Student Question
What change does Walker observe in her mother while gardening in In Search of Our Mother's Gardens?
Quick answer:
Alice Walker observes a profound change in her mother while gardening. Her mother, usually burdened by labor, becomes "radiant" and nearly "invisible" except as a "Creator" when tending to her garden. This transformation highlights her mother's deep connection to her "Art," which brings her visible joy and spiritual fulfillment. Walker describes her mother's gardening as a magical, artistic expression that commands respect and admiration from both neighbors and strangers.
Alice Walker lavishes praise on her mother, a poor sharecropper who labored in the fields all day and in their home at night. But she also put huge amounts of creative energy into her garden, which was so spectacular that people in the neighboring counties knew about her talents. Walker describes these gardens as “ambitious,” containing more than fifty plant varieties, with flowers that bloom over many months. She sees her mother’s arts as resembling “magic.” Friends would stop by to pick up cuttings and lavish praise on her; strangers driving by would stop and marvel at her achievements. But for Walker, the transformation that she goes through while gardening is most significant, even spiritual; it is then alone that her mother seems “radiant.”
I notice that it is only when my mother is working with her flowers that she is radiant, almost to the point of being invisible—except as Creator, hand and eye. She is involved in work her soul must have. . . . Her face, as she prepares the Art that is her gift, is a legacy of respect she leaves to me, for all that illuminates and cherishes life.
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