own works. Besides, you should only really implement a dialect if you really know it inside and out -- otherwise it sort of sounds like the equivalent of the bad British accent that every high school theatrical production tries to implement.