Review Of Evensky's Dry Goods By Bette Greene

Bette Greene was a Jewish girl who was born and raised in Arkansas. She lived in a community full of Christian fundamentalists, so her family was somewhat looked down upon. Her family owned a store called Evensky’s Dry Goods. She became a professional writer at nine when she wrote a story about a barn fire and sold it to Commercial Appeal for eighteen cents. Occasionally the Hebrew Watchman would have a piece of her writing (Greene – Encyclopedia of Arkansas).

This book is set in the South, so the book involves a lot of prejudice amongst the people in the town. The Christian fundamentalist townspeople do not quite accept the Bergen family because they are Jewish. In the little town in Arkansas that the story takes place, nothing exciting happens on a day-to-day basis, so many people gathered to watch the German prisoners of war coming into town. The townspeople did not accept

The first time they met was when the POW’s came into her father’s store to purchase field hats since they had been spending so much time “passing out” in Mr. Jackson fields when they were supposed to be picking cotton (Greene 40). Anton wanted to buy stationary, pencils, and a pencil sharpener in addition to his straw hat, but he was having trouble finding the pencil sharpeners, so Patty walked over and helped him find the pencil sharpeners (43). In that moment, Patty thought that he was not a “bad man.” A couple days later, Patty was walking home when she recognized Anton running from the depot (81). Eventually, Patty went home for supper thinking about how hungry Anton must be (83). Despite the possibility of being beaten by her father, Patty brought him some leftovers (83-84). The next morning, Patty asked for hard-boiled eggs with the shells left on, not telling anyone that they were for Anton (85). Eventually, her family started wondering where all the food was