The Beet Fields Book Report

The Beet Field

The Beet Fields was written by author Gary Paulsen. This book is a reflection of the author's own life. The boy is a sixteen year old runaway; who learns through hard work and migrant labor, every day teaches him more about friendship, hunger, profanity and lust. The boy was hardworking and determined to survive. Each day brought new life lessons that he would learn.
He experiences the true meaning of lust when Ruby gets ahold of him. The author shares his own experiences through the boy who is alone in the world for the first time and every day teaches him something about life lessons.

The boy is a 16 year old runaway who finds a job thinning beets with a group of Mexicans.
They take him in but expect him

to earn his keep. He had no money and was starving. The Mexican man offered him food in trade for catching pigeons. The boy who was scared to climb to the top of the roof and catch the pigeons did it just so he could survive and not be hungry. While he was catching the pigeons he became overconfident and fell. The next day the skinny farmer's wife checked on him in the shed. The Mexicans said “ she feels the moon on her shoulders” the boy did not understand and the Mexican explained that it meant she was not being fully satisfied by her husband. The next night the Mexican again told him he must catch the pigeons. Even though the boy was extremely sore from the fall he agreed. However, he was more cautious in his actions and it was a successful adventure. The Mexican had taught him not to give up and to face his fears.

The next job that the boy took was at Bill Flaherty’s farm.

He arrived with the mexicans however, he did not leave with them as he was offered a full time job for the rest of the summer. He accepted the job mainly because he could not stop thinking about the farmer's daughter, Lynette. It was then that he had a steady job and fell in love for the first time. This is where he worked from sun up to sun down.. This went on for weeks. Alice, Bill’s wife would always bring him food and Bill would always pick him up. Until one night, Alice came and got the boy. She told him that Bill was in town and would be home later, however, Alice work the boy up at two in the morning and sent him to town to retrieve her husband. The boy found him in the bar in a huge poker game with lots of money. A huge fight broke out and the boy was told to grab the money off the bar and when the fight finished outside they left. Bill gave the boy almost two hundred dollars of the money. The next night there a sheriff’s car in the driveway. The sheriff was there looking for the boy. He said there was a poster of him in town. Bill told him “he busts his balls for me” that he was a good kid. Again,another life lesson, that working hard had paid off for him. The sheriff told him that if it all checked out he would bring him back. However, the Sheriff took all his money and threw him in a jail cell. It was there that he broke out and ran. He hitched a ride to Oregon. He was pissed and mad. He fell asleep in the man's car on the way to Oregon. When he awoken he was offered some coffee and doughnuts. However, before eating them a peasant came through the windshield and killed the man. The car was wrecked and the boy was scared. He got out of the car and headed down the road. He then picked up by Hazel. She took him to her farm, fed him and cleaned him up and he was grateful for that. Hazel took the boy to the county fair. This is where is ran in to the sheriff that had took all

his money. He was offered a job by a carnival man. He had to tell Hazel he felt a sense of friendship there and did not want her to worry. He even tried to give her back her money. She told him to keep it. He felt a sense of loss. This was something he had never experienced. Another life lesson had been learned.

He showed back up later that night and went to work. He helped tear down the ride and left with the carnival. He was offered a drink. He resented the taste of it as if reminded him of his terrible parents. He fell asleep. He was again offered another drink when he awoke. “It’s too early for me” he replied, knowing that was a good excuse that men used in order not to drink.
During the ride to Harken, he learned what “put out” meant. He learned that Ruby was a stripper. He also learned that nobody liked carnies. He was very interested in woman who “put out”. After watching her show and being totally amazed by her he knew he would never forget her. She was the first girl that he had sex with. He was totally blown away by the experience. Another life lesson, you always remember your first love.