Flower Garden by Shirley Jackson

            This story, Flower Garden, was about a widow named Mrs. MacLane and her son who moved to a small town in Vermont. When they first got there, everyone was very nice and welcomed them to the town. The person that first welcomed her was Mrs. Winnings, and they became good friends. Everything was going good with Mrs. MacLane; people talked to her, she was starting her garden, her and Mrs. Winnings were best friends and spent a lot of time together, and she was really starting to fit in. Then one day, she talked to a black boy named Billy Jones, and offered for him to help her with her garden. The next day, Billy’s dad came over her house and started working on the garden. After that, people started acting differently towards Mrs. MacLane. They talked behind her back and wouldn’t have a conversation with her, and she didn’t know why. At the end of the story, even her close friend Mrs. Winnings didn’t talk to her because of what she did.

            When the story ended, the two literary elements I thought of were person-against-society and person-against-self.

            When Mrs, MacLane hired Mr. Jones, people started acting very differently towards her. The first sign of that was when Mrs. Winnings avoided her and didn’t let her son play with Davey. Soon after, everyone was talking about it behind her back. The only reason they did this was because of the decision she made to hire Mr. Jones. Everyone judged her like this because of what society thinks.

            After Mrs. MacLane made the decision to hire Mr. Jones, the person that changed the way they acted the most was Mrs. Winnings. Instead of going everywhere with her and talking, she avoided Mrs. MacLane’s house and almost never talked her. She also didn’t let her son go over and play with Davey. Mrs. Winnings would tell herself to go to talk to her about the issue and do something about it, but she never listened and didn’t do anything. This went on for a while until Mrs. MacLane decided to confront her about it. This was the perfect time for Mrs. Winnings to say what she had wanted to say that whole time, but all she did was deny everything Mrs. MacLane said about people acting differently towards her. She left without a change in their friendship. And by the end of the book, Mrs. Winning decided not to be her friend at all because of her choice.

            This story was very interesting and made me think a lot about friendship and how society influences it.

            

Query

“Choose to live simply so that others can simply live.” This is a quote by Ghandi, which really inspired me for this week’s query. To me, simplicity means being with the people that matter and enjoying every little moment of your time with them.  

When we do this, we can more easily connect with the world around us and appreciate each moment and live life to the fullest. Also, when we’re with the people we love, we don’t even need to be on our phones or IPods. All that matters is enjoying the time with those people. It’s about loving those little things that could actually turn out to be the biggest things in life.

Now I’d like to show you a video I made about spending time with your family and friends.

I made this video to show the little things you can do with others that could make your life simpler and happier.

This week’s query is: How can we find the time to be with the people we love?