This is MJ, I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer.
Find all my work at MJMunoz.com
Prepare yourself for some off the cuff book talk as I tackle another middle grade book
chapter by chapter.
Secret Garden Chapter 7 was really interesting and I mentioned this in my short about it.
I find it really interesting how skillful the author is at weaving narrative with, weaving
narrative progression with, I guess you could say character progression.
And what I mean by that is not a lot happens plot wise.
Mary Lennox finds the key into the secret garden and that's kind of it.
She interacts with the weatherman, I think is the name of the old groundskeeper and the
robin and finally she finds the key buried and when she does that she digs it up and
she messes with it and well really she's doing it.
She finds the key and then we don't know what happens next.
We can assume that she's going to try to open that door or maybe show the key to somebody.
I don't know.
I guess she has to find the door first is the real truth isn't it?
But none of that really plays into it because she finds the key and then it kind of stops.
So that's interesting.
And what happens instead is that in the run up to her finding the key it's almost like
she has this mini character arc and this emotional growth that sort of enables her to find the
key like the narrative isn't okay with her finding the key until she goes through this
transformation that we get to see as an audience.
And she has this really interesting conversation with Martha and they talk about whether or
not Mary actually likes herself and whether she expects other people to like her.
And when she comes to the realization that she's been pretty shabby let's say she's been
a pretty shabby person she realizes that probably not a lot of people like her and Martha kind
of reassures her that hey you know if you can learn to like yourself and if you can
learn to love yourself sort of then you will probably see a lot of these issues that you're
having clear up and in fact it gets to the point where she basically says you probably
don't like other people very much because you don't like yourself very much and she
doesn't say projecting but you know perhaps you're projecting onto others the disdain
you have for yourself and maybe if you give yourself a little bit of a break and you learn
to like yourself you can also learn to like others and open up to them.
And I found that to be a very interesting concept and I was very surprised that it went
there it's kind of a I don't know kind of like a new age self-help kind of thing it
seems like a very new idea but I guess it's not I mean you know there are sayings like
there's nothing new under the sun so maybe this self-love or self-like idea runs back
farther than I know but it's interesting to see it framed here in that way and I don't
quite know what to do with that other than I do think it's interesting that when Mary
is having these interactions with these people outside of herself it's helping her to recontextualize
how she sees them how she values them how she kind of values herself she values herself
less than she did before but she's also a more worthwhile person I think she feels more
worthwhile she feels healthier better stronger she's growing I'm sure she's seeing growth
in herself and she appreciates that but at the same time there's experiences that experiences
she's going through are helping her to understand appreciate and approach people other people
outside of herself people who are beneath her as not so much be there but as you know
kind of in a different station and she hasn't reached that full level of maturity yet but
at least she has a liking for them as opposed to just a expectation that they will bend
to her will which is not great I mean it's a great progression but it's not great how
she had felt at one point so that's really interesting to me and I find it interesting
that sorry her name is really hard for me to remember Hodgson Burnett's Francis Hodgson
Burnett's it's really surprising me that Burnett is like tying the plot progression to like
the emotional growth and the emotional progression of Mary that's how it feels to me and it feels
a little mechanical and dry to say it like that but I think if you think about the book
that is kind of what's going on as she's opening up as a person as her heart is softening as
her heart is opening as her mind is opening to these other people these other ideas these
other ways of being she is being drawn further into the narrative almost as if it's on purpose
which of course it's this is a fictional book written by an author so it is on purpose but
almost as if we can see as an audience that as she's making these changes as these transformations
are happening within her that those things are equipping her to deal with what's going
to come next in the narrative she mentions that she she loves she says she thinks she
loves Martha's mother or likes her very much even though she's never seen her or met her
or spoken to her and she says the same thing of Dickon and Martha kind of has a funny reaction
to that to you know both of them but she says you know I think you're right about that you
can like a person without seeing them or knowing them or meeting them and it's because of all
I've I've told about you or all I've told you about them rather and I thought that was
kind of an interesting turn and it's just I don't know I'm trying to figure out like
what is this book about and what's going on here and I as I you know continue through
it I just I continue to find it more and more fascinating and interesting and I'm really
curious to see where it goes and how what Mary's being equipped with now is going to
help her later on in the book because I'm sure it will and I'm curious to see the kind
of person she's going to turn into and who she'll become through this kind of subdued
journey that she's on she's on a journey but and it's kind of a journey of self-discovery
and of growing up but it's not like super explicit it's not like a hero's journey it's
not a coming-of-age story it's more a becoming aged story I guess I don't know I don't quite
know how to say that I don't have the full scope of the entire book to say definitively
what it is one way or another although just a quick note she is 10 by now we know that
she states that she's 10 years old because supposedly the key for the secret garden that
she finds at the end was buried 10 years ago and she's she remarks well that's how old
I am and the key that she found looked like it had been buried for a very long time so
we're assuming it's the key for the secret garden which of course she still has to find
although it's interesting or and it is interesting that the robin was instrumental in her finding
it so it's kind of interesting feels a little fantastic a little magical and I don't know
if this book defies genre or if it has a little bit of fantasy or if it has a little bit of
would that be surrealism I don't even know all the different genres but it's definitely
you know entertaining entertainingism I'd love to know what you thought about the secret
garden chapter 7 the whole book or the book as a whole or and or the book as a whole and
yeah I look forward to hearing that I hope you enjoyed that please remember to like share
subscribe I invite you to comment ask questions and share your thoughts with me it's always
more fun when you're part of the conversation until next time keep reading be well and do
good things visit MJMunoz.com for more of my work and help me build up the fortress
fiction.