secret+garden

here is an essay that i did in english class about the novel the sectret garden.

Secret Garden Thematic Essay Influence throughout The Secret Garden 10/5/07 Jack Bellamy

“When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen.” (p.7) She was thin and always had a sour expression. Her hair was yellow and so was her face, she was kept out the way at her home in India and was waited on every minute of the day, “by the time she was six years old she was as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived.” (p.8) However after a while in her new surroundings learning new ways and new people she changed, miraculously that horrible little girl disappeared and she became polite, sociable and was no more of a pig than you or I. It is simple fact that one is influenced even slightly by everyone they meet and everywhere they travel in life and these events play the main role in defining who a person is to become in life. This is exactly what happens to Mary throughout the novel The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. She makes friends such as Dickon, Colin and old Ben Weatherstaff who transform her into a new person. She gives life and something back to the world by working on the garden it makes her less selfish, as the garden blossoms so does Mary.

One of the first people Mary meets upon coming to Yorkshire is a young servant in her uncle’s house named Martha. Martha is a young Yorkshire lass from a large family where everybody chips in to the work and cannot believe there are girls as spoilt as Mary out there. Mary never did anything for herself there were always people to do those things for her. Martha however made her start doing simple things like dressing herself, through all the small things Mary had to start doing she gradually became less and less spoilt. In their first meeting Martha said “It’ll do thee good to wait upon thysen a bit. My mother always said she couldn’t see why grand people’s children didn’t turn out fair fools – what with nurses an’ bein’ washed an’ dressed an’ took out to walk as if they was puppies!” She was of course correct in saying so, by waiting on herself a bit more she becomes more self-dependent. Martha even makes her brother Dickon and Mary meet; this proves to be one of Mary’s best friendships throughout the novel.

Dickon is another typical Yorkshire character in the story. He spends his days out on the moor gardening and spending time with the animals he finds. He influences Mary to spend more time outside and to work on the garden. The first time the two meet Dickon has been instructed by his sister to bring some seeds and gardening tools to use with Mary. In India Mary rarely went outside, whether because it was too hot outside or she was just kept inside all the time. To grow properly a child needs sunlight and other things and one of the reasons Mary was so sickly at the start of the book is because she wasn’t outside enough. With dickens influence this all changed and all she could talk about is what her and Dickon were up to during the day. Dickon also plays a role in Mary’s growing up, as he is the first boy she ever meets and she isn’t sure how to act around one but soon gets used to it. It also seems as if Mary has a bit of a childish crush on Dickon. During the book Mary meets her cousin Colin and always tells him tales of what her and Dickon had been doing during the day. Mary and Dickon have great influence on him and make him do amazing things.

Colin is the forgotten child of Mr. Craven, his father cannot stand him as he reminds him too much of his late wife. So Colin spends his days sick and a cripple in bed attended to by nurses in a closed room in the house. The question is, is this boy really sick or does he just think he is as a result of being hidden away? He really just needs a friend and someone who loves him. Mary one night hears someone crying and goes to see who it is, she find a white boy that boy is Colin. He is the only one in the book as spoilt as her because they were both hidden away and given everything. She thinks he is rather pathetic and overreacting and ends up arguing with him over whether he is sick or not. “It’s the best thing that could happen to the sickly pampered thing to have someone to stand up to him that’s as spoiled as himself” (p.160), he now realizes he isn’t really sick and that he shall get better. Mary has changed because she is finally nice to someone and helps them instead of just thinking about herself. He eventually decides to go out with Dickon and Colin to the Secret Garden that he had been hearing so much about. The garden has such a rejuvenating effect on him that he walks again and helps in the garden as his mother had before him. The garden seems to have this effect on many people such as Mary and Ben Weatherstaff.

The garden was originally created by Colin’s mother and in a way her spirit lives on through the garden looking after Colin and everyone else in on the secret. She influences Colin and makes him well again. The garden was overgrown and forgotten when Mary first found it, with hard work it was transformed before her eyes and life came to it again. As new life and well-being came upon the garden it did the same with Mary and made her healthy and kind. It was through the transformation of the garden that Mary changed. She now had something beautiful and wonderful to share with others and she couldn’t wait to bring Colin there. She became a kind girl because of the garden.

Throughout the book Mary transforms before our eyes into someone who we came like rather than the horrible little girl she arrived as. With her new found friends and environment she was changed. Everyone and everything had an effect on her; it was all these things that were what made her transformation. The things with the greatest effect on her were the garden and Dickon. She had friends, got fresh air transforming her from her yellow past and most importantly gave something back to the world through the garden. It is fair to say at the end of the book there is nothing “piggish” about Mary.