My Grandmothers Garden By The Garden

In “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens”, Alice Walker looks to educate us on the hardships that almost all black women face when trying to express themselves through things such as art. She delves into many sociological and psychological concepts that have affected black women throughout human history. These concepts and ideologies created a realm for mass exclusion, discrimination, and oppression of many African American women, including Alice Walker’s Mother, who Alice utilizes as one of her particular examples. The writing thematically aims to show how these concepts of sexism, racism, and even classism have contributed to black women’s lack of individuality, optimism, and fulfillment for generations. The author does a tremendous job of defending and expanding upon her arguments. She has a credible background, being a black woman that produces the art of literature herself. As well as being raised by one, Walker’s first-hand experience warrants high regard. Therefore, her use of abstract and introspective language is presented clearly and convincingly. Also, her use of evidence and support from sources like Jean Toomer, Virginia Woolf, and Phillis Wheatley, all produce more validity for her stance through poems, quotes, and even experiences. All these individuals have their own accounts pertaining to the oppression of black women and their individuality. Successfully arguing that the artistry plights of black women described in “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” are

In the book Seedfolks, a character named Kim travels to vacant lot in her town, Cleveland Ohio, to plant Lima Beans to honor her father, who passed away before Kim was even born. While Kim is in the process of planting her beans and watering them daily, people around the vacant lot being to notice her actions . Many people follow what Kim is doing and make there own little garden, which causes the community of Cleveland to be together and to communicate to one another. Throughout the book many character come and go to the garden, and each character shares something in common with someone else apart of this Community Garden. The novel Seedfolks shows that the garden has change everyone’s perspectives on things, and made them feel apart of something they might have never been apart of before. Some people that are involved are KIm, Ana, Sae Young, Maricela, and Curtis.

The two housewives have a passionate love for gardening and bestow their love and appreciation towards their gardens. In the twentieth century, gardening was advocated as beneficial to one’s life and family. In the New England Quarterly, the journal, “Gardening as ‘Women’s Culture’ in Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s Short Fiction,” states,“The time women spent in

The garden is the vehicle in which the narrator reveals her reluctance to leave behind the imaginary world of childhood and see the realities of the adult world. The evidence supporting this interpretation is the imagery of hiding. The narrator uses the garden to hide from reality and the

The three writers grew up in different places. In the Essay, “The Soul of Black Folks” , Du Bois illustrates the soul of a black young boy who saw his life in two different worlds. The world of a black person and the world of a white person; the life of being black and the problems in the hill of New England where he grew up and faced racial discrimination. Du Bois was a sociologist, writer, educator and a controversial leader of the negro thought. Alice Walker wrote about how creative and artistic our mothers and grandmothers were in her essay “In Search Of Our Mother 's Garden”. She grew up in the 1960s in south Georgia where her mother worked as a maid to help support her eight children. Alice described her as a loving, strong and talented artist who showed her work in the garden. She wrote about her mother 's garden and how happy and radiant her mother was when she worked in her garden despite her busy days. She had no moment to sit down to feed her creative spirit because she was busy been a mother, a provider and a slave in the face of the society. She grew up seeing the struggles of hardworking,creative and strong African American mothers and grandmothers. She was a poet, novelist, and a womanist who was against racial and gender oppression of women. Glenn Loury grew up in Chicago’s South Side, where he attended political rallies. He described his childhood as being part of lower middle class. The writing of Du Bois , Alice Walker and Glenn Loury manifests

Gardening is the activity of planting, cultivating and tending (Oxford dictionary 2015). The origins of gardening, and its fulfilment of a human need, date back to 1500bc where archaeologists discovered ancient paintings of opulent gardens by the Egyptians (Cellauro 2015). Recognition of the benefits of gardening as a therapeutic tool in occupational therapy date back to Hartwell (1933). It provides opportunities for social inclusion which is a central component in well-being (Grabbe et al 2013).

She states that individuals in her cohort tend to be individualistic and prefer their yards, both physically and metaphorically, to

The garden was something she built with her own hands just like her home that she cherishes and accomplished something that only men were viewed in the society as being able to complete such a feat. Her building and taking care of the garden shows her passion and determination in life, as it is something she crafted and learned on her own with no ones

“Mrs. Manstey’s View,” a short story about the end of an old woman’s life, has a strong theme of the importance of nature. The titular woman has very little left in her life besides a small home with an extraordinary view of gardens and flowers. Indeed, early in the story, she states, “Mrs. Manstey’s real friends were the denizens of the yard, the hyacinths, the magnolia, the green parrot…” This dedication to her view causes a huge upheaval when a neighbor plans to expand her house, cutting off the view mentioned in the title.

The essay "In Search of Our Mother's Gardens" by contemporary American novelist Alice Walker is one that, like a flashbulb, burns an afterimage in my mind. It is an essay primarily written to inform the reader about the history of African American women in America and how their vibrant, creative spirit managed to survive in a dismal world filled with many oppressive hardships. This piece can be read, understood, and manage to conjure up many emotions within the hearts and minds of just about any audience that reads it. However, Walker targets African American women in today's society in an effort to make them understand their heritage and appreciate what their mothers and grandmothers endured to

“America’s Father of Modern Horticulture,” also known as Liberty Hyde Bailey, a jack of all trades and a significantly influential botanist within the horticulture community, lives on in spirit even today (Gasser 2014). His nickname says it all, from his dedication in studying cultivated plants, to his many published volumes and papers about his findings, his research continues to make an impact on horticulture. Bailey began building his background with cultivated plants as a young child on a fruit orchard in South Haven, Michigan (Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum 2017). These early years shaped his views and desires for later dates to come, specifically regarding his college education and research that followed. Although, the vast majority of people did not find the topics within horticulture interesting or something of importance to investigate, Bailey took the world by surprise and found himself with a completely incongruous mindset.

I lived with my grandmother for the first half of my life. She practically raised me. Everyone in our village would talk about how much she spoiled me. She would go out of her way to get what I needed. One day I was playing with my friends, there was food in the house but I just wanted to eat snacks. I complained and whined about it until I got what I wanted she made my uncle go all the way into the city to buy me some snacks even though I could’ve just eaten what was in the house. She was a part of me. We had so much in common. My mom wasn't unable to raise me because she was living in America.

She taught us how to pray. My grandmother had 13 children and my mother is her second to last child with a different father from her other children. My mother’s father (grandfather) had seven children. With this large family, I have lots of aunts, uncles, grand aunts, grand uncles, and countless numbers of cousins from different generations. Some of us are very close and know each other while some of us are distant and doesn’t communicate. We used to go to the country in the summer and on Easter break to spend time with my family on my mom’s father side of the family. My childhood experiences have taught me a lot about family. The experience of living in the same yard has taught me to stick with my family no matter what. Even though food and clothes were scarce, my family would share with each other and if one person has food, then we all would eat. We learned to utilize and appreciate the little we did have. Things weren’t as civilized in my neighborhood, but I learned to appreciate the smallest things and be grateful for what we did have.

In the 16-1800s having a garden was thought to be a necessity of life says Martha White in Traditional Home Remedies. (White 2000)

In the back of my high school, there was a dirt plot, fenced in, covered in weeds, and it was going to concreted over. I walked past the dirt plot and wondered “Why doesn’t anyone do something with it?” I thought about it on the way home from school and I talked to my friends about it. I told them that I wanted to do something with space, we came up with many things to do with the space before but then I realized that we could use the space for a garden. I remembered that I love gardening, when I was young my mom and I would always garden together, we would have the best time harvesting our plants and we bonded so much over our garden.