Flower Garden

I recently read Flower Garden, a story written by Shirley Jackson. I found the story very interesting. Basically, it is about a woman, Mrs. Winning, living in an old Vermont manor house. She lives with her husband, her two children , her mother-in-law and her father-in-law. She had been living in this house for eleven years. Her life was changed when a new family moved into a cottage in her town. The new family was made up of Mrs. MacLane and Davey MacLane. Mrs. MacLane was a widow from New York. Mrs. Winning quickly discovers that she is developing a fond kinship towards Mrs. MacLane. They have a lot in common.

In Flower Garden, there is a lot of prejudice. This prejudice develops because Mrs. MacLane hires Mr. Jones, an African American man, to work in her garden. This story obviously takes place in a time period where people of African descent were not treated very well in American society. People of the town quickly begin to judge Mrs. MacLane for hiring Mr. Jones. It is unclear whether or not Mrs. MacLane is interested in a romantic relationship with Mr. Jones. Does it matter if she does? Apparently, to the townspeople, yes.

Mrs. Winning begins to realize that people are treating Mrs. MacLane differently because of Mr. Jones, and because Mrs. Winning is so close to Mrs. MacLane, people begin to treat Mrs. Winning differently as well. Mrs. Winning does not respond well to her judgmental neighbors.

Mrs. Winning is a dynamic character. Most of the time, the change a dynamic character goes through in a story is a positive change. In Flower Garden, there is a negative change for Mrs. Winning.

In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Winning is a nice lady. She is kind, friendly and doesn't judge others, like her mother-in-law. She has a genuine love towards Mrs. MacLane. She loves what she did with the cottage, she likes Mrs. MacLane's son, and she respects Mrs. MacLane. The author shows this by stating that, "Davey and Howard played daily after the school was out for the summer, and Howard was free all day. Sometimes Howard stayed at Davey's house for lunch, and the planted a vegetable patch together in the MacLane back yard. Mrs. Winnings stopped for Mrs. MacLane on her way to the store in the mornings and Davey and Howard frolicked ahead of them down the street." These two families are obviously very close now.

When Mr. Jones is hired to work in the garden, Mrs. Winning realizes that people are starting to treat Mrs. MacLane differently, and doesn't want to be treated differently as well. She avoids being treated differently by attempting to separate herself from Mrs. MacLane. One day, a mother from the town invites Howard to a birthday party, but doesn't want to invite Davey. She tells Mrs. Winning that she isn't inviting Davey. Mrs. Winning doesn't want to be treated differently than others because of her affiliation with the MacLanes.

To try to differentiate her family and the MacLanes, the following dialogue takes place. "'After all,' Mrs. Winning said carefully, weighing the words, 'she's like a second mother to Billy.'" This was a joke, and it made Mrs. Winning look incredibly rude.

Mrs. Wining eventually resents the MacLanes. At the end of the story, when Mrs. MacLane greets Mrs. Winning from her garden. The author then states, "Mrs. Winning swung around without speaking and started, with great dignity, back up the hill toward the old Winning house." Obviously, Mrs. Winning turned into a bad person during the story.