![]() She gains weight and color, as playing in the garden makes her strong and hardy, and thus cultivates a new interest in her meals. The glory of the garden and of friendship has a physical effect on Mary. By virtue of simply being himself, he calls Mary to view the world around her with childlike awe, as he does. ![]() And he laughs such a big laugh with his wide mouth-and his cheeks are as red-as red as cherries.” Dickon roams the moor in joyous wonder. He has such round blue eyes and they are so wide open with looking about. In Mary’s words, “He’s always looking up in the sky to watch birds flying-or looking down at the earth to see something growing. Kingdom hearts hat magic icon full#He is full of warmth and life, and wild animals befriend and follow him as if he has them under a magic spell. While “Mary, Mary, quite contrary” often acts like a sour old woman, cynical and cold, Dickon Sowerby is the opposite. When Mary needs help resurrecting a neglected and secret walled garden, she seeks out Dickon’s help and her first friendship blooms. And by reputation, Mary likes Martha’s brother, Dickon, and mother, Susan, and is eager to meet them. Having never cared for a soul, she is startled to find that she likes Martha, the maid, as well as Misselthwaite’s aged and grumpy gardener, Ben Weatherstaff, and the friendly robin that follows him about his work. Īs Mary begins to fall in love with nature, she also experiences a surprising new feeling toward God’s human creatures: affection. The Secret Garden speaks to how God evangelizes us through the works of his hands. As bulbs stir beneath the soil, Mary “was becoming wider awake every day which passed at Misselthwaite.” She begins to delight in the natural world, and the idea of having a garden of her own starts to ease the malaise afflicting her. The chilly air of the moor, the scent of the soil, and the warmth of the sun begin to awaken in Mary an interest in life. But due to overwhelming boredom, she is pushed by a kind maid named Martha Sowerby to the outdoors to entertain herself in the gardens of Misselthwaite Manor. Kingdom hearts hat magic icon how to#She has never learned how to be a child at all. She has never been cared for by a loving guardian, enjoyed the friendship of other children, or learned to joke or play. With her uncle on an extended trip overseas, Mary is again left alone and is tyrannical, rude, and miserable. Unpleasant and spoiled as a consequence of her frivolous parents who ignored her existence and left her care to servants, Mary is shipped to England after their deaths to live at her widower uncle’s estate on the wild moors of Yorkshire. ![]() It is a compelling answer to the claims of modernism that deny that God speaks to us through his creation.īurnett’s story begins in India, where a cholera outbreak orphans young Mary Lennox. More than just a heartwarming story, The Secret Garden illuminates how beauty can evangelize us. In Burnett’s novel, the young characters awaken from cynicism to childlike joy. The challenge its characters face is not leaving childhood behind but discovering it. Many beloved classics follow the coming-of-age formula of a young protagonist embarking on the adventure of adulthood (think Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ The Yearling or Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women), but The Secret Garden is the only classic story I can think of that is an anti-coming-of-age tale. There are many worthwhile children’s tales that are even more wonderful when we re-encounter them as adults, and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden is such a one. “No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty,” twentieth-century apologist C.S. To learn more and discover more pieces like this, start your membership today. “The Beauty of Creation Beckons: The Secret Garden & the Awakening to Abundant Life“ was originally published in the Summer 2022 Childhood issue of Evangelization & Culture, the Word on Fire Institute‘s quarterly journal. Home › Articles › Institute Fellows › The Beauty of Creation Beckons: The Secret Garden & the Awakening to Abundant Life ![]()
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