Alternate Ending: The Parsley Garden

The short story “The Parsley Garden,” by William Saroyan, is about an 11 year old boy named Al Condraj who lives in Fresno. Al faces the problem of man vs self. In the beginning, Al wants to get a hammer to build something but has no money. He then comes up with the idea to steal the hammer but after attempting to do so, Al gets caught. Although, His embarrassment didn’t allow him to just walk away and forget about the situation. In the beginning of the story, Al Condraj tries to steal but after getting caught and handling the problem, he learned who he really is.

“He began to shuffle idiotically and talk to himself and then he broke and just ran.” (Page 127)

The Parsley Garden by William Saroyan is a short story that follows a young 10 year old boy named Al. He really wants a hammer because he wants to build a bench in his mother's garden. But, the issue is that he can’t afford the hammer so he attempts to steal the hammer and he gets caught. Al faces internal conflict in the story deciding if he should go back and steal the hammer a second time or work to earn the hammer. Through the plot in the short story The Parsley Garden, William Saroyan present’s the idea that there's always a correct way and an incorrect way to solve a problem.

I sniffed and tried to control my face. No one could ever tell what Mother thought or felt by looking at her.” Mattie looks helpless during this time that no one can really help her mother getting better. Mother don’t want mattie got sick so mattie and grandfather leave

He ran to his parents’ room and jumped on their bed, screaming “Wake up! Wake up! We have to go now!”

Amaris lead her son to her cave. When she looked at her son she started to weep wondering what she did wrong. Aatmaj couldn’t understand why his mother was crying or why he was here.Her tears slowly started to stop and she requested her sons hand. He gently placed his hand in hers.

"I got to keep going," she thinks, stumbling a few more steps. Suddenly an overwhelming weakness started surging through every muscle in her thin frail body. She tried to fight it, as she heads towards a safer location. The feeling became so powerful that she collapses on the cold wet ground.

He ran and ran. After a while he stopped and didn't know where he was.

“What happened?” I whispered, I could barely talk my throat was dry as the desert,” where am I?”

She stood up quickly as soon as her mother made eye contact with her, an instant smile appeared on her mother’s face. Sadly, the same could not be said about her. Instead she looked frightened, perhaps, at least that was what she felt. It was

An urge to run came over him. When he willed himself to move, his limbs stiffened rendering him immobile. Then right before his eyes, a cloaked entity revealed itself. Its predatory crimson eyes glared back at him as it seized him by the neck with its claws piercing his flesh..

She lowered the knife and it grew even brighter. They hid behind the door trying not to make a sound. The tall, skinny lady looked like she hadn’t gotten any sleep in days, and was very concerned of the bright as the sun pumpkin in front of her. She gently touched the pumpkin with the knife, and it looked like guts and pumpkin seeds were about to splatter all over the walls. The knife went about a half and inch in the pumpkin and a very strong gush of wind went in a circle around the pumpkin like it was forming its own tornado. The lady slowly backed away from the pumpkin till she was pressed up against the wall like something was holding her back, in the dark tiny room in the cellar of the house.

There was no warning, shower of sparks, flash of light or puff of smoke. I just blinked and was gone. One second I was sitting on my bed and the next I'm standing on top of a strange stone wall. How and why I wasn't sure, but before I had time to figure it out, a witch appeared out of nowhere and leaned on her battered broomstick, alone in the dark. Her black pointed hat and long cape cast an eerie silver silhouette on the narrow cobblestone street. She swiftly searched the shadows and spotted another witch who was waddling along a ways off. Cackling wildly, she zigzagged across the sky and hovered beside her.

My mouth moved up and down, no sound coming forth from it, and I shielded my throbbing eyes with my right hand as I attempted to look at the host of angels without directly looking at them.

Rae took a deep breath and fell back onto the bed. After everything from last night then waking in hysterics it was too much. She lay there taking deep breaths trying to calm down. Rae felt someone lay down next to her and when she opened her eyes she saw her mother. “Rae, use the breathing technique I taught you.”