Summary Of The Monkey Garden By Sandras Cisneros

When a child transitions from his/her childhood to adulthood, he/she undergoes many changes. Some of these changes are liked, for example freedom, trust, etc. Others are hated, like indepence, responsibility, etc. These changes are represented in The Monkey Garden by Sandras Cisneros. In the story, a family with a money move and this allows the monkey garden to open up to the children of the neighborhood resulting in many child and adult activities taking place. The monkey garden represents the main character transitioning from a child to an adult.
At the beginning of the story, the monkey moves to Kentucky. This represents the start of the main character’s transition to adulthood. At first, the children of the neighborhood would not go near the monkey garden because they were scared of the monkey with all its screaming. After the monkey leave the

children are now brave enough to go and explore the monkey garden similar to teenagers exploring the world.

As time goes on the monkey garden starts to fill up with old cars and the plants start to die out. This is similar to when kids realize the harsh reality of the world. It is not always filled with peaceful clouds and rainbows, where all the attention is on them. At the monkey garden the children could do whatever they wanted to do because there were no parents around. This represents children growing up and their parents giving them more freedom. The freedom that the children get also come with many important decisions. Due to the lack of parents, the children will often start to make decisions that they should not make. Some of these are minor like eating a lot of candy, others are major like participating in adult games. This represents the

decisions that teenagers face in the real world. Teenagers are often faced with the choice of doing drugs, alcohol, etc. Some other minor decisions are weather they should study for a test, stay out past curfew, etc. Due to these decisions that the children make, the monkey garden represents the loss of innocence. The children are not children anymore, they made bad decisions so now they have to face the consequences. The children are experiencing what adults experience everyday. All of the children are entering the adult phase weather they notice it or not.
The main character notices Sally changing into an adult. When the monkey moved and the children started to play in the monkey garden, they would always run around and play. One day the narrator asked Sally to play with her, but Sally said that she does not want to. Running around and playing is stereotyped as an child thing. When Sally chose to stay and talk to the boys instead of playing she is leaving her child self behind. Instead of playing a “child game”, Sally participated in an adult game. When the boys stole Sally’s keys they told her that she would not get them back unless she kissed them. This represents an adult game because two people, who are not related, kissing each other is considered an adult thing. The fact that Sally accepted this game, proves that she wants to move onto participating in adult activities. When this happens the narrator goes and tells the mother of one of the parents, but the mother just ignored her and let them keep going. This represents the trust that is given by parents to their teenage children. After the main character confronts the boys and they make fun of her she runs off and cries. This is because she is realizing that they are not children anymore. She looks at her feet and says that she does not recognize them anymore. This represents the changes that children go through while becoming an adult. The personalities are completely different. Sally and the main character of the story undergo changes while transitioning from child to adult.