Taken For Granted

As I sit my computer, thinking about what to write, I start to stare out my window and realize what a dreary day it is. The dark, gloomy clouds hovering in the sky above, blocking the sun’s path to shine down on the world. When thinking about this, I couldn’t remember the last time there was a full week of bright beautiful sunshine. As the days are getting shorter, and the nights longer, there soon won’t be a lot of these bright days left. The crisp autumn air will soon take over with its gentle, but cold breeze. I long for the days when the sun was shinning all day, week after week. I wish travel back in time; not taking for granted all of those wonderful moments of heat and the picturesque sunshine.

Response: Flower Garden by Shirley Jackson

The story, The Flower Garden, is about a widowed woman named, Mrs. MacLane, and her son, Davey, moving into a small town in Vermont. When Mrs. MacLane and her son first move into their small cottage, they were greeted and helped by many people in the town including Mrs. Winning, one of the neighbors. Briefly after moving in, Mrs. MacLane decided to start something that she always dreamed of making, a garden. Eventually after planting bulbs and everything, Mrs. MacLane realized that she was going to need some help if she wanted the flowers to stay beautiful and tended to. She hired a black man named, Mr. Jones to help her. Soon after hiring him, the people in the town stopped being kind towards her and started talking behind her back. After hiring him, Mrs. MacLane didn’t understand why everyone began to cut her off short while talking to her. At the end of the story, Mrs. MacLane’s close friend, Mrs. Winnings even decided to stop talking to her because of the choice she made.

While reading this story, there were many thoughts going through my mind thinking about what the ending of it would be. Around halfway through, I figured out how it would probably end. Once I finished, there were two literary elements that came quickly to my mind which were Person-Against-Society and an open ending.

Once people in the town found out that Mrs. MacLane hired Mr. Jones, to help her tend to her garden, they started to give her the ‘cold shoulder.’ Talking about her behind her back, they no longer thought highly about Mrs. MacLane because of the decision she had made. This situation seems similar to times around the Civil War. If Mrs. MacLane hired Mr. Jones for help then, she wouldn’t have been frowned upon, but because she was nice and kind to him, people would have thought badly of her just the same as they thought of her in the story.

Throughout the story there were many topics that were written, but the answers were not given. This makes me believe that the author, Shirley Jackson, wanted to make the story an open ending. One example, is that she told us about many physical features about Mr. Jones such as he was a big man with skin like a dark bronze, but she didn’t explain any internal characteristics about him. There was one part in the story were the mother-in-law, Mrs. Winnings says, “And working out there without his shirt on. He goes in the house,” talking about Mr. Jones. From this statement, I feel that he may have had an abusive side to him that the author isn’t telling us about.

The ending of this story leads me to believe that there are many possible theories to end it. I think that Shirley Jackson wanted the reader to really think about what happened in the story and have them decide on their own how the story should end.

Simplicity Query

How can we focus on simplicity to unclutter our lives?

By Mia

A Greek philosopher, Plato, once wrote, “In order to seek one’s own direction, one must simplify the mechanics of ordinary, everyday life.” Plato was trying to say that to find where you want to go in life, you first have to simplify your world. When Plato says, “…one must simplify the mechanics of ordinary, everyday life,” he doesn’t mean you have to get rid of all your possessions that seem non-simplistic, such as cell phones or computers, he’s trying to say to people that you must go forward in life with the mentality of simplicity.

There are many people that have very busy and stressful lives being kids, teens, or adults. To have a simple life, you must cut back on distractions and complications, and just focus on the important things in life. You can sometimes forget the essential things like family, friends, education, and having fun. Thoreau, an American, poet, author, and philosopher, said, “Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.” Sometimes in life you need to just take a moment and think about everything that is important.

I created a video that’s about the small things in life that are truly important. I hope that it will make you understand the necessities in life.

The small, essential things right now will one day be the big things in your life that you will always want to remember. Today’s query is, “How can we focus on simplicity to unclutter our lives?”