I.

Introduction

Guide Questions:

a.) Why did you choose the book?

I choose this book because it is about changes particularly changes in

personality. I know this book seems out of place among the fare I usually read,
but, all I can say is that I like what I like. There is some intangible quality to this
book that really strikes a chord in me. The whole idea of that sickly child being
healed with love, attention, and wholesome recreational activities, just somehow
speaks truth to me. I think this book has strong application to today's problems
with the rising generation. I really believe that kids these days are getting fatter,
less healthy, and less disciplined.

Again, this book speaks truth concerning the value of attitude and
perspective in overcoming perceived problems and finding out that they weren't
as bad as you thought they were.

b.) What literary genre is the book?

It is fiction because the characters is any person, persona, identity, or

entity that exists in a work of art. The plot is a sequence of interrelated events
arranged to form a causal pattern and achieve an intended effect.

It is also a children’s novel because it is for readers and listeners up to

about age twelve and is often illustrated.

c.) Would you recommend it to your friend?

Yes. It shows many moral values especially for children. It really helps
young women to reminisce their childhood days.

II. Plot Summary

a.) Characters

Mary Lennox  -  One of the novel's two protagonists, Mary Lennox is a ten-year-old girl who,
after the death of her parents in India, is sent to live with her uncle in Yorkshire, England. Mary
changes drastically over the course of The Secret Garden: she evolves from a spoiled, unloved
and unloving creature to a girl who is full of spirit and surrounded by friends. She begins the
book as its central character, but is later displaced by Colin.
Colin Craven  -  The other of the novel's protagonists, Colin Craven is Archibald Craven's ten-
year-old son and heir. He was born shortly after the death of his mother, and his father could not
bear to look at him because of his resemblance to her. It is feared that he will grow to be a
hunchback like his father, and he has been treated as an invalid since his birth. Colin's childhood
has been entirely bedridden, and his servants have been commanded to obey his every whim. As
a result, Colin is extremely imperious and gloomy; when we first meet him, he is certain he is
going to die. By novel's end, however, he too will have undergone a transformation: he will have
become a vigorous optimist, and will have won his father's love. Both his and Mary's
conversions are effected by the magical properties inherent in the secret garden.

Dickon Sowerby  -  Dickon is alternately described as "a common moor boy" and "a Yorkshire
angel"; he is both. Two years older than Colin and Mary, Dickon has lived on Missel Moor his
entire life, and has a uniquely intimate relationship with the land. He is described as looking like
the god Pan (the god of ...): he has rosy cheeks, rough curly hair, and blue eyes precisely the
same color as the sky over the moor; he even carries a set of pan-pipes. Like Pan, he has the
power to charm both animals and people: all the creatures who come close to him are instantly
tamed, and he counts a fox, a crow, and two wild squirrels among his pets. His power to tame
creatures works on Colin and Mary as well, and is one of the central causes of their wondrous
transformations. He is the brother of Martha and the son of Susan.

Martha Sowerby  -  Mary's friend and maidservant, Martha is distinguished by her charming
frankness and levelheaded approach to all aspects of life. Her simplicity and kindness are a great
help to Mary upon the latter's arrival at Misselthwaite. In her very ordinariness, Martha
represents the goodness of all the people of Yorkshire.

Ben Weatherstaff  -  Ben Weatherstaff is a gruff elderly gardener who is only permitted to stay
at Misselthwaite because he was a favorite of the late Mistress Craven. He introduces Mary to
the robin redbreast, and helps the children keep the secret of the garden. Ben himself
clandestinely tended the garden during the ten years in which it was locked, out of love and
loyalty for the Mistress Craven. Although he is rather rough, Ben's essential kindness is
fundamental to his character.

Archibald Craven  -  The master of Misselthwaite Manor, who suffers from a crooked spine
and general ill health. He has been in a crushing depression ever since the death of his wife, ten
years before the novel begins. Archibald spends most of his time abroad, since he wants to see
neither his house nor his son, Colin, because these remind him of his late wife. At novel's end, he
undergoes a change of heart after his wife comes to him in a dream. Master Craven comes to
embrace his son when he realizes that this latter is in perfect health.

