Susan Orlean’s nonfiction book The Orchid Thief (1998) begins in 1994 with Orlean’s fascination with orchid growing—and a theft. Orlean reads a clip from a newspaper about an orchid theft by John Laroche and three members of the Seminole First Nations. Orlean, an investigative journalist, decides to look into the story. She travels to Florida, where Laroche orchestrated the theft of orchids from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve. When she arrives, she attends the courtroom hearing for Laroche and the Seminoles. Not only is she introduced to his unique personality, but also to the world of collecting rare orchids. Laroche is both eccentric and obsessive and happens to think he’s smarter than anyone else in his acquaintance. Orchid collecting …show more content…
Laroche sought the help of the Seminole First Nations because they were the only ones allowed to take plants out of the Fakahatchee Strand. Laroche’s plan was to breed a new hybrid, thereby making his career for the next seven years. Orlean goes into the Fakahatchee Strand, which is a swampy area that provides a welcoming home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. She explores the area to get a sense for the environment that’s prized for the growth of wild orchid flowers. In The Orchid Thief, she discusses the history of this ecologically vibrant area and Florida as a whole, since the state is so unique in its environment and the biology that environment supports. During the course of her investigation into Laroche and the wild orchids, Orlean encounters several famed orchid growers. Among them are Tom Fennell, Martin Motes, and Bob Fuchs. They have orchid nurseries, which she visits during her visit to the area. One of Orlean’s goals is to view a blooming ghost orchid—but despite her best efforts, she never does see one. By the end of the book, Orlean declares that she’d rather not see one in bloom with her own two eyes because she fears the sight couldn’t hold a candle to how the bloom looks in her
First, Roberta finds her purpose of life with the help of Roxanne. In the beginning, Roberta did not want to cover a tall azalea bush planted by her husband’s mother because she “[runs] out of energy for unwinnable battles against nature” (4). When Roxanne encounters a life issue, she asks for Roberta’s advice of whether she should leave the town. Roberta did not know how to answer and points out that she has been staying in town “chasing [her] tail doing nothing” (21) in the past. Her response reveals her sentiment of feeling trapped in the town and not pursuing her goals or contributing to anything. Roxanne, however, disagrees as she explains that Roberta’s job is not “like the jobs [other] people have … but it’s something to [her] “(39). Roxanne in fact appreciates Roberta’s effort of raising her in the past years and the azalea plant symbolizes Roberta’s work. Although the plant will still
April Henry doesn’t really give a whole lot of information, at the beginning of the book. Throughout the book, you learn about the characters, where the setting is, learn about the plot, and about the moral of the story.
“You are Ugly!” “Go Away” “Nobody Likes You” “Go Die!” Things like this are said to people everyday just because they might be different. As you can tell our society is not the most accepting. “The House of The Scorpion” accurately reflects this. It shows how people are discriminated for being different, how money influences and corrupts people and how power corrupts people.
Miss Lottie’s garden grows marigolds, which are often mentioned in the story. In the story these marigolds are like a symbol of Lizabeths innocence. In the end of the story Lizabeth destroys the flowers, and after acts very differently. As the story describes it, “… and as I look back upon it, I know that
April Raintree is the main protagonist in the book, In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice Mosionier. Throughout her childhood she was embarrassed to be Metis, and because of her taking after her mother’s Irish pale skin, being able to blend into white society she would hide her native ancestry.
"Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it" (Baldwin). All experiences spring out of innocence. Sarah Orne Jewett expresses this through the story “The White Heron.” She uses the story to show how easily innocence can be influenced. "For Jewett, it seems to have been a personal 'myth' that expressed her own experience and the experience of other women in the nineteenth century who had similar gifts, aspirations, and choices" (Griffith). Her personal experiences include her living in Maine with her dad and two sisters. She had a medical degree but turned to writing because of poor health. She represented many women during the hard times of the 19th century.
Another factor that clearly brings out the theme is the fact that she claims that orderliness of family roses is her pride. However she may not necessarily be that orderly as depicted in the development of that story. The author of the story Shirley Jackson uses the author and her ambiguous cha...
Elisa Allen is working on her garden and she sees her husband, Henry, speaking with two men about selling his steers. The garden bed and the house are called to attention and it is pointed out that they are very clean and organized. Once the strangers leave, Henry comes over to her and politely praises her on how lovely the garden looks and then wishes that she would attend to the orchards in the same way. She at first is egger to help but realizes that he was joking. Henry says they should celebrate by going to town and jokingly suggests seeing a fight, to which Elisa turns down. Henry leaves and a wagon pulls up with a charming, yet uneducated, tinker. They joke about the ferocity of the dogs. He asks for work to pay to feed his self and Elisa denies that there is work for him to do. He notices the chrysanthemums and tells her that he has a client that wants to raise some. She suddenly is excited and begins to ready some plants for him to take with him, and she instructs him on how to take care of them. She expresses her passion and her connection to the flowers in a seductive manner, even to the point of wanting to have physical contact with the tinker. She refrains from touching. The tinker points out that it’s hard to feel that way when hungry. Elisa gives in and finds something for him to work on. As the tinker works, Elisa expresses her opinion that women can do that same kind of work he does, to which he says it would be to lo...
... emotional and mental growth from what happened to her through her artwork. Like Melinda had said in the book, she had gone through different phases in her art pictures from ones with dead, leafless trees to trees with cubism and beautiful leaves and branches. This shows her growth and recovery from what happened that night at the party. In the end, as this relates to Melinda, life is like a tree. You start off a little seed and then become a sprout. You learn from your mistakes and life lessons and begin to grow into a tall, strong, and mighty tree wear no one can harm or stop you from being yourself.
