34 pages • 1 hour read
Doris Buchanan SmithA Taste of Blackberries
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1973A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
The book opens on two boys in a blackberry patch. The protagonist, an unnamed narrator, and his best friend, Jamie, have come out to pick blackberries, but they aren’t ripe yet. They race to the creek where they like to play. As they splash each other, Jamie points to an apple tree on the other side of a nearby fence. This “fence guard[s] a farm that the city had surrounded. The farm [is] said to be guarded, also, by a farmer with a shotgun” (5). Jamie announces that he’s going to hop over the fence and grab a couple of apples.
The narrator is nervous, but Jamie persists. The narrator doesn’t budge, so Jamie goes over the fence alone. He doesn’t know when to stop, even in a dangerous situation like this. The narrator waits in terror for him to make it past the farmer, who he’s convinced has a gun on him. He starts to plan for what he’ll have to do if Jamie is shot. Before he knows it, however, Jamie has returned with two apples.
The two boys part, and the narrator is almost back to his house when he hears someone calling out to him. He realizes that it’s one of the neighbors across the street, a mean older woman named Mrs. Houser. The narrator is certain that she saw Jamie running across the farm for the apples and is here to scold him.
Mrs. Houser surprises the narrator by asking him to find some other children to help scrape Japanese beetles off the leaves in her yard. She even offers to pay them, which is just as shocking. He thinks to himself, “I knew I could get the kids to help anyone else. But Mrs. Houser?” (13). Nonetheless, he promises to ask around for her.
Chapter 2 Summary
When the narrator first tells Jamie about Mrs. Houser’s request, he has the same thought as the narrator. He wonders why they should bother helping someone who is always so mean to the neighborhood kids. Then again, they think it might be fun to step foot in Mrs. Houser’s yard without her yelling at them. Mrs. Houser usually “guard[s] her property as if every inch [is] a diamond mine” and has even threatened to call the police on any kids who walk in her yard (16).
The narrator, Jamie, and Jamie’s four-year-old sister, Martha, take a walk to ask other kids in the neighborhood if they’ll help out at Mrs. Houser’s. Their close friend, Heather, is the first of many who take Mrs. Houser’s offer. They all decide that it’ll be worth it to make some money and to explore Mrs. Houser’s property with permission.
The boys and Martha are far from home when a summer storm starts to come in. They’re trapped in the pouring rain, so Jamie decides to hitch a ride home. The narrator is nervous about the idea, but Jamie throws his thumb into the air before he can protest further. A nice-seeming man picks them up and asks where they live. After they exchange pleasantries, the driver asks, “Don’t you know better than to hitch rides? I could be a kidnapper, you know” (19). The narrator’s stomach churns at his words and doesn’t settle until Jamie tells the driver to turn and he obeys. The driver, it turns out, is the father of one of their classmates. Luck is on Jamie’s side in a dangerous situation once again, just like it was when he stole the apples.
Chapter 3 Summary
The third chapter of A Taste of Blackberries is when Jamie is fatally stung by bees. The narrator recalls that day: “One minute we were all laughing at Jamie; the next he lay upon the ground like he was dying” (23).
All the children are working away to fill their jars with Japanese beetles, except Jamie, who is poking at a hole in the ground. The hole is filled with bees, and Heather warns Jamie to stop before they get stung. Jamie pulls the stick out to prove that they won’t leave the hole. After a moment, however, he’s proven wrong. Suddenly, a swarm of bees is chasing the children all around Mrs. Houser’s property. The narrator stands frozen in shock, and Jamie runs off and falls to the ground near his house. He begins writhing on the ground, but the narrator is unconvinced that it’s more than his typical dramatics. He thinks, “With the apples and the hitchhiking, I’d had enough of Jamie for one day” (25). With one last look at Jamie’s convulsing body, the narrator goes inside his own home.
Later, the narrator goes outside again and finds Heather looking at Jamie’s yard. She tells him that something has happened to Jamie. More of the children gather together and debate what might be wrong. In the distance, the sound of an ambulance approaches. Suddenly, the narrator’s mom rushes out of the house and starts toward Jamie’s. She tells the narrator to go inside with her.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The first three chapters of A Taste of Blackberries provide important context for each of the main characters, establish the various relationship dynamics within the community, and introduce the central incident of the book. They also foreshadow the theme of A Child’s Perception of Mortality, which becomes much more important in the remaining chapters.
The narrator, who goes unnamed, is presented as the more cautious of the two boys. Jamie, meanwhile, is depicted as a daredevil and a show-off who pushes the boundaries in dangerous situations. The narrator thinks, “I mean, if we got to pretending—circus dogs for instance—he didn’t know when to quit. […] Sometimes it was funny. Sometimes it was just plain tiresome” (3).
These opening chapters provide examples of Jamie’s recklessness. He steals apples (from the farmer with the shotgun) while the narrator stays behind, and he flags down a driver so they can hitchhike home during a storm. He acts as if he’s invincible, and the narrator, though annoyed at times, believes it.
In addition, this section establishes the various relationship dynamics between the neighbors, specifically relative to sharing their space with others. The narrator and Jamie operate on one end of the spectrum and are constantly at each other’s houses. Both sets of parents are fine with this, and the neighbors treat each other like family.
Mrs. Mullins, a neighbor who has an overgrown garden, is selective about whom she lets into her space. The narrator is one of only a few children who are allowed to visit her. He recalls that most of the kids find Mrs. Mullins strange, but his “mother [is] friends with her, and [he] had found out she [is] nice” (29). Mrs. Mullins doesn’t make an appearance in these chapters, but her character’s relationship with the narrator, and with kids in general, becomes important later in the book.
Contrastingly, the farmer with the shotgun guards his private property relentlessly, and Mrs. Houser is “always looking out her window to see if anyone touched a blade of her precious grass” (6). The extreme difference between these characters is important to one of the themes in the book: The Impact of a Death on a Community. When Jamie is stung in Chapter 3, his condition is serious enough to shake even mean Mrs. Houser.
In fact, when Jamie is taken away in the ambulance, everyone gathers to see what has happened. The narrator observes that “the whole neighborhood flow[s] down the hill like water behind a moving dam” (31). This is the beginning of a community banding together in a time of need.
Foreshadowing the theme of A Child’s Perception of Mortality, which will be even more evident in the following chapters, each of Jamie’s brushes with danger causes the narrator to ponder what would happen to them if things went wrong. As he watches Jamie run across the farm to steal apples, he starts to plan what his next steps will be if Jamie is shot. While hitchhiking, the narrator fears that he, Jamie, and Martha are in immediate danger. The bees, however, don’t seem to pose a mortal threat. None of the kids (including Jamie) is aware of Jamie’s bee allergy or even that someone could die from a bee sting if allergic. Chapter 3 ends with the children debating whether Jamie, who is being taken away in an ambulance, is dead. They conclude that he isn’t, but the next chapters, sadly, prove them wrong.