Lilias Craven  -  Archibald's late wife, who died ten years before the outset of the novel. Her
spirit is associated with both roses and the secret garden. Her portrait hangs in her son's room
beneath a rose-colored curtain, and she is described by all who knew her as the gentlest,
sweetest, and most beautiful of women. She represents an absent ideal.
Susan Sowerby  -  The mother of Martha and Dickon (as well as of twelve other children),
Susan Sowerby functions as a symbol for the concept of motherhood itself. She is all-nurturing,
all-knowing, and appears dressed in a hooded blue cloak like that of the Christian Virgin Mary
(the mother of Jesus Christ). Both Mary and Colin express the wish that she were their mother;
stories of her sustain each of them before their respective transformations.

Mrs. Medlock  -  The head of the servants at Misselthwaite Manor, Mrs. Medlock is
distinguished by her punctilious obedience of all of Master Craven's odd rules. Beneath her rigid
exterior, she, like all the people of Yorkshire, is basically kind. She and Susan Sowerby were
friends in their girlhood.

Dr. Craven -  Archibald's brother and Colin's uncle, he tends to Colin during the latter's illness.
He is a bit stuffy and officious, and both Colin and Mary laugh at him at every opportunity.
Described as a weak man, he half-hopes for Colin's death so that he might inherit Misselthwaite.

b.) Setting

(TIME) · Shortly after the turn of the 20th century

(PLACE) · India and Yorkshire, England

c.) Chapter Summary

Mary Lennox is a sickly, sour-faced little girl born in India to wealthy British parents who
have very little interest in her, leaving her in the care of an ayah from birth. Orphaned by an
outbreak of cholera, she is sent back to England to the legal guardianship of her only remaining
relative: her uncle, Archibald Craven, a reclusive widower.
Craven is still mourning his wife, Lilias, who died ten years earlier. To escape his sad
memories, he constantly travels abroad, leaving Mary and the manor under the supervision of
his housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock. The only person who has any time for the little girl is
the chambermaid Martha Sowerby, who tells Mary about a walled garden that was the late Mrs.
Craven's favorite place. No one has entered the garden since she died because Archibald locked
its entrance and buried the key in an unknown location.

Mary finds the key to the secret garden and a robin shows her where the door is hidden
beneath overgrown ivy. Once inside, she discovers that although the roses seem lifeless, some of
the other flowers have survived. She resolves to tend the garden herself. Although she wants to
keep it a secret, she recruits Martha's brother Dickon, who has a way with plants and wild
animals. Mary gives him money to buy gardening implements and he shows her that the roses,
though neglected, are not dead. When Mary's uncle briefly meets with her for the first time since
her arrival, Mary asks him for permission to claim her own garden from any abandoned part of
the grounds, and he acquiesces. Thanks to her new-found interests and activities, Mary herself
begins to blossom, losing her sickly look and unpleasant manner.
 On several occasions, Mary hears someone weeping in another part of the house. When
she asks questions, the servants become evasive. They tell her that she is hearing things, or they
blame the sound on ordinary sources such as the wind, or a servant with a toothache. Shortly
after her uncle's visit, she goes exploring and discovers her uncle's son, Colin, a lonely,
bedridden boy as petulant and disagreeable as Mary used to be. His father shuns him because the
child closely resembles his mother. Mr. Craven is a mild hunchback, and both he and Colin are
morbidly convinced that the boy will develop the same condition. The servants have been
keeping Mary and Colin a secret from one another because Colin doesn't like strangers staring at
him and is prone to terrible tantrums.

Colin accepts Mary and insists on her visiting him often, but as spring approaches, Colin
becomes jealous that Mary is spending more time out in the garden with Dickon. One day, Colin
threatens to ban Dickon from the grounds, but Mary matches his bad temper and storms out
without an apology. That evening, Colin escalates into a hysterical tantrum, convinced that he is
becoming hunchbacked and is going to die; Mary shocks him out of his hysteria by screaming
back at him. She also demands to see his back, and points out that the lumps behind his neck are
simply the outlines of normal vertebrae like her own. Reassured, Colin agrees to let her bring
Dickon to visit him inside his room, and they become friends.

