SuitabookThe Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Reading
- Read together or check in after the opening deaths and colonial references. Pause to distinguish the story’s positive ideas about friendship and nature from its characters’ prejudiced language, then discuss how those attitudes should be judged today.
- Themes
- Care, friendship and change: The children restore a neglected garden while their relationships and outlooks change. Care, friendship and contact with nature are presented as forces associated with improved spirits, health and behaviour.
- Colonial and class attitudes: Mary recalls India in patronising and racist terms and shows an unkind, superior attitude towards servants. The attitudes occur within the story, while the children’s later growth towards compassion creates material for critical comparison; the narrative’s overall handling is not fully clear.
- Illness and bereavement: Mary is orphaned after her parents die of cholera, and Colin is described as ailing and bedridden. Loss and illness are significant circumstances, while the story also associates care, nature and friendship with improved health.
- Worth knowing
- Be ready for early parental deaths from cholera, an orphaned child, illness, references to a child slapping a nursemaid, domestic abuse, an adult’s drunkenness and a child drinking leftover wine.