The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 Group

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In "The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963," was Kenny really in a whirlwind?

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Posted by gmail on Monday December 31, 2007 at 5:08 PM and tagged with kenny, plot, the watsons go to birmingham-1963, whirlwind.

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  1. dymatsuoka

    eNotes Editor

    It was a whirlpool, not a whirlwind, in which Kenny was trapped, and it was very real.  Grandma Sands told Kenny that a young boy "got caught up in some kinda whirlpool" at Collier's Landing, and a sign by the water itself warned of a "bad drop off" and danger for swimmers.  In reaching for a turtle in the deeper water, Kenny indeed found that the "ground under (his) feet started sliding away", and when he attempted to swim toward shore, something in the currents kept pulling his head under the water.  Byron, in trying to scare Kenny from going into the water, had earlier personified the danger, calling it the "Wool Pooh...Winnie the Pooh's evil twin", and in his terror Kenny's imagination giave the underwater force monstrous qualities, "big and gray with square hard-looking fingers", but it was not an imaginary entity that threatened Kenny's life - it was a real whirlpool (Chapter 13).

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/watsons-go-qn/

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    Posted by dymatsuoka on Wednesday January 2, 2008 at 9:30 PM