The Harvest

The Harvest Summary | Detailed Summary

"The Harvest" is Tomas Rivera's short story about a migrant worker named Don Trine whose love for the land he works is more powerful than any amount of backbreaking toil.

The story begins at the "end of September and the beginning of October," and the story's narrator describes the migrant workers talking about the end of work in this part of the country and their imminent return to Texas. The workers talk about the harvest and whether or not they will return to this area again next year.

Some of the workers begin to take long walks around the fields, particularly Don Trine, who walks every afternoon by himself and makes it very clear that he does not want anyone to join him. Some of the other workers discuss the mission of Don's walks and cannot understand why he wants to walk alone all the time and why he gets angry when anyone tries to follow him. The other workers are annoyed at Don's behavior because the land is not his, but he acts as if he has proprietary rights to it.

The other workers are fueled by active imaginations and speculate that Don is hiding money out in the fields and does not want anyone else to see his hiding places. Every time Don realizes that he is being followed, he changes his path and returns back to his own chicken coop. Some believe that Don has found a buried treasure and is carrying away small amounts at a time.

Whatever the point of view, the others feel sure that Don's secretive behavior revolves around money. The others think that Don must have accumulated a significant amount of money in his life in spite of any treasure because he never married and has no children for whom he is responsible. Even today, Don's spending habits are very frugal, spending just a little on food and a beer once in awhile.

One day, some of the young workers decide to follow Don once again, paying particular attention to his route. Don enters a grove and emerges in a west field. He seems to spend a significant amount of time at a ditch that crosses this particular field. The younger men decide to return on Saturday to investigate the ditch to see if they can find any clues.

On Saturday, the young men are filled with anticipation as they approach the ditch to begin their inspection and are perplexed to find many deep holes that are all empty. An empty coffee can lying nearby is obviously the tool used to dig the foot-deep, uniformly dug holes. The young men cannot come up with any explanation for the strange situation and decide to hide and wait until Don returns so that they can see his behavior.

The young men see Don Trine return to the hole-filled ditch area late on Monday. As Don begins his ritualistic digging, the young men note that they were correct in their assumption of the coffee can's use. Watching silently, the young men see Don methodically dig a hole and test its depth by inserting his forearm and remaining in this position for a little while.

Don unsuccessfully attempts to light a cigarette with his free hand while he remains fixed with his other arm buried in the ground. Amazingly, once Don retrieves his arm, he repeats the activity and buries his arm in yet another hole. The young men do not understand this unusual behavior. They return to the other workers and report what they have seen. The fact that there is no money or treasure involved leads the others to believe simply that Don Trine is crazy, and they forget about the whole incident.

One of the young men, however, is intrigued by Don Trine's activity and goes to a field the next day to mimic Don's procedures. Almost immediately, the young man feels the earth move around his arm, caressing it warmly, and understands Don Trine's activities. The young man surmises that Don is not crazy; he merely likes to feel the sleeping earth. The young man repeats the ritual every day until a hard freeze arrives, and he vows to re-visit the practice again after the harvest next year.