Chapters Three and Four- The Water is Wide

“Look at those long-haired bastards. Can’t tell if they’re boys or girls. Worse than Germans or Japs. Look at that hippie with the flag sewed to his butt. I’d cut it off his ass with a butcher knife if I was there.” This phrase threw me off guard by how United States citizens treated one another during the Vietnam War. When Ted said this in the book, it showed how the Vietnam War really separated our country. My first comment I would like to say about this book so far is, WOW! The language in this book is outrageous for me since I do not speak in vulgarity the way the people in the book do.

In the beginning on Chapter three, one of the students were looking at an encyclopedia and came across a page with snakes. The students repeatedly told Conroy that snakes were bad because “they whip ya.” Conroy tried to tell them no that snakes do not whip you and that they are good because they eat rodents. However, I would agree with the students and say that some snakes are bad. There is a type of snake in the southeastern part of the United States that relates to the one the students were talking about, and I have had personal experience with them. The snake is called an Eastern Coach Whip, and the snake will whip you with the whip it has on the end of its tail. These snakes lift their heads up to see what is in it territory, and the snake will chase whatever is in its territory. After chasing and getting a hold of it, the snake continuously whips whatever it is after.

In chapter three, I can tell that the children are starting to learn some things. Conroy tells us about how the children are starting to learn the oceans, the planets, and many other things. I thought it was funny that Conroy mentioned the students always called him “yes ma’am.” He continued to state that the students thought that is what they were suppose to say to a teacher, and they did not know that applied just to a woman.

In chapter four, Conroy begins to make friends on the island, and he also moves out of the school and moves in to the Buckner house. He mentioned that this house was a palace on the island for the simple fact that it had a commode. Commodes were luxury then and in the book it is stated for “man’s comfort and convenience.” At the end of chapter four, Conroy tells us how he had fallen in love and had gotten married October 10,1969 to his neighbor from Beaufort, Barbara Jones. Barbara’s husband was a marine that had gotten killed in the Vietnam War leaving Barbara widowed with two children. They spend their honeymoon on Yamacraw Island because Conroy said nothing else aroused him. He continues to say once he got married, he was miserable on the island and all he wanted to do was quit so he could be home with Barbara and the children.

Chapters One and Two - The Water is Wide

On page three of The Water is Wide Conroy States, "The island is fringed with the green, undulating marshes of the southern coast; shrimp boats ply the waters around her and fisherman cast their lines along her beautiful shores... Yamacraw is beautiful because man has not yet had time to destroy this beauty." I felt that this was an important part out of the book because Conroy explains what he sees, and the description Conroy gives gives the reader a picture of what Yamacraw actually looked like. At the beginning, I did not think I would like the book, but the further I read the more I enjoyed it. At the beginning of the book, Conroy tells how he went to visit the Superintendent, Dr. Piedmont, who was known for being tough. When Conroy told him he would like to teach on Yamacraw Island, Dr. Piedmont told him that he was “Godsend.” At this point in the book, I thought that Yamacraw Island had to be this awful place since by the way the Superintendent was talking.

I found the part in chapter one about Conroy’s past interesting. The book told how he would perform a type of racism by throwing rotten watermelons at the “colored” people. Then, they called it “nigger-knocking.” I found it interesting how much Conroy had changed from the person that he was in his past to the person he was in the book. He wanted to go to Yamacraw Island to educate and help others even if they were a different race.

Conroy has also given me a history lesson when it comes to this book. At the point where Martin Luther King Jr. had died, Conroy worked at Beaufort High School. The white students were very passive, but the black students were upset. So when Lurleen Wallace died of cancer, the black students laughed about it because she was white. While reading I had no clue who Lurleen Wallace was until I googled her. She was the first female governor in the state of Alabama. After that year, Conroy did not want to go back to the school.

In Chapter two, Conroy travels to Yamacraw Island and starts the school year. It amazed me how little the children knew at their ages. Some of them could not even write their name. Conroy could not understand what the students were saying. The students, along with other black islanders, are known for their Gullah dialect.

To conclude, Conroy asked the students different questions about the presidents. The only president that the students knew was John F. Kennedy. They knew him because “He good to colored man.” It is understandable to know why the students only knew John F. Kennedy, but it also showed how illiterate the students actually were. It is sad knowing that children at that age lived a life knowing hardly anything.