They bring Colin outside in a wheelchair so he can see his mother's garden. Delighted, he
visits it with Mary and Dickon whenever the weather allows, ordering everyone else to stay away
on those occasions. Despite these orders, the children are discovered by the old gardener Ben
Weatherstaff, who tried to maintain the roses after Lilias' death by surreptitiously scaling the
wall once or twice a year. Ben is angry with them at first, but agrees to share and keep their
secret.
As the garden revives and flourishes, so does Colin. He resolves to walk and run like a
normal boy by the next time his father returns home; to accomplish these aims, he carries out a
program of simple physical exercises and positive thinking. He makes great progress, but they
conceal it from the rest of the household with the pretense that he is still an invalid.

Mr. Craven is traveling through Europe, but is inspired to rush home after hearing the
voice of his dead wife in a dream and receiving a letter from Mrs. Sowerby (Martha's and
Dickon's mother, who also knows the secret) telling him, "I think your lady would ask you to
come if she was here." He arrives while the children are outdoors and finds himself drawn
toward the secret garden. As he approaches nearer, he is astonished to hear their voices inside the
walls; Colin bursts out of the garden door toward him, actually winning a footrace against Mary
and Dickon. They take Mr. Craven into the secret garden to tell him everything. When they
return to the house, the servants are astonished to see two miracles: Colin walking and his father
looking happy again.
III. A.) Conclusion

Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote The Secret Garden, a much-beloved classic that

can be found on the bookshelves of those who love well-written, meaningful, refined
literature. The story is timeless and never loses its appeal, almost one hundred yearsafter
it was first published.  The scene is set with great intrigue and so begins a complex and
fascinating story.  Mary is spoilt, willful and self-centred. Recently orphaned, alone and
unloved, she shuns any care that comes her way from the servants working for her uncle.
Colin Craven, her uncle’s only crippled son, also lives in the same house, shut away from
the world. He is as difficult and as selfish as Mary and in time they come to know each
other, finding in the other a reflection of themselves. 

The two children seem doomed to miserable, lonely lives until one day Mary
finds a key to a secret garden. Once loved and cared for, the garden is nowneglected and
overgrown but Mary makes it her project and slowly restores it to life with the help of the
free-spirited Dickon, brother of one of the housemaids. 

The garden begins to work its magic on Mary and on Colin who is also let into the
secret. As she tends to the garden, Mary discovers parts of herself that were as wild and
neglected and slowly she starts to change. By the book’s conclusion, she is a normal child
who cares for others. The final scene is very moving and completes a fascinating journey
into the inner lives of the characters, all of whom have grown. 

The Secret Garden is a masterpiece of story telling. The story is beautifully

crafted and easily holds its audience captive. It is as relevant to people today as it was
when it was first written, a fact born out by the place it holds in popular, classic literature.
It has also been the subject of several movies ranging from the 1950’s up until recent
times.

B.) Reaction:

I really liked this book because it shows how people can change. Theres a saying
a leopard cannot change his spots but this leopard sure has. I loved the book and I rate it
eight out of ten I would rate it ten but I haven’t read it in a while, this book really moved
me. A small brat Mary Lennox has been taken care by her Ayah all her life. After her
parents died, she is sent to her uncle whom she has never heard of. This book relates to
her adventures in the secret garden, which had been locked, and the key was hidden. This
garden brings a change in Mary's arrogant behavior, and changes her to a normal child
and different from others.

I like it because it is from another time where things were very different and yet
it's about a great heroine, a little girl who is not at all perfect like other girls from her time
were expected to be. I think it's a great story and a good lesson to see how Mary and
Colin changed. It's for younger readers but there will be something to like in it for people
in my age.
 BOOK REPORT

In

ENGLISH II

Submitted by:
JoCELYN L. BALABBO
CEMT-II
SUBMITTED TO :
Prof. noel dolot