Granpa is a colorful old character — earthy, lecherous, and full of life. He is somewhat of a child, shouting and behaving outrageously, bragging about what a "heller" he was, and swearing. He forgets to button up his trousers after using the bathroom. At the beginning of the story, Granpa is the one character who seems completely ready to embrace a new life (he speaks of crushing grapes and letting the juice run down his face). But ironically, when it is time to depart, he refuses to leave the land on which he has lived his entire life. Granpa has to be drugged to be taken off the property and is never again completely conscious after the family leaves. When the family makes camp at the end of the first day of travel, he has a stroke and dies.
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