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Chapter 6: Sam
Themes
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
Virgil stands with his dad on the sidewalk while men clear the vacant lot. He watches the terrified rats run off in every direction. One rat runs up a drug dealer’s leg, and the dealer screeches like a woman in a cartoon. Virgil’s dad doesn’t even notice. Instead, he’s staring at the emerging garden land with a huge smile on his face.
This passage suggests that clearing the lot might do more good than just creating space for a garden. That both the rats and the drug dealer are terrified here suggests that the lot’s transformation might scare off some of the people who Gonzalo and Ana suggested are responsible for the cold, unfriendly, and outright dangerous nature of the neighborhood.
Themes
Virgil’s father drove a bus in Haiti. Here, he drives a taxi—and he drives all the way across town to borrow two shovels after seeing the lot being cleared. The next morning is the first day of summer vacation. Virgil is thrilled to be done with fifth grade and plans to sleep until noon, but instead, his dad wakes him up before the sun rises.
At this point it’s unclear exactly why Virgil’s father is so excited to grow a garden. It may be a way for him to connect with his son, just as Gonzalo connected with Tío Juan. Regardless, Virgil’s father’s palpable excitement (seen by waking up his son so early and driving across town just for a shovel) shows that the garden has a reinvigorating effect on the neighborhood and its residents.
Themes
Virgil and Virgil’s father walk to the garden and search for a plot with good soil. As they dig, they pick out pieces of broken glass and garbage from the soil. In the rubble, Virgil finds a rusty, heart-shaped locket; inside is a tiny photo of a sad-looking white girl in a flowery hat. Virgil doesn’t know why he feels compelled to keep the locket instead of disposing of it with the other trash.
Virgil’s discovery of the locket seems to suggest that it’s possible to find beauty anywhere, even in and amongst all the garbage and rubble of the lot. That Virgil unearths this locket—which seems like a family heirloom—also points to the way that the garden will strengthen family relationships and connect people to their heritage. In addition, that the girl is white—while the neighborhood is mostly made up of immigrants of color—suggests that the locket may be from back when the neighborhood was primarily populated by Romanians, Slovaks, and Italians (as it was when Ana was a young girl growing up here).
Themes
Turning up the soil seems to take hours and hours. After a short rest, Virgil’s father asks Virgil if he’s ready. Virgil thinks they’re going to plant seeds now—but instead, they turn four more squares of ground. Virgil’s father is dreaming of having a profitable farm, not just a little garden.
Virgil’s father’s wishes for a profitable farm suggests that some of the gardeners are beginning to stray from the core intentions of the community garden: giving people a place to connect with one another and grow crops from their own cultures. And given that there are few—if any—available garden plots at any given time (during Sam’s chapter, he notes that there are none left), the story implicitly questions if it’s gluttonous that Virgil’s father claims five plots for himself, or if an added value of the garden is that it gives people a money-making opportunity.
Themes
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Virgil wants to grow pole beans. He saw a seed packet with a picture of a man picking the beans from the top of a ladder. But Virgil’s father says no—a passenger in his taxi told him that fancy restaurants will pay lots of money for fresh baby lettuce. He plans to pick the lettuce and then deliver it to restaurants in his cab as fast as he can.
Here, Virgil confirms that gardening isn’t a bonding exercise for him and his dad, nor is it about getting Virgil more interested in gardening (since his father denies his request to plant pole beans). Rather, the garden is how his dad is going to make money, which again raises the question of if this is the right intention to have in a community garden or not.
Themes
Lettuce seeds are tiny, and Virgil is embarrassed to plant such a huge garden in the community space. Suddenly he notices Miss Fleck across the lot. She’s the strictest teacher in Ohio and is darker skinned than Virgil’s father. She comes over just as Virgil and Virgil’s father finish planting. She notes that they’ve claimed a “large plantation,” which makes Virgil burn with shame. He looks away toward their six plots, which they divided up with string. Virgil’s father steps forward and with a huge smile, tells Miss Fleck that six of the plots are for relatives. One plot is for his brother; another is for his auntie. Virgil’s eyes open wide—both family members live in Haiti, not here.
