Response to "Winter Wheat"

Just to comment on, her grandfather’s stories remind me of Albert Finney in the movie, Big Fish; how he was always telling stories that never seemed completely true or were overly elaborated. But as far as her writing structure, McDuffie seems to write as if she’s reliving her memories that also correlate to what is most significant to her. For example, in the first scene the house on the wheat fields is symbolizing mobility: her grandfather was always moving around. Then she goes on to explain his extreme stories and how he was a hero in all of them. I can see where she doesn’t fully believe her grandfather stories, when “…and the older we got the more he expected us to believe”—McDuffie is subtlety telling readers that she was intrigued by her grandfather, but did not necessarily believed everything he said was realistic. I get the sense that she wanted to know her grandfather based on the facts, instead of fiction or fantasy because she fills in the holes of his stories by asking her father. I also think McDuffie longs for stability and with the descriptions she hears at his funeral, she doesn’t “recognize” her grandfather through these statements. Her writing has a sense of longing for the truth, where she leaves the readers to believe she will find reality and stability.