68
CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH FINDINGS
A. Data Description
In this chapter the writer attempts to describe the facts in the novel, which are formed into some lists that consist of the extrinsic aspects, such as social
problems, cultural life, and economic systems of rural Arkansas society that contained in Grisham’s “A Painted House”.
1. The List of Rural Arkansas Social Problems in Grisham’s “A Painted House”.
No. Social
Problems Corpus
Chapter Page
1. Poverty
“The only farmers who made money were those who owned their land. The renters, like
us, tired to break even. The sharecroppers had it the worst and were doomed to eternal
poverty.”
“The Latchers were sharecroppers who lived no more than a mile from our house, but they
might as well have been in another county. They run-down shack was in a bend of the
river, with elms and willows touching the roof and cotton growing almost to the front porch.
There was no grass around the house, just a ring of dirt where a horde of little Latchers
played.”
“They farmed thirty acres and split the crop with the owner of the land. Half of a little left
nothing, and the Latchers were dirty-poor. They had no electricity, no car and truck.”
C.3 P.25
C.10 P.121
Idem
69 2.
3. Labor
Social Status “Even the poorest of the sharecroppers
managed to grow tomatoes and cucumbers. Every farm family had a few chickens laying
eggs.”
“The hill people and the Mexican arrived on the same day. It was a Wednesday, early in
September 1952.”
“Pappy, my grandfather, was worried about the price for labor when we went searching
for the hill people. They were paid for every hundreds pounds of cotton they picked.
“The hill people had been migrating from the Ozarks for decades to pick cotton. Many of
them owned their own homes and land, and quite often they had nicer vehicles than the
farmers who hired them for the harvest. They worked very hard, saved their money, and
appeared to be as poor as we were.”
“By 1950 the migration had slowed. The postwar boom had finally trickled down to
Arkansas, at least to some portions of state, and the younger hill people didn’t need the
extra money as badly as their parents. They simply stayed at home. Picking cotton was not
something anyone would volunteer to do. The farmers faced a labor shortage that gradually
grew worse; then somebody discovered the Mexicans.”
“The subject of day laborers came up. These were locals who went from farm to farm
looking for the best deal. Most were town people we knew.”
“And their house was painted, the first one on the highway into town. White was the color,
with gray trim around the edges and corners. The porch and front steps were dark green.”
C.15 P.180
C.1 P.1
Idem
C.2 P.15
C.2 P.16
C.4 P.41
C.6 P.76
70 “With time and weather the boards had faded
into a pale brown, pretty much the same color as other farmhouses around Black Oak. Paint
was unnecessary. The boards were kept clean and in good repair, and besides, paint cost
money.”
“Paint” was a sensitive word around the Chandler farm.”
“There was a clear social order with the sharecroppers at the bottom and the
merchants at the top, and every one was expected to know his place. But folks got
along.” Idem
C.6 P.77
C.23 P.296
2. The List of Rural Arkansas Cultural Life in Grisham’s “A Painted House”. No.
Cultures Corpus
Chapter Page
1.
2. Farming
Sport “They were farmers, hardworking men who
embraced pessimism only when discussing the weather and the crops.”
“For a second, I stood there the semidarkness of an already hot September morning, staring
down a very long, straight row of cotton, a row that had somehow been assigned to me.
I’ll never get to the end of it, and I was suddenly tired.”
“The week began in the semidarkness of Monday morning. We met at the trailer for the
ride into the fields, a ride that grew shorter each day as picking slowly moved away from
the river back toward the house.”
“Though he was a quite man who never bragged, Eli Chandler had been a legendary
baseball. At the age of seventeen, he had signed a contract with the Cardinals to play
professional baseball.” C.1 P.1
C.4 P.44
C.11 P.131
C.1 P.8
71 3.
Worship “Wary of the front yard, I headed for the
back. Near the silo, where the Spruills were supposed to be camping, there was no grassy
area where baseball could be played. It wasn’t as long and wide as my field in the
front, but it was open enough and ran to the edge of the cotton. I tossed pop flies as high
as I could, and I stopped only after I’d caught ten in row.”
“Most things were sinful in rural Arkansas, especially if you were a Baptist. And a great
part of our Sunday worship ritual was to be preached at the Reverend Akers, a loud and
angry man who spent too much of his time conjuring up news sins.”
“As general rule, the merchants and schoolteachers
worshiped there.
The Methodist thought they were slightly superior,
but as Baptist, we knew we had the inside track to God.”
“The line between Baptist and Methodist was never straight and true. Their worship was
slightly different, with the ritual of sprinkling little babies being their most flagrant
deviation from the Scriptures, as we saw things. And they didn’t meet often, which, of
course, meant that they were not as serious about their faith. Nobody met as much as us
Baptist. We took great pried in constant worship.”
“We rarely missed a Sunday worship, but the threat of rain occasionally kept us at home.
We hadn’t missed a service in months, and so when Gran suggested we eat late breakfast
and listen to the radio we quickly agreed.” C.11
P.135
C.8 P.98
C.8 P.99
C.23 P.296
C.28 P.359
72
3. The List of Rural Arkansas Economic Systems in Grisham’s “A Painted House”.
No. Systems of
Economy Corpus
Chapter Page
1.
2. Crop-lien
Share- cropping
“Pappy and my father had borrowed fourteen thousand dollars in March from the owner of
gin. That was their crop loan, and the money was spent on seed, fertilizer, labor, and other
expenses.”
“But, like most farmers, Pappy and my father carried debt from the previous year. They
owed the owner of the gin two thousand dollars fro 1951, which had seen an average
crop. They also owed money to the John Deere dealer in Jonesboro for parts, to Lance
Brothers for fuel, to the Co-op for seed and supplies, and to Pop and Pearl Watson for
groceries.”
“Pappy and Gran had been renting the land since before the Great Depression, which
arrived early and stayed late in Arkansas. After thirty years of backbreaking labor, they
managed to purchase from Mr. Vogel the house and three acres around it.”
“The only farmers who made money were those who owned their land. The renters, like
us, tired to break even. The sharecroppers had it the worst and were doomed to eternal
poverty.”
“The Latchers were sharecroppers who lived no more than a mile from our house, but they
might as well have been in another county.
“Even the poorest of the sharecroppers managed to grow tomatoes and cucumbers.
Every farm family had a few chickens laying eggs.”
C.2 P.14
C.2 P.15
C.3 P.25
Idem
C.10 P.121
C.15 P.180
73
B. Data Analysis
Kategori