67 pages • 2 hours read
Tomás RiveraAnd The Earth Did Not Devour Him
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1971A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 2-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Children Couldn’t Wait”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, mental illness, physical abuse, death by suicide, and death
It is an unusually hot April. Children work in the fields alongside adults. The workers become thirsty waiting for “the boss” to bring them water. Despite the heat, he only comes twice a day, so the workers refresh themselves by drinking from the cattle’s water tank. The boss threatens not to compensate the workers, who are paid by the hour, if he catches them stopping work to drink. Parents encourage their children to wait and work, so the children pretend to go to the bathroom next to the tank to sneak drinks of water. The boss realizes this but wants to catch the children in the act so he can have an excuse not to pay them after they have already done their work.
The boss decides to scare the children by firing his shotgun. He accidentally hits a child in the head and kills him. Workers later discuss how the boss got off but lost his money and his sanity, eventually attempting but failing to die by suicide.
