The Flower Garden

           The Flower Garden is a story about a woman who has lived in a town for her whole life. A woman named Mrs. MacLane moves in to a cottage that the other woman, whose name is Mrs. Winning, wants. Mrs winning lives with her husband and two kids, along with her mother and father-in-law. Mrs. Winning seems jealous of Mrs. MacLane's garden, as well as her house.

           The author, Shirley Jackson, foreshadows the end of the story with the names of the characters. The name Winnings indicates that Mrs. winnings will get what she wants. Mrs. Winning and Mrs. MacLane are friends throughout the majority of the story, but towards the end of the story, Mrs. Winning and Mrs. MacLane become lesser friends and might even dislike each other. The end of the story is somewhat open ended, but you can infer that since Mrs. MacLane's garden was ruined, she will move back to New York and will sell her house. Since Mrs. Winning wanted to live in the cottage and have the magnificent flower garden, therefore, she got what she wanted.

           I can prove that Mrs. Winning and Mrs. MacLane weren't friends at the end of the story because the author said about Mrs. Winning, “she wanted desperately to go over and take Mrs. Maclane's hand and ask her to come back and be one of the nice people again.” I can support my inference about the end of the story because Mrs. MacLane said, “Leave it alone Mr. Jones. Leave it for the next people.” she said this about a large branch that fell from a tree during a storm.

Query

By Harrison 

            If you work hard, it will feel better when you are done. Alex Scott was diagnosed with a type of childhood cancer shortly before her first birthday. The doctors later informed her parents that if she beat the cancer, it was unlikely that she would ever walk again. By Alex’s second birthday, she was beginning to crawl around and stand with the help of leg braces. Not too long after her fourth birthday, where it looked as if she were beating the odds, she learned that her tumors were growing back. One time when Alex was with her mother, Liz, she said, “When I get out of the hospital I want to have a lemonade stand.” She said she wanted to give the money to the doctors so they could “help other kids, like they helped me.” She stayed true to her word and worked hard to raise an amazing $2,000 for the hospital.

            Word got out that a cancer-diagnosed child was raising money to help other children like her. All around the world, people helped raise money to help Alex with her goal. In August 2004, Alex passed away at the age of 8, but not before raising over $1 million to help find a cure for childhood cancer. Around the world, people continue the legacy of Alex’s Lemonade Stand. What you work hard to do doesn’t always have to be something complex. Sometimes it can be as simple as having a lemonade stand.

This week’s query is: How can you work hard, while staying simple?