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Essay about community.gardens
Essay about community.gardens
Character development introduction
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How a Community Garden Changes the Lives of Two Characters Plants can teach us how to nurture living things and help people carry out their responsibilities in life.In Paul Fleischmen’s novel Seedfolks, two main characters who change because of the garden are Curtis and Sae-Young.Fleischmen’s vacant lot garden changes the lives of Curtis and Sae-Young, because the garden helps Curtis by gaining a better perspective of what he should do in life.Sae-Young was changed by the garden, because she felt like she was accepted and could socialize with others. To continue, Curtis was full of himself and then realized he should think more about others than himself.That is why Curtis planted the tomatoes for Lateesha, because it is her favorite snack.
Many aspects of life are explored in Barbara Kingsolver's novel, The Bean Trees. A young woman named Marietta Greer from Kentucky wanted to strike out on her own, leaving behind everything she ever knew, just to start a new life. Many children want to do this at an early age so they can experience life on their own yet they don't realize the dangers involved.. Everyone that leaves the solace of their own home needs loving support to keep them going through life.
Abandonment plays a major role in Barbara Kingsolver's novel. It links all the characters together. Once one abandons, or is abandoned, they find someone else. They all help each other grow and become stronger. Even with something as horrible and hurtful as abandonment, hope can be found. Taylor explains it perfectly to Turtle when she talks about bean trees, "'There's a whole invisible system for helping out the plant that you'd never guess was there.' I loved this idea. 'It's just the same as with people. The way Edna has Virgie, and Virgie has Edna, and Sandi has Kid Central Station, and everyone has Mattie" (227-228). Everyone is linked together and each person has someone to help. This whole cycle is caused by abandonment. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver shows that can be hope and love found in any situation, even in abandonment.
Pollan, Michael. The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World. New York: Random
For instance, in Sam’s chapter, a young boy named Royce is introduced. He is an African American teenager that Sam hires to help him plant something in the garden. People automatically assumed he was a trouble maker or someone who couldn’t be trusted. Later in Amir’s chapter, it is revealed that Royce was one of three men who stopped a robber trying to steal a woman’s purse. This is when everyone forgets about the previous stereotypes and realizes that Royce is actually a very generous, trustworthy teen. So in addition to helping people overcome their prejudice, the garden also helped the people who were victims of stereotyping. It made them feel like a real citizen in the community. On page 50, Nora explains, “Many people grew plants from their native lands- huge Chinese melons, ginger, cilantro, a green the Jamaicans call Callaloo, and many more.” Later on the page she continues, “We, like out seeds were now planted in the garden” Nora’s first quote explains that people that may have been judged for bringing their culture to Cleveland, now felt proud to show off all of the unique parts of it. Her second quote explains that the garden was making people finally feel welcome because all of the stereotypes were melting away. This shows that when people from different communities come together, it can make them stronger and more
“I had come to Arizona expecting an endless sea of sand dunes . . . But this desert was nothing like that. There were bushes and trees and weeds here, exactly the same as anywhere else, except that the colors were different and everything alive had thorns” (Kingsolver 217). This quote, from Barbara Kingsolver's, The Bean Trees, describes the Arizona landscape that is abounding in life even in the absence of water. Central to the novel, the theme of surviving in a harsh environment is intrinsic to plants as well as the people. Throughout the story, the characters must push beyond their previous limitations in order to take on the injustices around them. To create such dynamic characters, Kingsolver looked upon the knowledge and experiences of her own life. Her memories of divisions as an adolescent, college degree in biology, and political ties as a human rights activist all provided the foundation for her novel, The Bean Trees.
Walker, Alice. (1974). “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.” Ways of Reading. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, pp. 694-701.
