The Secret Garden and British Culture
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Deborah Hautzig was first published in 1911. It takes place in Yorkshire, England at Misselthwaite manor. It is a story about a ten year old Anglo-Indian girl named Mary Lennox. Mary lives with her parents who neglect her, leaving her in the care of servants. An outbreak of cholera, an infectious disease that causes severe watery diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration and even death if untreated, caused her parents and watchers to die. This led her to be left in her home alone. After she was found, Mary, briefly lived with an English clergyman before being sent to Yorkshire with her uncle Archibald Craven, where she grew up. With this background knowledge in mind, I will proceed to go into greater detail on how British culture influenced the writing of this book, and how this book influenced British culture, but first you need to know what character deveopments occur within The Secret Garden.
The Secret Garden made its mark upon history as a famous piece of literary art by influencing the idea of romanticism in the daily lives of many. While coming out as a version on an American magazine beginning in 1910, before being released in August 1911. Set in England, it is one of Burnett's best novels and is widely received as a classic of English literature. Because of the huge success is was widely reviewed upon and integrated thoughts about it into the minds of those who read it. A
The two housewives have a passionate love for gardening and bestow their love and appreciation towards their gardens. In the twentieth century, gardening was advocated as beneficial to one’s life and family. In the New England Quarterly, the journal, “Gardening as ‘Women’s Culture’ in Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s Short Fiction,” states,“The time women spent in
The garden is the vehicle in which the narrator reveals her reluctance to leave behind the imaginary world of childhood and see the realities of the adult world. The evidence supporting this interpretation is the imagery of hiding. The narrator uses the garden to hide from reality and the
A particular question that is seldom pondered over and yet is capable of carrying so many doubts within it: who are we? Who are we as a society who can do the things we do? Who are we who can suffer from them? Award winning poet and essayist Susan Griffin confronts these distinct questions in her work titled, “Our Secret”. Griffin believes that a basic understanding of the things that play a part in the growth of an individual is essential to understanding who we are. The way a child is raised dictates how that child is going to become later on in life. One of the distinct highlights of Griffin’s essay was her use of describing the progress of the V1 rockets in World War II. Griffin studies the aspects of human nature by using these missile developments as a metaphor to symbolize the raising of children and the factors that can influence a growing individual. One of the prime figures that Griffin uses pertaining to these growing individuals was Heinrich Himmler, leader of the Nazi secret police. Griffin uses Himmler as an example to demonstrate how big of a role a parental figure can play in the development of a person.
The Golden Day by Ursula Dubosarsky is a work of fiction that’s filled with ‘coming-of-age’ themes, mystery, and allusions; such as Ronald Ryan, Ena Thompson Memorial Gardens, and the Vietnam war. Within the story, there are many mysterious, creepy, and odd things. For example, being lost in a dark cave, a missing teacher, and talking to a “ghost.” It all began with the new teacher, Miss Renshaw bringing her class, that’s consist of 11 schoolgirls, to the garden to talk about death. In the garden, they come upon a mysterious poet and gardener named Morgan, who refuses to be
Characters overcome what life brings them and finding meaning in the things that they have in The Samurai's Garden by Tsukiyama. Stephan who experiences this watches as Matsu and Sachi work in their gardens. The gardens represent their gardener’s soul because they nurture and dictate everything that happens within the gardens walls.
Secrets fill the garden. In Gail Tsukiyama’s novel “The Samurai’s Garden”, she uses metaphors to show the audience the garden and its’ curator in a mysterious light. Tsukiyama’s character Stephen gazes upon Matsu’s garden with wonder and amazement. He compares it to another world, “The garden is a world filled with secrets… Matsu’s garden whispers at you, never shouts; it leads you down a path hoping for more, as if everything is seen, yet hidden” (Samurai 31). Tsukiyama creates another world within the fences of the garden. She integrates the secrets of its’ caretaker into the aura of the garden. The metaphor to another world impacts the reader by allowing the reader to see the mystery and beauty that shrouds it. The cloak of beauty shows
The Secret Life of Bees is a novel written by Sue Monk Kidd. It is about a girl, named Lily, who goes to another town to seek answers about her mother. In the novel Lily starts maturing throughout the course of months. Lily has many mother figures who teach her different lessons. August teaches Lily that race doesn’t matter, June teaches Lily about love, and Rosaleen teaches Lily that the truth isn’t always good.
In “The Mower Against Gardens,” Andrew Marvell uses a conceit to liken the plants in an English garden to the women of a brothel, exemplifying the theme of man’s perversion of nature. Three main metaphors are used, the first being mankind as the brothel owner. The second metaphor is the flowers as prostitutes, and the final metaphor is the flowers’ offspring as abandoned children.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Guerilla Gardener video, and what Ron Finley discussed. I have always been a sucker for healthy eating and producing my own food, so being able to hear his ideas had kept me interested throughout the entire video.
"The Chrysanthemums" introduces us to Elisa Allen, a woman who knows she has a gift for growing things, but it seems to be limited to her garden. Diligently working in her garden, Elisa watches as men come and go, living their lives unconfined, wondering what it must feel like to have that freedom. That emotion is revealed as Elisa gases at her husband and acquaintances talking, "she looked down toward the men by the tractor shed now and then." As she tills the soil for her chrysanthemums Elisa tills the thoughts in her head. The garden she so desperately maintained represents her world. A world that will only flourish if nourished. Emotional nourishment and stimulation is what Elisa lacked and longed for. The garden is limited in space to grow and so is her marriage. The garden is safe, non-threatening and so is her world. The garden contains many different elements that make it what it is, although unseen, and if the proper nourishment is not given it will die, as with Elisa.
Sarah Addison Allen’s Garden Spells is a story of a small town with an enchanting dust of magic just below the surface. Reading Allens writting is as fufilling as the first sip of coffe in the morining, as unlaxing as a warm bath, and as comforting as crying to your mom after a particular nerving day.Garden spells some how kept me on the edge of my seat while putting me completley at ease all at the same time. A tale of a small town , overcoming the past, and two sisters finding their way back to each other, you won't be able to put the book down. This book taught me how to love and cherish every minute of my life but never settle for good enough. And of course that a touch magic is always just around the
One of the 20th century’s most important and influential modernist poets was Hilda Doolittle, more commonly known as H.D. While other artists struggled to find a new mode of expression, H.D. found imagism and created intense poems delving into very specific depictions. In “Sheltered Garden,” H.D. employs intense imagery using nature in order to put forth an opinion or viewpoint, which is also highlighted by another poem titled, “Sea Rose.” By analyzing these two poems, one can more fully comprehend the modernist movement/mentality and how H.D. shaped her own form of poetry. In “Sheltered Garden,” the poet uses the image of a garden to not only push against society’s constraint of women, but also its imposed ideas of beauty, creating tension between the natural and the unnatural.
"The budding rose above the rose full blown," writes William Henry Wordsworth, elevating the process of emerging, changing and evolving over those already developed, established and matured. While Wordsworth’s remark regards a rose, the statement also accurately describes Katherine Mansfield’s protagonist in The Garden Party. The narrative focuses on a wealthy family from New Zealand, jaded by elite lifestyle and prominent social standing. The youngest daughter, Laura, "the budding rose" of the story, seeks to break the constraints of upper class society, causing her to be both more mature and compassionate than other members of her well to do family.
In the 16-1800s having a garden was thought to be a necessity of life says Martha White in Traditional Home Remedies. (White 2000)
To truly understand and enjoy The Secret Garden, one need only to watch with an open mind and allow the story to sink in slowly. Forget the book, which is a