Johnny Appleseed and Today’s Apples Essays

Johnny Appleseed and Today’s Apples Essays Johnny Appleseed and Today’s Apples Paper Johnny Appleseed and Today’s Apples Paper â€Å"The Apple† details the story of both the fruit, but more importantly, Johnny Appleseed, the legendary man who, two hundred years ago, crossed the Midwestern part of the country (Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana area), spreading apple seeds around in order to encourage apple trees to grow.   His real name was John Chapman, and he is said to be something of a strange man, one who was convinced of his duality with nature (he was a vegetarian, never rode horses or chopped down trees, and punished himself for hurting any creature, no matter how small, and even by accident). The author is attempting to trace Johnny Appleseed’s path across Ohio, and to discover his true reasons for planting apples.   According to science, apple seeds do not produce ‘normal’ apple trees.   Only tree cloning can do this.   Apple seeds produce terribly bitter fruit that is usually used for producing alcohol.   So, Johnny Appleseed was bringing alcohol to the colonies.   He moved continually, planting apple seeds where he knew a town would spring up in a few years, and when it did, he would sell the small apple trees for profit.   This was good business practice, as most people selling land required that the buyers plant orchards, to encourage them to keep and use their land. Sweetness is another popular reason for the apple.   Sugar wasn’t common in the frontier times, and any sweetness came from fruit.   The apple was among the sweetest.   This sweetness, of course, lent itself well to the creation of alcohol.   Alcohol was necessary, though, because it was a safer drink than water, even for children, in a time when water was often infested with cholera or worse. A man named Bill takes the author around Apple Country and shows him Johnny Appleseed’s path.   They walk across country, paddle down rivers, and look at apple trees that had been planted by Appleseed himself.   Along the way, the author continues to ask Bill biographical questions about Appleseed, such as the rumors about his child bride who left him, why he never married, and how he lived everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Today, many varieties of apples still grow, some propagated by Johnny Appleseed.   Legends of Appleseed still exist in many different areas, as the author finds out.   The apple, and the man who loved it, are still a large part of today’s folklore, and real tradition.