A "Berry" Expansive World: "Blackberry Winter" as a Coming of Age Story Anonymous College

In the classic short story “Blackberry Winter” by Robert Penn Warren, Seth, the main character, observes the differences between a normal June and a so-called blackberry winter. Each observation of these differences helps Seth, and the reader, contextualize how strange this unseasonal occurrence is – which in turn allows for the arrival of the drifter to be believable and understandable within the context of the story. The combination of these two unusual events, the drifter’s arrival and the blackberry summer, helps Seth begin to see a world beyond the farm, which in turn gives him the spark that presumably helps him survive on his own.

Early in the story, the narrator tells the reader of the importance of routine and reliability, especially to a child. “When you are nine, you know that there are things which you don’t know, but you know that when you know something you know it. You know how a thing has been and you know that you can go barefoot in June” (Warren 63). This passage does more than evoke childhood; it shows the ways that normalcy and routine define the world that Seth lives in. It also sets up the disjuncture between this normalcy and routine and the strangeness of a blackberry winter. The blackberry winter also...