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Chapter 8: Sae Young
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
Curtis used to take pride in his muscles and work out every day—but then Lateesha broke up with him. They had a great relationship. Lateesha was a few years older and always talked about having a family and living out in the country, but Curtis didn’t really listen. He was only 23 and enjoyed getting attention from other girls. When Lateesha found out about this, she slammed the door in his face. This was five years ago.
By emphasizing that he used to take pride in his appearance and enjoy getting attention from girls, Curtis suggests that he’s become more humble since that time in his life. On another note, the mention that Lateesha always wanted to live in the country speaks again to the draw of the natural world. This idea runs throughout the story on a smaller scale, as characters find themselves drawn to the community garden.
Themes
Now that he’s lost Lateesha, Curtis understands her value. He’s done messing around—he’s looking for a wife, and he knows Lateesha is looking for a husband. This is because back in May, when Curtis moved back from Cincinnati, he ran into Lateesha’s brother. He said that Lateesha is still single and still lives in the same apartment. But later, Lateesha refused to talk to Curtis when they ran into each other in the street. She shut down his attempts to talk twice—so now, Curtis is going to show her how much he loves her.
Given that the garden is instrumental in bringing people together—and Lateesha wants to live in the country, surrounded by nature—this passage suggests that the garden will be pivotal in Curtis’s plan to court Lateesha again. So far, the book has shown that the community garden has the power to bring together dissimilar people—connecting them across generational gaps, cultural differences, and language barriers. The clear animosity Lateesha has for Curtis, then, raises the question of if the garden can heal romantic relationships, too.
Themes
Lateesha lives across from the garden, so Curtis claims a plot by the sidewalk that’ll be easy for her to see. Then he buys six little tomato plants. Lateesha loves tomatoes—she eats them in sandwiches and eats them plain like apples, and she always talked about eating tomatoes out of her aunt’s garden when she was a kid. Curtis figures that by planting the tomatoes, he’ll show her he was listening. The tomatoes will also make it clear he’s waiting for her.
Lateesha’s love of the natural world gives Curtis the idea to plant tomatoes for her in the first place. Curtis thus sees the garden as symbolic of his love for her, the fact that he was paying attention to her while they were dating, and his desire to resume their relationship now that five years have passed and he’s a changed man.
Themes
Curtis plants beefsteak tomatoes since they’re the biggest. It doesn’t take long before he enjoys gardening, even though he’s never grown anything before. There’s something new to see every day as his plants create buds, then flowers, and finally tomatoes. An old man with a straw hat shows Curtis how to stake the tomato plants so that their vines have something to cling to, while another person tells Curtis about all the diseases that plague tomatoes. This makes Curtis worry, as he doesn’t want Lateesha to see the plants wilting or dying.
As before, the man in the straw hat helping newcomers with their plants is implied to be Tío Juan, who is eager to share his wealth of knowledge about agriculture. It seems that Tío Juan has finally found someplace where he’s valued and has a sense of purpose, which the novel suggests is deeply important for immigrants and can help soothe their loneliness. This passage also suggests that he’s learning to work through his language barrier, as he shows Curtis how to stake the tomatoes rather than telling him. And unlike Virgil, Curtis appears to warmly welcome Tío Juan’s assistance, which suggests that Curtis may be a better fit for the garden’s community and goals than Virgil and his father (who were set on profit) were.
Themes
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Curtis checks on the tomatoes right after work every day. He flicks away bugs, pulls weeds, and fertilizes the plants regularly. Gradually, the tomatoes grow from tiny green marbles to big orange and red globes. Curtis keeps looking up at Lateesha’s window, waiting for her to see. But the only people who look back are the drunks that hang out on her building’s ground floor, in the boarded-up liquor store. They call Curtis a “field slave” and a “share-cropper,” and they ask how “Massa’s crops” are doing. Curtis knows he could beat the men and make them stop, but he doesn’t. That’s the point; he wants Lateesha to see that he’s not a “beast” just because he has muscles.
