Hidden from everything and everyone, you may begin to know little more than the sense of abandonment. This situation is seen in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which brings out the idea that being alone prevents the feeling of being rejected by those around us. Neglected from birth, Mary defensively engages with her surroundings to avoid rejection, as shown in the bungalow in India, the empty rooms at Misselthwaite Manor, and the Secret Garden. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay There are various instances in which Mary uses her surroundings to protect herself from the abandonment she has endured since birth. Isolated from the outside world, the bungalow in India is all Mary knew for the first nine years of her life. One morning, when Mary wakes up and sees someone other than her Ayah, she immediately becomes defensive and states, "'Why did you come?' she said to the strange woman. “I won't let you stay. Send me my Ayah.'” (2) This line demonstrates Mary's self-assertion and how she refuses to let anyone in emotionally. She is also very quick to question and demand the woman with a very forceful tone, almost as if she is proclaiming a form of dominance Whereas Mary has become accustomed to isolation, when someone attempts to cross those boundaries, Mary is quick to deflect them to prevent those feelings she has dealt with her entire life. Furthermore, when the epidemic breaks out, Mary refuses to be cast aside once again, so she uses the nursery as a sense of security to ward off rejection “In the confusion and confusion of the second day Mary hid in the nursery and was forgotten by everyone”. (5) When something goes wrong, Mary's first instinct is to hide and isolate herself. No one wanted her or thought about her; it is Mary's way of protecting herself from continuing like this . When Mary arrives at Misselthwaite Manor, she quickly discovers how similar it is to her home in India. Once again confined to a room, “At first each day that passed for Mary Lennox was exactly like the others. Every morning he woke up in his tapestry-covered room; every morning he ate breakfast in the nursery, which contained nothing fun. (49) Although the manor is very large, Mary is afraid of abandoning her normality. Even though kindergarten is described as “no fun,” Mary stays anyway, as she is afraid to leave that sense of security, a place where she is in control. However, when Martha suggests that Mary go to the library, Mary decides to explore the manor instead since “She did not care much for the library itself, for she had read very few books; but hearing it reminded her of the hundred rooms with the doors closed.” (61) This quote shows how Mary has only known isolation her entire life, so Mary is quick to dismiss the idea of the library. The author mentions how the rooms have "closed doors" which alludes to the idea that Mary prefers to be somewhere in the manor where no one can find her, in a sense closing herself off to everyone else within the manor. As Mary begins to venture further and further through the manor each day, she soon discovers a garden closed to the world. This new knowledge of the secret garden soothes Mary, as she imagines it as a place where she could be alone and without it one would be able to find her. When he first finds out about the hidden key to the garden, he begins to think about what he could do inside it. "If she liked it, she could go in there every day and close the door behind her, and she could invent some game of her own, because no one would ever know where she was,, 2015.
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