The Beet Fields Memories Of A Sixteenth Summer

Main Characters:

Old Mexican Man: Teachers the value of working hard and helps the boy up on his feet after he runs away.

Bill: Gives The Boy a place to work and live when all the beets were gone.

Deputy: The Boys enemy. Arrests him and steals his money. Boy runs away from him the rest of the book.

Conflict: The conflict in this book is that the boy ran away from home because he had a hard home situation.  He gets a job harvesting beets with Mexicans. He moved to another job driving a tractor and working for a farmer named Bill. The other reason was he got caught by a deputy and then is jailed, but breaks out shortly.

Quotes:

-“ For the bird to drop to me you must kill it first”- This is significant because he has had a hard life and when he got somewhere better he had a better one.

-“How much money did I give you last night?” - This is significant because the boy was always looking for a job.

-“ He comes back for a moment looking for the deputy and when he didn’t see him he went to the tilt-a-whirl.” This is significant because the boy stole the deputies money.

I picked these because they have an importance to the book.

Historic Event:

-“Millionaire” Tv program began and this is significant because this boy’s whole idea during his travels was to become rich.

-Russia ends state of war with Germany and this is significant because the boy signs with the army.

-The first cans of Coca-cola are made and this is significant because this shows when the book is taking place and what kind of Social classes there were.

Overall Success:

The overall success for this book is really good. It was very well written and the story is just absolutely amazing and it really reminds me of how well I have it.

Author:

Gary Paulsen is  an American writer of young adult literature. He is best known for coming of age stories about the wilderness. He was born on May 17, 1939.  He won the John Newbery Medal and the Margaret Edwards Award. These are only two of the very many awards he won.