Virgil seems to have a strong sense of right and wrong—even before Miss Fleck appears and criticizes Virgil’s father for claiming so many plots, Virgil intuitively senses that it’s unfair that they took six. In referring to the six plots as a “plantation,” Miss Fleck references American slavery, and her language may contribute to Virgil’s shame and discomfort. As Virgil sees his father openly lie to Miss Fleck, he is forced to grapple with the fact that his father may be willing to use immoral means to get ahead.
Themes
Virgil’s father continues listing family members, all of whom live far away, are deceased, or don’t exist at all. Virgil is in shock, as he’s never seen an adult lie before. Miss Fleck asks what these family members asked them to grow. She doesn’t seem to buy it when Virgil’s father says that they all want lettuce.
Virgil’s father’s hastily constructed lies suggest that he, too, is aware that taking so much land for himself and using it for profit is unethical. He realizes that the garden is meant for families in the immediate community—not for grand business ideas—which is why he tries to placate Miss Fleck by claiming that he’s planting on behalf of his other family members. For some of the book’s characters, working in the garden has allowed them to see new sides of their family members—Gonzalo, for instance, begins to see his Tío Juan’s expertise and much more lively and engaged side of him. By working in the garden, Virgil also gets to see a fuller picture of his family member, but it’s a far more unflattering one.
Themes
Tending to the lettuce is like caring for a new baby, and Virgil becomes its mother. Virgil is responsible for watering it. But the lettuce doesn’t come up in the seven days it’s supposed to, and Virgil’s father doesn’t know why—neither he nor Virgil know anything about plants. A wrinkly old man in a straw hat tries to show Virgil something when Virgil waters, but the man doesn’t speak English. Virgil finally figures it out when the lettuce comes up in wavy lines instead of straight—he washed the seeds out of place.
The old man in the straw hat is presumably Tío Juan, trying to share his expertise and help Virgil be successful. Even though Tío Juan is ultimately unable to share his knowledge with Virgil because of the language barrier that exists between them, his attempt to help speaks to the community spirit that the garden is founded upon—and, by contrast, how Virgil father’s six-plot endeavor goes against the grain of what the garden is intended to do for the community.
Themes
The lettuce wilts as soon as it comes up. Virgil is sick of hauling water to the garden in a shopping cart and when the weather grows warm, the lettuce shrivels up and dies. Virgil’s father almost cries at the sight. Then, bugs start eating the wilted plants. Virgil is certain no one will buy their lettuce. His father promised him an 18-speed bike once they earned some money, and Virgil already told his friends about it.
While there was a genuine language barrier between Virgil and Tío Juan, this passage suggests that had Tío Juan been able to help Virgil and his father learn how to properly plant and care for their plants, their crops would have been successful. Again, Tío Juan’s attempt to help Virgil is reflective of what the community garden is supposed to be: a place that brings people together and allows them to help one another. But in trying to do the planting and tending all on their own, without receiving help from the community, Virgil and his father only harm themselves. In other words, this passage underscores that an independent spirit and motivation to make a profit are unwelcome—and unrewarded—in the community garden.
Themes
Virgil’s father asks all of his taxi passengers what to do about his crops. Someone finally tells him that lettuce does best in the spring or fall; it’s too hot in the summer. After his father shares this news, Virgil stomps outside. He can feel his bike slipping away. He’s used to seeing kids lying, but he’s never seen an adult lie and make mistakes. At first he’s angry at his father, but then he feels sorry for him. That night, Virgil pulls out the locket and stares at the picture inside. He’d studied Greek myths in school, and he thinks the girl in the picture looks like the goddess of crops and the earth. Virgil cleans the locket as best he can. Then he opens it and whispers to the girl to save their lettuce.
Through the garden, Virgil is forced to confront the fact that adults—even his own father—lie and make mistakes just like kids do. In this way, Virgil begins to humanize his dad, which points back to the idea that working together in the community garden allows family members to see new sides of one another. The goddess Virgil refers to in this passage is probably Demeter, the goddess of harvest.
Themes
