The Goophered Grapevine

I am not one for ghost stories or farfetched myths that are told to either scare or influence people in a certain way. When reading the story “The Goophered Grapevine” that was the sense that I got from it. When the narrator and his wife go to visit the vineyard in South Carolina in hopes of buying the land for his wives health and also to become part of the grape culture they run into a man on the farm that goes on to tell them a “ghost story” that was supposed to make them not want to purchase the land.

          When the narrator and his wife first arrive at the vineyard they run into a man who seems to be enjoying himself while eating the grapes and “smacking his lips with great gusto” (Chesnutt 34). This was the first indication to me that something shady might be happening. Why was there a man on the vineyard that was supposed to be abandoned and for sale? This man was Julius McAdoo and the belonged to Mars Dugal’ McAdoo. Julius then tells the two prospective buyers that the vineyard is “goophered, -cunju’d, bewitch’.” (35). From this point he has them both hooked as to how it became conjured and uncle Julius goes on to tell them the story of how it became bewitched.

As this story continues that narrator sees that Julius “became more and absorbed in the narrative, hi eyes assumed a dreamy expression, and he seemed to lose sight of his auditors” (35). This to me makes it feel as though Julius is telling a story, one that may be fictional and that he has gone into his own, creative world to continue and live this story. After the story of how the vineyard was goophered and Julius had made his point that they should not buy it, the narrator asks him why he was eating the grapes from the vineyard if they had all died out. At this point throughout the rest of the story it seems as though this story was told by Julius to make them not purchase the land and ruin his business and lifestyle that he was living. It is later stated that “Uncle Julius had occupied a cabin on the place for many years, and derived a respectable revenue from the neglected grapevines.” (43). This shows me that the Julius told this story because he had a vested interest in the vineyard and would be better off if it was purchased so that he could maintain his home in the cabin on the property as well as make some money off of the grapes on the plot of land.

          I do not blame Julius for trying to persuade people of not buying that land that he is living off of and making profits on. But in my opinion the whole story that he told was fabricated and so as not to take away his livelihood. In fact this may have been the land of his master since they both shared the same last name, and there is even indication that the Mars McAdoo may even be his father because the narrator sees that “ he was not entirely black,” (34). This story, much like other ghost or horror stories that are often told, in very unbelievable to me and seems like a ploy to dissuade people from buying the last that contains his life. But I do think that I, the same way that he narrator was able to, would take the story with a grain of salt and be very skeptical of a story that contain goophering and cursing of fruits and would rather say that the reason the vines in the vineyard were ruined by the Yankee con man.