How Green Was My Valley

Now that he is writing up his life story, Huw thinks about “the structure of [his] life” (96). He thinks about the slag heap, almost hearing it shift and move outside. He remembers the morning when Reverend Gruffydd came to take him out on a walk. This is the first time that Huw has left the house since his injury, and he rides on the priest’s shoulders. They walk past the slag heap, through the village, and hear the sounds of the miners in the pit. Huw asks whether the pit managers are allowed to simply deposit the slag from the pit on the side of the hill, forming it into a mass of black, rigged filth and waste. Reverend Gruffydd says that there is “nowhere else to put it” (99). Huw is pleased to be in the countryside again. Huw and the priest collect flowers for Beth and Bronwen. Back at home, Huw hears people talking about his future for the first time. He always believed that he would follow in his father’s footsteps and work in the pit. Reverend Gruffydd suggests that he might receive an education, but Huw rejects the idea of becoming a doctor given that the local doctor predicted that he would never walk again, which has now been proven wrong.