Bayou Farewell

Bayou Farewell The story is told by Mike Tidwell, a man who chooses to hitchhike down the Bayou, catching rides on stranger's boats who he has never met before. He started on his exciting journey, not knowing what would become of him. Relying on strangers kindness, and a great deal of luck. Throughout the book the author travels down the 'Baya', as the Cajun people call it, and meets many people of Cajun background who call this place their home. The Author's main purpose in writing this book is to share with the world the lifestyle of these Cajun people; and how their home is disappearing before their own eyes. He wants to call attention to the rising problem of the disappearing marshlands, with the intention of slowing down the process. Told in the first person point of view. The book gives the reader a true first hand account of the narrators trip down the bayou. It makes it seem less like fiction and more believable. By writing in the first person, the reader is able to feel as if they are there with the narrator experiencing everything he does, as he experiences it. At the beginning of the book, the author begins with his plan- to travel through the bayou. He doesn't have a main goal, just to experience life in the bayou as it happens. He begins his story near the end. Telling of men who he is sad to say goodbye to, while the reader doesn't know anything about how he came to know these men. Following the prologue, he goes back to the beginning, where he first reached the area in Louisiana. He goes on to recount his adventures. Each chapter beginning a new adventure, a new part of the bayou to explore, a new friend to meet. He tells of how friendly the residents of the Cajun coast are. One of his new friends Tim Melancon said “A Cajun will give you de hat off his head on a hot sunny day if you need it.”(pg 63) Throughout the book he brings up the pressing issue of the disappearing marshlands in the territory that he was traveling in. He is quite upset

References: Tidwell, M. (2003). Bayou Farewell (First Vintage Departures Edition, march 2004 ed.). New York: Vintage books. (Original work published 2003)