We Drink the Wine in France

We Drink the Wine in France Summary | We Drink the Wine in France Summary

This short story is told in eight sections. The story switches back and forth between Harriet and the professor and their thoughts and actions, all told in the voice of an outsider narrator. Harriet is a young girl attending the professor's French class. The professor is a thin, balding man, a different nationality than she.

The first segment finds Harriet and her French professor together, as he bends to help her as she is sitting at her desk during her French lesson. There is a moment when their eyes meet that the French professor is aware of her and she of him on a physical level. He is startled and immediately backs away. Harriet briefly feels snubbed because of his actions. The professor returns to his own desk and surveys the classroom. He feels that foreign children are far worse than foreign adults. The professor looks again at Harriet, who never brings her French schoolwork and is constantly daydreaming. The bell rings and she does not hear it, lost in her thoughts as she is. For a moment their eyes meet again, then it is over. She leaves and his heart beats rapidly as she passes him.

The second segment is about the professor collecting his mail from the post office: he has received a letter from Mexico. He has plans to leave Mississippi for Mexico in the summer, since he has been in Mississippi for three years and it is time to move on. The professor tends to moves on as soon as he becomes aware of the beauty of a place. He tries to ignore the beauty, but he ultimately fails and he has to go away, for the beauty hurts him. He believes that Mexico's beauty will take longer to find him, and when it does he will relocate once again further south. He acknowledges that his escape from beauty has driven him across the world.

The third segment is about Harriet. Harriet thinks her name is ugly and wonders if it would sound better in French. Harriet is not dumb, though the French professor believes her to be. She is intelligent, reads many books, and tries not only to comprehend the information but also make it a part of her, so that it sustains her like food. Out of everyone, she is the student most anxious for knowledge. Harriet sees her French professor with his mail and watches him read his letter. She feels his panic and wonders if he has just received news that someone has died.

The fourth segment finds Harriet having a sexual encounter in a car in which she feels no enjoyment, but pain. She tells her partner that it was good but is really referring to the French phrases she was practicing in her mind while he was making love to her. They rush back to school, afraid they will be late. If they are locked out she will have to scale over a fence, for she could be expelled, but they make it in time after all. The guard who has been drinking winks at her and tries to smell her. Harriet ponders this offense and attempts to construct a sentence in French about it.

The fifth segment finds the French professor eating a meal, bland, as his ulcer requires it to be. He wonders if Harriet notices this ailment of his or how it effects him. He immediately squashes these thoughts and tells himself that he has to stop thinking about Harriet. He reminds himself that he is old and has experienced death firsthand and she is young and her whole life is ahead of her. The magazine he has with him contains his own story about his life in a concentration camp. His wife and daughter were killed at the concentration camp, and it is hinted at that his parents were killed as well. He was at the concentration camp for seven years before his escape. Thanks to the teachings of his parents, he was already fluent in French when he arrived in France. The magazine has sensationalized his story and his life. The magazine has also informed its readers that he is now a French professor teaching at a school for black girls in the South. The professor is angered at the acknowledgment of his existence.

The sixth segment finds Harriet, naked, looking at her body in the glass. She fantasizes that the French professor climbs through her window, undresses, and lies down with her. They do not immediately make love, for he is older and not in a rush. He caresses her as she asks questions about the tattoo of numbers he has on his wrist, which he continually attempts to hide. She knows nothing about his history or even her own. She wants to comfort him and convince him not to hide it away. Only after they have talked do they make love. She doesn't want to make him young again, for she feels that she is in the same place as he is now. A knock at the door ends Harriet's fantasy and she quickly puts on her nightgown and gets into the bed.

The seventh segment finds the French professor in bed also fantasizing about his "stupid" pupil, Harriet. Harriet is younger than any grandchild of his could be; he continues to see Harriet as young, though, but not a child. In her he sees her people's history, their sufferings and their longings. She has imprinted herself on his mind. He fantasizes about using his earnings from the sale of his story to buy two tickets to Mexico so that he can take her with him. He imagines them lying on the beach together and him giving her all his love. The French professor awakens from this dream crying, soaked in his own sweat. He now is thinking of what to say in his resignation letter and thinking about getting some brochures about South America.

The last segment has Harriet practicing her French phrases on her way into class, only to find that the professor has moved on to new phrases that he has her say in repetition. Afterward, he hides behind his desk for the final time.