The racial slurs that the drunks use towards Curtis are one of the few times that the book touches on race and racism. The other clear moment was when Miss Fleck (who has dark skin) likened Virgil’s father’s expansive, six-plot garden to a “plantation.” Through this reference to slavery in the American South, Miss Fleck implied that, like plantation owners, Virgil and his father were being unethical and gluttonous in using the community garden to make a profit. Here, though, the drunks are likening Curtis not to a plantation owner but to a slave working in the fields at a plantation. Even though the garden is a place that brings people from all walks of life together, the drunks who are just across the street reveal that the neighborhood is still a divisive, dangerous place.
Themes
Curtis also stops working out and taking off his shirt, even when it’s really hot. Girls still walk by and compliment him, but when he responds to them he always acts like they were complimenting his tomatoes. His friends start to call him Tomato, but Curtis just smiles.
The opening of this chapter—before Curtis started his gardening project—suggested that he’s gained a lot of humility since his breakup five years ago. So while the garden isn’t responsible for all of his character development, it’s nevertheless continuing to aid in his personal growth. While he used to be preoccupied with working out and showing off his muscles—that is, focused on himself—he’s now focused on growing his tomatoes and winning back Lateesha.
Themes
The tomatoes get as big as billiard balls. One day, Curtis discovers that his biggest tomato is gone. The next day, another one is gone. He’s angry, especially since the tomatoes weren’t even ripe yet. To guard against thieves, he puts chicken wire around the tomatoes and on top, but people can still get their hands in. Curtis can’t spend all day guarding his tomatoes, but fortunately, Royce shows up just in time.
Earlier in the novel, Sam was saddened by the fact that people were starting to fence their gardens, seeing this as divisive, possessive, and perhaps even selfish. Here, the novel provides an explanation as to why they put up fences in the first place. For Curtis, the thieves threaten his chances of getting Lateesha back. It’s important, then, that Curtis isn’t selfishly trying to hoard his produce for himself—his focus still remains on reconnecting with Lateesha through gardening, so his overarching goal still aligns with that of the community garden.
Themes
Curtis discovers Royce sleeping in the garden one morning on a pile of grass clippings. Royce is only 15, Black, and muscular, but his face is bruised and swollen. Royce shares that his father beat him and threw him out, so Curtis takes the boy out for breakfast. Then, they cut a deal.
Like many characters in the novel, Royce perceives the garden as a safe place—or at least safer than his home. Once Curtis discovers Royce, the garden also gives Royce access to community and people who can help him. Up until this point, the book has shown how those involved in the community garden help one another and share their resources, but this has all been gardening related—like Sae Young donating funnels, everyone chipping in to buy trash bins, or Tío Juan sharing his gardening expertise. But Royce isn’t a gardener, and Curtis still reaches out to him by taking him to breakfast, which suggests that being involved in the community garden may spur people to invest in their community and neighbors in other contexts, too.
Themes
Curtis finds Royce a hidden place where the police won’t see him, but that’s close to the tomatoes. He buys Royce a sleeping bag, gives him money for food, and gets him a pitchfork. Royce agrees to attack anyone who tries to steal the tomatoes with the pitchfork. To protect the tomatoes during the day, Curtis paints a sign with the words “Lateesha’s Tomatoes” and puts it by the sidewalk. He thinks that if people know that something belongs to a person, rather than the government, they’re more likely to leave it alone. One day, while Curtis waters his tomatoes, he looks up at Lateesha’s window. He can see her staring down at the sign.
This passage again emphasizes that Royce, like many characters in the novel, feels safe in the garden and sees it as a refuge from the dangerous outside world. Royce also finds he can give back to this community by protecting Curtis’s tomatoes, which gives him a sense of purpose. Curtis also echoes Sam’s earlier sentiments when he says that people respect other people more than they respect the government. This is perhaps why Sam felt he was having more success improving Cleveland than he ever did on a global scale.
Themes
