Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Seedfolks, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gardening and Community
Nature, Mental Health, and the City
The Immigrant Experience
Family, Memory, and the Future
Summary
Analysis
Wendell doesn’t receive many phone calls, which is fine by him. Phone calls are how he learned that his son was shot and that his wife died in a car wreck, so every time the phone rings, he jumps a bit inside. So it’s awful when Ana calls and rouses Wendell from a deep sleep. She tells him to get upstairs quickly; Wendell lives on the ground floor of the building and looks out for Ana. They’re the only white people left in the building.
Wendell has clearly had a rough life, losing both his wife and his son. In the face of these losses, Wendell seems to be withdrawing instead of reaching out—the way he describes looking out for Ana seems more obligatory than desirable, and he hates receiving phone calls. The aside that he and Ana are the only white people in their building now reinforces the novel’s earlier assertion that this is a neighborhood in flux and is primarily made up of immigrants.
Themes
Wendell can tell this is serious and he hopes Ana won’t be dead when he arrives. But when he gets to her apartment, she drags him to the window and shouts that the plants are dying. She gives Wendell her binoculars and points down to the lot. Wendell is livid, but he studies the plants through the binoculars and listens to Ana’s story about the Chinese girl.
Given his past experiences with phone calls informing him of tragedy, it’s perhaps not surprising that Wendell assumes he’s going to encounter the worst in Ana’s apartment after she calls. But his anger when this doesn’t happen suggests that Wendell doesn’t know what to do when the worst doesn’t come to pass. In other words, he’s thrown off when Ana simply wants to involve him in what’s going on down in the lot. This is similar to how Ana’s experience as a typist for the police department made her immediately assume the worst of Kim—that she was hiding drugs or a weapon—even though the situation was completely innocent. Both Wendell and Ana, then, assume the worst of people because of their lived experience, not because they’re inherently judgmental people.
Themes
The four tiny plants are wilted. Wendell, who grew up on a farm in Kentucky, recognizes that they’re beans of some sort. But the girl planted the beans too early, he says, so it’s lucky the seeds even sprouted. Ana notes that regardless, the beans did sprout—and now it’s up to them to save the beans. It’s May and hot, and Ana acts like the beans are hers. Ana explains that the girl hasn’t been to water the beans in four days and Ana’s twisted her ankle, so she points to a pitcher and tells Wendell to water the beans.
The aside that Wendell grew up on a farm in Kentucky shows that in addition to international immigrants, Cleveland is also home to people who hail from more rural areas of the U.S. For Wendell, growing up on a farm means that he’s able to identify Kim’s plants as beans and recognize that Kim didn’t plant them at the correct time. When Ana insists that they have to save the beans since they sprouted anyway, she suggests that it must be a community effort to make sure these hopeful little plants don’t just disappear. Wherever a person sees hope, the novel suggests, it’s their duty to nurture it. It’s likely, too, that Ana feels guilty for digging up Kim’s beans previously and thinks she is the one who stunted the plants’ growth.
Themes
Wendell is a school janitor and spends his entire week being bossed around, so he gives Ana a hard look and fills the pitcher slowly. Down in the lot, he finds the girl’s plants. Beans won’t grow unless they’re planted in hot weather, but these ones survived the cold thanks to the nearby refrigerator. It bounced sunlight back to the soil and heated it up.
Wendell doesn’t seem to agree that he needs to nurture hopeful things when he sees them; he sees Ana’s request as just an extension of a job and a life he seems to dislike. But importantly, Wendell nevertheless agrees to help Ana. She is, at this point, all the community Wendell seems to have left, and he seems to understand that it’s important to keep their relationship alive.
Themes
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Wendell feels the dirt and studies the plants. They’re definitely beans with their spade-shaped leaves. He scrapes the dirt into a ring around the first plant to hold his water and any rain, and then pours water over it slowly. Then, he hears something behind him. The girl is there with her own jar of water. She looks terrified. Wendell gives her a smile and mimes that he’s watering her plants. The girl’s eyes get big, so Wendell stands up slowly and backs away, still smiling.
It’s not surprising that Kim is terrified to see Wendell in the vacant lot, given what she and Ana have said about their neighborhood being dangerous. But Wendell goes out of his way to show Kim that he means no harm—and indeed, is trying to help her. Through this interaction, both Wendell and Kim get a chance to learn of the other’s existence and share in the hope that the beans will grow and thrive. This humanizes both of them in the other’s eyes.
Themes
That evening, Wendell goes back to check on the beans. They look better now, and the girl made circles of dirt around the other plants like he did. Words from the Bible appear in Wendell’s head: “And a little child shall lead them.” He can’t figure out why, but then he knows. He can’t change lots of things about his life, he can’t bring back the dead, and he can’t make the world kind. But Wendell can change a small patch of earth. He decides it’s better to focus on that than lament all the things he can’t change. The little girl showed him that.
It’s significant that Kim copied Wendell’s method of creating the dirt ring around her beans. She’s willing to learn and recognizes that Wendell has something to teach. When he realizes this, Wendell experiences a revelation. It isn’t useful, he decides, to be upset about all the things wrong in the world. It’s better to dedicate himself to growing something and helping others grow their own plants.
Themes
Wendell looks around at the three buildings that surround the lot. He finds a spot that’s mostly sunny, drags away the garbage, and picks up the big pieces of glass. On Monday, he brings a shovel home from work.
Wendell’s task of moving garbage and picking up glass emphasizes that the lot—and the neighborhood more broadly—is dangerous and neglected. But through hard work and the desire to garden, it’s possible to improve the lot, in addition to the people and the neighborhood around it.
Themes