Sarah Orne Jewett’s “The White Heron” is a timely piece that depicts the struggle between nature and civilization, between the wild and the modern. The bright, beautiful forests and waters of Northern New England clash with the modern scientific advancements of man. Within her story, she describes a young girl named Sylvie whom is very closely connected with nature itself, grow up in the New England countryside far away from other people, even being described as, “afraid of folks” (670). One of her only friends is a cow named Mistress Moolly, and she often submerges herself within the delicate yet intriguing wildlife around her home. She loves being one with nature and she has even become seriously familiar with the lay of the land as well as most if not
When Marie-Neige believed that she was in the extreme depth of hopelessness, the unexpected generosity and kindness from Lucien allowed her to re-evaluate herself regarding her previous negative outlook of life. Lucien’s decision to purchase her property and sign it under her name after realizing all the pain and miseries Marie-Neige experienced instigated a substantial change within Marie-Neige’s character. This revelation caused Marie-Neige to transform from someone who had “been given nothing in her life, on even the slightest scale” (pg.6) to someone who began to “recognize the sudden lightness” (pg.6) in life by discovering the limitless possibilities of her own farm. Because of Lucien’s compassion and kindness, Marie-Neige realized how such a simple act could greatly positively influence her view of the world. This feeling of hope and optimism has allowed her to destroy the barriers encompassed around her poverty-stricken life and discover her true aspirations in society filled with endless opportunities. In addition, the allusion to Cornelius also demonstrates the importance of the farm to Marie-Neige since it is an essential for her way of living. When Marie-Neige was still living a poverty-stricken, difficult life, she attempted to cultivate her plants successfully in order to one day be able to enter society and forever leave her destitute, poor state. Now that she has rights to her own land, she believes that she is now able to “enter the world of the grower of the black tulip” (pg. 6). This means now that Marie-Neige has possession of her own property, she will be able to properly tend her own flowers by herself and compete within the mainstream, competitive society while abandoning her previous sufferings and
In a world dominated by religion it was thought that the only place where perfection existed was within God. In some cases, for instance the ontological argument, it was the proof to his existence. But in a modern world the concept of perfection has been distorted and comes with an abundance of seemingly negative consequences, ultimately putting into question whether or not perfection is even possible. In Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake the concept of perfection is constantly challenged in a world run by corporations who are trying to package human perfection and profit from it. The desire and attempt towards attaining perfection brings moral instability and corruption. Even though perfection seems as if it is the ultimate and most excellent way to live, it is always accompanied with negative results making true perfection unattainable. As previously mentioned, the society that is most present in the novel is run by large corporations that attempt to provide a perfect life for the people within the Compounds. The corporations are riddled with immoral actions that are projected onto the lives of the people they are trying to provide for. Jimmy, on the other hand, lacks this desire for perfection and is pleased with his mediocrity; this level of being content with himself allows him to feel and exercise more valuable traits like empathy. Finally, through the novel Crake is slowly trying to grasp at, or create perfection and he is slowly losing his moral grounding. What seems to be a positive goal for man to have is actually the opposite, causing men to lose what makes them most different from animals, leaving them cruel and ruthless.
Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, seems to describe the ultimate women’s suffrage story. No longer will men have an upper hand against women after reading this story. Cleverness will be the key to retaining power from the men in this story. The one thing that woman are criticized for, the idea that women tend to look at the ‘little picture’ instead of the ‘whole picture’, will be there path to victory. Two stories of revenge are told in this story, the revenge of suppression and revenge of being portrayed as ‘unsophisticated, unintelligent’ women. First we have the story of Mrs. Wright and the struggles with her husband, John. Married women throughout history have been portrayed and played the role as being inferior to the husband in marriage. This seems to be the case with Mrs. Wright. Even though John’s public image was somewhat respectable, it was obvious that behind close doors the story was different. There is evidence of abuse in this marriage. First, the discovery of the broken door leads me to conclude that John was very physical and anguished. Second, it is assumed that Mrs. Wrights husband had broke her canary’s neck. The canary, which of course had to be caged, was represented as the old Minnie Foster herself. The canary is a beautiful, free spirited bird that had a sweet voice, as Minnie had at one time. This was the end of the line and ‘Minnie Foster’ was about to be reborn. She would stand up for all those abused and suppressed house wives across the world and makes the first ‘final’ decision she had ever been allowed to make. The bird’s cage was her jail. The bird’s death was her freedom for the fate of the bird was the fate of her husband. John was discovered with a rope tied around his neck, the freedom of a women who could no longer be held down. This was the first implementation of women’s power in the story. The women at Mrs. Wright’s home played an important role in the story as well. The ‘professional’ detectives were busy about the house finding clues to indict Mrs. Wright in the murder case. They ridiculed the women in the house by ‘putting them in their place’ as typical ladies, so worried about small things and useless ordeals. Mrs. Hale noted the stitches in the quilt to be erratically stitched as if something were wrong.
The Flowers By Alice Walker Written in the 1970's The Flowers is set in the deep south of America and is about Myop, a small 10-year old African American girl who explores the grounds in which she lives. Walker explores how Myop reacts in different situations. She writes from a third person perspective of Myop's exploration. In the first two paragraph Walker clearly emphasises Myop's purity and young innocence.
Although imagery and symbolism does little to help prepare an expected ending in “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, setting is the singular element that clearly reasons out an ending that correlates with the predominant theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing a grim realism from the cruel world. Despite the joyous atmosphere of an apparently beautiful world of abundant corn and cotton, death and hatred lies on in the woods just beyond the sharecropper cabin. Myop’s flowers are laid down as she blooms into maturity in the face of her fallen kinsman, and the life of summer dies along with her innocence. Grim realism has never been so cruel to the innocent children.