November 2 is Home Reading
The story for you is R. Kipling's The Gardener, pp.253-262.
1. Online impression (in the commets to the entry)
2. Questions to do in writing: 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10
Don't forget to support your ideas by the text.
3. Interpretation.
Things to include:
- Author
- Title (direct and indirect meanings)
- Theme
- Summary
- Message
- Character sketch
- Impression
Some tips:
Here is the complete text of the poem, which is, by the way, called The Burden.
As for my impression of this story I can say that it makes me think about life and death, right and wrong decisions, losses and sorrow. The main character Helen brought up her own son as his aunt and could not tell him the truth. Michael grew up, went at war and was killed there. And this poor woman lost her life and reasons for being. The most terrible thing was that she would never tell him the secret. This story about mother's sorrow who had never been a mother having a son.
ReplyDeleteGood!
DeleteSlips:
... went TO war ...
This IS A story ...
Having read the story, I was at a deadlock, because I couldn't understand who actually the gardener was. At first it seemed to me that here the gardener is the person who "cares or looks" after the cemetery, I was completely confused with the gardener’s phrase in the end of the story. But then it became clear to me that the gardener could be considered as a war veteran and Jesus Christ. I think both versions are right, because the link with religion really presents. So I liked that story, as it made me find out the truth which, unfortunately, no one can comprehend.
ReplyDeleteInteresting!
DeleteSlips:
... the gardener is A person who TAKES care OF or looks after the cemetery, I was ... AT the end of the story.
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ReplyDeleteI think the story touches upon such problems as war, woman's sorrow, love, finds and losses, and the relationship between the mother and the son. Helen suffers terribly, because she cannot openly announce that Michael is her son, not nephew (to have an illegitimate child was a sin at the time the story was written). When he suddenly dies in the war Helen retires further into herself, because even after his death she's not able to express her sorrow as she wish...I think the ending of this story is really unusual and unpredictable. The man whom Helen meets on the graveyard and takes for the gardener can be either an angel, Jesus Christ or a retired soldier. But it doesn't matter who, because it is more important that this person openly names Michael as Helen's son, thus taking a load of her mind, giving her remission and relief of being understood.
ReplyDeleteWell done!
DeleteSlips:
... GAINS and losses ...
... as OPENLY AS she wisheS ...
... CALLES Michael ( NO 'as') Helen's son,
... OFF her mind ...
Undoubtedly, the story impressed me much. It is full of different themes, such as the problem of relationships between the mother and the son, the problem of the Fall, the war and its tragic consequences on the very family…I like the way “The gardener” is written and how many problems are raised, thus the story is worth to read for various people with various interests, values, perceptions of life and so on. The story which has connection with the Gospel and a religion as a whole is unusual for Kipling, thus making it more value and interesting…During the reading, I was asking to myself: “Who is the gardener?” and even when I had finished to read it, the answer hadn’t become clearer for me…So it took some time, I thought over about not only the ending of the story, but about it as a whole, trying to compare everything and to understand the real sense of “The gardener”…To sum it up, I’d like to mention about the epigraph, it really helped me to understand the story better, and I like the hidden but so terrific connections between the epigraph and the title…
ReplyDeleteGood:
DeleteSlips:
between mother and son (no 'the'),
consequences FOR the very family…
is worth readING
Many people who lost their friends, relatives in wars couldn’t come to terms with it. The fire of the bloodiest brutal war burned dreams, love, and happiness. Nothing will heal the pain and suffering brought by war, dries the tears of widows, mothers, children who experienced the horrors of war.
ReplyDeleteObviously, the death appears in the story as the culmination of all the separations and divisions that exist in this world and which are generated by the sins of the people - the symbol of the lost tomb. What happened at the grave Kipling didn’t open the reader without changing the dispassionate, unemotional tone of the story. The following short paragraph of the story ends: "When Helen went to the cemetery, she looked back one last time. At a distance she saw a man leaning over the young plants, and walked away, thinking he was the gardener. "
Thus, the supposedly minor character appearing on the last page of the narrative, defined the title of the story, and its name, the gardener, there is the last accent the story.
My mind was stunned after reading of this story, written by Mr. Kipling. The unique skill of the author to weave a magic thread, a connection thread between the life, written in the book and the life, that surrounds us, an ordinary people, with a powerful, morbid embrace of Chimera's blades, showing us the true pattern of existence, such bright and insatiable, rapid and ruthless. Helen was the image of a real infinite love and devotion to a loved one nephew. But more that this, their relationships wasn't only a blood ties, but something mentally charged. The thirst to know everything about him, to be always on alert, to be ready to protect and save him even, when he was far away from her - the unthinkable attachment made her Michael's personal Angel. And the meeting in the cemetery was symbolic. The man who plant trees and gardens on the graves of fallen soldiers, most likely was a veteran of the war. He was the spirit of the War, passed through the inferno of different military conflicts, the exploits of the human soul. Fall and Rise of the soldiers - Life and Death of the people. Only he could see the spiritual light of true mother in Helen.
ReplyDeleteThank you,
ReplyDeletethe discussion is over!