The Goophered Grapevine

First off, I thought The Goophered Grapevine was very amusing as it humored me a few times. Chestnut introduces Julius as a nice person who is willing to help the narrator. I think Chestnut does this to identify the with the stereotypes of the common black person at this time. Julius' heavy Southern accent and broken English persuades the reader and the narrator that he is not an intelligent person. I think this is part of the performance in which Julius is putting on for his white audience. He may not speak proper English or seem very bright but, truth of the matter is, he has created this story to fend off people from buying this land. Meanwhile he enjoys the benefits of eating and making profit off the grapes in the grapevine. Although his story does not keep the narrator from buying the land, it goes to show that Julius was not as dumb as he was presented to be.