Merna 's Reviews > The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden
by
by
1 star for a popular and beloved classic?
What a scandal.
Well, I think this is the first classic that I'm giving a 1 star for so it’s a fairly big deal.
Although I did not finish this, I already know how the book wraps up. (view spoiler)
Here's the thing:
Many classics deal with universal ideas. The Secret Garden deals with kids who have been neglected emotionally by their parents, and even though it's overdone now days, I can understand why it was so popular a century ago. I already know the character will have some self-realization about the fact that she’s a little bitchy, ungrateful kid (of course, she will still be racist), and she will live happily ever after with her uncle, never attending school because she’s a stupid female. “Oh, she doesn’t need school, she needs to jump more rope!”
I just can't connect with a story about a spoiled little rich kid who finds out that they can actually be nice, but it warms my heart to know everyone is capable of such emotion.
I also believe the message of the book was loud and clear: if you grow up in a environment like India instead of England then expect yourself to be a bad and mean person too. The message was not: be a nice person even if you're rich or don't be rude and bratty.
And if I have to read one more line of Martha talking, I'll lose it. Can the women speak properly? I don't care if it’s some accent. It’s goddamn annoying reading it. I also believe her brother was on meth because he would go around the field saying, “ahahaha canna tha’ can you hears the birds and smell the honey…”
Classic? Please!
EDIT: No need to point out to me that racism was the norm in the early 20th century. I held no illusion that was contrary to that. However, I also believe that it was not necessarily something everyone subscribed to even back then. There are people born far earlier than Frances Hodgeson Burnett and held far more progressive beliefs and were not so easily led by society to subscribe to such notions. What of men such as William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips after all?
Their code of morals were above a novel whose main purpose was to teach about morals. This is what essentially annoys about this novel. I don't care for the racism in other books. H.P Lovecraft's racism doesn't disturb me. After all, his stories weren't written to teach kids about morality or goodness.
It's the fact that this book is dedicated to correcting the behavior and morals of a child at every instance. However, when the child says, "blacks are not people" and no one bothers to contradict her then whatever message this book was attempting to deliver about morality is lost.
The author is a "product of her time." Sorry, I didn't realize that you had to be born at a particular period of human history to see others of different appearance as human.
What a scandal.
Well, I think this is the first classic that I'm giving a 1 star for so it’s a fairly big deal.
Although I did not finish this, I already know how the book wraps up. (view spoiler)
Here's the thing:
Many classics deal with universal ideas. The Secret Garden deals with kids who have been neglected emotionally by their parents, and even though it's overdone now days, I can understand why it was so popular a century ago. I already know the character will have some self-realization about the fact that she’s a little bitchy, ungrateful kid (of course, she will still be racist), and she will live happily ever after with her uncle, never attending school because she’s a stupid female. “Oh, she doesn’t need school, she needs to jump more rope!”
I just can't connect with a story about a spoiled little rich kid who finds out that they can actually be nice
I also believe the message of the book was loud and clear: if you grow up in a environment like India instead of England then expect yourself to be a bad and mean person too. The message was not: be a nice person even if you're rich or don't be rude and bratty.
And if I have to read one more line of Martha talking, I'll lose it. Can the women speak properly? I don't care if it’s some accent. It’s goddamn annoying reading it. I also believe her brother was on meth because he would go around the field saying, “ahahaha canna tha’ can you hears the birds and smell the honey…”
Classic? Please!
EDIT: No need to point out to me that racism was the norm in the early 20th century. I held no illusion that was contrary to that. However, I also believe that it was not necessarily something everyone subscribed to even back then. There are people born far earlier than Frances Hodgeson Burnett and held far more progressive beliefs and were not so easily led by society to subscribe to such notions. What of men such as William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips after all?
Their code of morals were above a novel whose main purpose was to teach about morals. This is what essentially annoys about this novel. I don't care for the racism in other books. H.P Lovecraft's racism doesn't disturb me. After all, his stories weren't written to teach kids about morality or goodness.
It's the fact that this book is dedicated to correcting the behavior and morals of a child at every instance. However, when the child says, "blacks are not people" and no one bothers to contradict her then whatever message this book was attempting to deliver about morality is lost.
The author is a "product of her time." Sorry, I didn't realize that you had to be born at a particular period of human history to see others of different appearance as human.
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Reading Progress
February 17, 2013
– Shelved
December 27, 2013
–
Started Reading
December 27, 2013
– Shelved as:
my-2013-reads
December 27, 2013
– Shelved as:
classics
January 5, 2014
–
22.66%
""The Secret Garden is a pleasant book about a bunch of racists who are convinced that living in the windy moors of England somehow cures disease." That really sums up the book."
page
75
January 8, 2014
– Shelved as:
unable-to-finish
January 8, 2014
–
Finished Reading
March 20, 2018
– Shelved as:
dnf
Comments Showing 1-46 of 46 (46 new)
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I really liked Sara in A Little Princess, but then again, I wound up liking Mary later on, too. It's just a matter of perspective.
I guess it comes to opinion. I know people who hate The Great Gatsby and To kill a Mockingbird, which I can't understand myself.
Including the Yorkshire accent. Ill do the accent in my head, thank you very much, I don't want to have to say stuff out loud to figure out what I means...
I'm sure the time this book was published was a huge contributor of that representation but we can't say that the story is bad because it contains racism. It's not even the main point of this book. :)
It doesn't excuse the racism, of course, but this book was written during English colonization.