A Gardens Purpose
The one thing that stood out in my mind from Jamaica Kincaid's essay "Sowers and Reapers" , was the last paragraph "The garden is not a place to lose your cares; the garden is not a place of rest and repose. Even God did not find it so." The garden of Eden was the birthplace of sin. I'm not saying that all gardens are sinful, but the garden of Eden was where it all began. In my mind I think Kincaid wanted to make her reader realize that a garden is not just for us to enjoy and relax. We are not to just pay the person who created such art and then ignore there credibility. I think this really sums up her point on how the most famous gardens are not given the right credit. She used the example of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and how they seemed to take credit for the work that their slaves had done.
I really like how she describes how she payed the person who built her wall (par.15). She didn't mind to pay him because he had done a wonderful job and deserved the credit and money. She also makes the point of saying that he probably has his own house with his own wall, which shows how culture has changed since Jefferson's time. The people that work for us now are equal in people's minds now, but race and slavery separated people into different classes. I really enjoyed Kincaid's essay, it had a lot for me to think about. I think a gardens purpose is for it to be a form of art, that is meant to be enjoyed and given the corret credability.
6 comments:
When I first heard the word garden flowers did not come to my mind. Instead, I thought of tomatoes, cabbage, asparagus, beets, beans and squash. I grew up in the 'boondocks' where we grew most of our food. My grandfather cultivated a garden every year. He still had a draft horse and an old plow; he went out and tilled the land the same way his father had years before. He was on his knees everyday tending the seeds he planted. My grandfather enjoyed this work but that is exactly what it was -work. His garden was not a place of rest or repose at all;yet, he still found peace in it. Maybe my grandfathers garden was not full of flowers or beautiful walls but in my eyes it was still a work of art.
I agree with Kayla when she said flowers are not the first thing that comes to mind when she heard the word garden
I usually think of both vegetables and flowers because every summer my mother plants tons of tomato plants and many different types of flowers. Her gardens are always very pretty because there are lots of pretty blooms from the flowers and pretty red tomatoes on the vines.
My mom works hard to keep her gardens looking pretty. She waters them everyday and she picks the weeds out when they grow. So having a garden is a lot of work.
In response to the orginal post and Kayla and Rachel's comments gardens are both a place of peace and relaxation as well as hard work. In the summer I help my mother tend to her flower bed(a smaller portion of a garden) and it is hard work as well as expensive. We have to buy flowers to plant, potting soil and weed killer. The flowers have to be watered everyday as well. All this hard work does not go to say that i dont enjoy doing it. Once everything is all done i enjoy looking at the pretty flowers and it is a peaceful site. Anything that is worth having is going to require some hard work but you should be able to enjoy it as well. If you can't find peace and relaxation in whatever you take your time to make, what's the point in the beginning?
I agree that gardens require a lot of work. However, I believe that God intentionally made the Garden of Eden as a paradise. I believe that it was meant as a peaceful resting place. Adam never once did any work in the Garden. However, after Adam and Eve sinned, they were cast out of the Garden and mankind was forced to labor and toil in order to reap a harvest.
Caylenne, I'm not too sure about why you mentioned sin to be born in Eden. Although I believe it to be true, I'm not sure I followed the purpose of you stating it. I also thought the same thing when I read the article but I think the authors purpose of that quoted statement was to show that God worked in the "garden" (or i considered 'creation') and that it was not a place of rest and that there was a lot of work involved.
When I said that sin was born in eden, I meant the tree of knowledge. Adam and Eve sinned and sin was born when their eyes were opened to decieve good and bad.
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