The protagonist shows his character’s perspective and seems to be a reliable narrator because his opinion about everyone bound to do something wrong is true. Although he is truthful, he is not bold enough to speak out. Like Hiyama, “It’s become a hard world to write in.” He, also, didn’t want to expose himself by writing. The author’s theme expresses even if you are punished it’s more honorable to speak up, then lay back and not change. The symbols of pillars and trees are vegetized or planted cats, dogs, and people. These symbolize punishment and having to be embarrassed in front of the city to encourage others not to free speak. Being embarrassed can be shown when people want to grow into a tree faster by not eating. They become emotionless and quickly forget about others. When the pillar becomes a tree, it helps fill the society with more greenery and forget about the free-speaking people. The steps of how the tree was developed was explained in this imagery,“The face had become a brownish color tinged with green, and the eyes are tightly shut...The body, which has become a tree, and even the face no longer move at all.” The metaphor, “Dried grasses that never flower.” compares people in the society to grass and flowers. Meaning eventually everyone will become a pillar and the society will not change. They will only become a flower if someone speaks up and people grow from learning that change their
In the story “Seedfolks” Wendell is called by Ana the only other white person that lives in the building. He rushes up there thinking something is wrong, but in reality she just wanted him to go outside and water the bean plant. The bean plant was planted by another girl in the building named Kim. Wendell goes downstairs to water the plants, but when he gets down there he sees Kim. So Wendell just smiles and walks away slowly but as he walks away it gives him ideas. Wendell realizes that the girl is committed to her garden and he does not have very much in his life that he is committed to. He also see that the girl was inspired by the circle that he drew around the one plant. So Wendell basically tell himself to stop moping around and start
...cultivating the garden lets the group of characters keep away from the unfair world in which pessimism is present, while cause and effect are easily measurable in the garden.
the modern garden. She interprets how we have the need to control and create what we consider perfect with our sciences and labs. While rules reign, sanitation demands, and socialization take control of the perfect scene for a pleasant environment, the unpleasant side of these malls such as their trash is kept out of the vision of the consumer. Most of these consumer products that are used to entice the population to enter into this heavenly place on earth became waste that is not entirely recycled
One of these points is that with enough passion and grit one can start a serious social movement. The example here is Alan Chadwick gaining a huge following despite coming on campus to just be a gardener. The man was so influential that he literally effected people for the rest of their lives, “Chadwick was so great a teacher that Lingemann 's interest in gardening became her life 's focus” (p 279) This line of logic is strong because Chadwick went from a nobody to one of the most influential people in his field. He built up his reputation and following with pure passion. One other strong point is the connection between nurturing a garden and nurturing a person. Waters makes the point that humans intrinsically want to protect something growing and look after it, “Watching something infinitely fragile sprout in warm, fertile earth and nursing it along to the point where it can survive and grow strong is practically definitive of what it is to be human.” (p 280) This point is strong because there truly is no joy like raising something small and weak to become strong. The evidence here is that people innately feel the need to have children and then protect them. One weak point in the essay is Waters subtle persuasion that the best way to do agriculture is the most natural way. She states, “Alumni apprentices have started their own farms,
In David Wagoner’s poem, “My Father’s Garden”, the speaker describes his father’s job as a fruitful gardener that his father find very productive but does not finally yield anything of value. Through the use of vivid imagery, we are presented with two contrasting outlooks on life. In four stanzas, Wagoner’s use of imagery and metaphors shows us what he thinks of his father’s job, his education and subsequently, the choices his father has made throughout his life.
Although imagery and symbolism does little to help prepare an expected ending in “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, setting is the singular element that clearly reasons out an ending that correlates with the predominant theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing a grim realism from the cruel world. Despite the joyous atmosphere of an apparently beautiful world of abundant corn and cotton, death and hatred lies on in the woods just beyond the sharecropper cabin. Myop’s flowers are laid down as she blooms into maturity in the face of her fallen kinsman, and the life of summer dies along with her innocence. Grim realism has never been so cruel to the innocent children.
There are two settings for this story. The first and main setting is an eye appealing garden next to Giovanni Guasconti’s room which is located in Padua, Italy. This garden is used in this story as a symbol for the Garden of Eden. The garden is described by Hawthorne in such a way that the reader can almost picture a garden that is alive with vibrant colors and an array of flowering plants and shrubs. There are a variety of types of plants and herbs growing in the garden. Some of the plants are vines, some are growing in decorative urns, and some have grown wild until they were wrapped around statues (2217). The entire garden was “veiled and shrouded in a drapery of hanging foliage” (2217). The plants in the garden “seemed fierce, passionate, and even unnatural” to Giovanni (2225). Some of the plants in the garden “crept serpent-like along
Have you ever planted something before? Well if you have or haven’t, I have and now I actually love gardening, whether it’s a vegetable, fruit, or flower. My late Godmother, Tanya Ward, showed me the joys of gardening. She instilled in me the desire to grow many different types of plants. She helped change this inside loving girl into one who enjoys the outdoors.