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Chapter 5: Leona
Themes
and Colors
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
Sam crosses the street to join a group of people who are standing around and watching something. An inmate crew is clearing garbage from the vacant lot. The woman next to Sam says that the land is for anyone who wants to grow a garden, which Sam finds unbelievable. Without thinking, he says, “paradise.” The woman gives Sam an odd look. He looks around at the three buildings surrounding the lot and a garden coming up beautifully next to the sidewalk. Sam tells the woman that the word paradise comes from a Persian word and means “walled park.” This time, the woman smiles at Sam and he smiles back.
It seems like a miracle to Sam that the city has finally agreed to clear the garbage in the vacant lot. It’s significant that Sam explains the etymology of the word paradise, noting that the word in its original form referred to a garden or a park of sorts. This reiterates the novel’s insistence that nature, and gardens in particular, are superior to the city—gardens are a form of paradise.
Active
Themes
Just like fishermen mend rips in their nets, Sam tries to “patch up” people. He spent 36 years working with groups that promoted world government and pacifism. Sam hasn’t given up now that he’s retired, but he’s refocused his attentions to his neighborhood. Sometimes it seems like he’s been able to do more good since retiring. Most of what he does is smile at people, especially Black people and those from other countries. He gets people to look up at him and not down. Sam starts conversations everywhere to get people to see that he’s friendly, no matter what they might have heard about white people or Jews. Ideally, he gets people to talk to each other.
Here, Sam seems to imply that if people ignore each other in small ways—like not saying hello when they pass one another on the street—this can lead them to ignore each other’s humanity, which is a serious problem. When he notes that he’s had more success pouring out his efforts in his neighborhood than he did on a global scale, Sam suggests that it’s perhaps more effective to work at the community level. Especially given who he targets most with his kindness, Sam shows that he’s doing his best to make Cleveland a more welcoming place for immigrants—and in this small but significant way, he works to counteract the city’s neglect.
Active
Themes
Sam hasn’t had a garden since he was a kid, but he wants one now. He’s 78 and too old to dig, so he hires a Puerto Rican teen to dig up the soil for him. The teenager does a great job and works the soil until it’s silky. In addition to paying him, Sam offers the teen a row of his own to cultivate. The teen wants to grow marijuana to sell, but Sam talks him into growing pumpkins instead. Selling pumpkins will earn him some money at Halloween and keep him out of jail.
Active
Themes
Sam and the teenager chat as they plant their seeds. The teen is new to the neighborhood. There are a few other people working in the cool evening while a robin sings. To Sam, it seems like they’re in Paradise, or a small Garden of Eden. In the Bible, there’s a river in Eden. But here, there’s no way to get water to the lot. People haul their water in milk jugs and soda containers all through June. June is a dry month; there are only four days of rain. Sam hires a third-grader with a wagon to haul his water, and later, Sam starts a contest.
Active
Themes
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Word soon spreads about the lot, and at this point, there are plenty of available plots. Newcomers take spots next to their friends or family members. One Saturday, when the garden is full, Sam takes a moment to look around. He notices that garden is divided into quadrants with Black people together in one corner, white people in another, and Central American and Asian people in the back. It’s a copy of the neighborhood. Sam doesn’t think he should be surprised at this arrangement, but he is. The groups keep to themselves, speaking their own languages and growing their own special crops.
Active
Themes
Garbage is another issue. A few people who live in the surrounding buildings still use the lot as a trash can, emptying ashtrays out of their windows and tossing out other trash, too. One day, someone throws a bottle into the garden. A man throws it back into the window it came out of—and the person inside the apartment hurls five more bottles out. Sam is sure that gunshots will come out of the window next, but fortunately, the people in the apartment just shout at the man in the garden.
Active
Themes
The “crazy homeless man” who used to sleep on a couch in the lot is also upset that it’s not a dump anymore. When he sees that the couch is gone, he starts ripping out plants in anger. People have to call the police. After this, people start worrying about strangers ruining their gardens. A man puts chicken wire around his plot, while another person builds a fence. Finally, someone puts up barbed wire. Sam muses that God may have made Eden, but he also destroyed the Tower of Babel by dividing people. The garden was once Paradise, but now it’s becoming Cleveland again.
