Structure

In his introduction to "The Harvest," Julián Olivares quotes from an unpublished manuscript in which Rivera commented on the construction of a short story: "The conflict or problem of each story is what interests us as a story. The more intriguing the conflict, the more the story will interest the reader." This, says Rivera, is because every reader has a natural desire to find out how the conflict is resolved. In "The Harvest," the interest is generated by the problem, or mystery, of exactly what Don Trine does when he goes off on his walks. The development of the mystery dictates the structure of the story, which proceeds in alternating sections of narration and dialogue. With each section, as the youngsters continue to speculate about what Trine does, the reader's interest in the mystery grows. It is only in the last section, which is longer than...