Flower Garden

Tonight I read a short story called Flower Garden By Shirley Jackson. The story takes place in a small town in Vermont. I am not sure in the time period that the story takes place. The story starts off with introducing two of the many protagonists, Young Mrs. Winning and her mother-and-law Mrs. Winning. Shirley Jackson tells us about Young Mrs. Winning’s dream house, well cottage. She tells us everything from the color of the rooms to the plants in the garden. Young Mrs. Winning was excited when she heard that a young widow and her child where going to move in to “her house”. When they finally moved in the widow did everything that Young Mrs. Winning would have done, from the outside color to the gate in the front of the house. When she saw the house Young Mrs. Winning knew that she had to go meet this fine lady. When they did finally meet each other they became good friends and they shared more in common than just taste of style, they both had a 5 year old at the time. Her name was Mrs. MacLane and her sons name was Davy and Mrs. Winning’s boy was named Howard. Over the next few months they became even closer but things started to change when word got around that Mrs. MacLane had done the unthinkable, she hired Mr. Jones, a black man, to help with the garden. When she did that everyone came to conclusion and none were right. Mr. Jones had a 12 year old named Billy and he and Davy played a lot. The nice, young, and pretty Mrs. MacLane had noticed that she lost the smiles and the waves and the morning talks with Mrs. Burton who lived behind. They all became glares, laughing behind her back, and people not even saying a word to her. When she noticed a difference in the people she noticed a difference in the garden. The most significant thing to me about the story is the garden. The garden to me represents the attitude of the people. Mrs. MacLane was looking forward to a new beginning in her life. In the story she said, “It’s even better than I hoped… Things grow so much better here than almost anywhere else.” once Mrs. MacLane hired Mr. Jones the attitude of the people in the town changed dramatically. They felt that it was inappropriate for Mrs. MacLane to hire a black man. As the attitudes of the people changed so did Mr. MacLane’s garden. Young Mrs. Winning was embarrassed that people would judge her because of what Mrs. MacLane did. So to prevent her from being judged she took herself out of the equation and their friendship became a smile in the Market. When Mrs. Winning was confronted by Mrs. MacLane she said, “I don’t know what you mean, Mrs. Winning said to herself, I sound exactly like Mother Winning, and realized, I’m enjoying this, just as she would.” “When I first came, everyone was so nice… And the garden was going so well.” The problem was the town’s people weren’t ready to be as accepting as Mrs. MacLane. Their attitudes were frozen in time. Even young Mrs. Winning wanted to take her hand and ask Mrs. MacLean to come back to be one of the nice people again.