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Kim
Ana is an elderly white woman and one of the novel’s narrators; she came to Cleveland from Romania as a small child. She spent years working as a typist at the local police department, and this experience has taught her to assume that all children in the neighborhood are involved in illicit activities. So when Ana sees young Kim digging down in the vacant lot, she assumes that Kim is burying drugs or other illicit substances. However, Ana is beside herself with shame when she discovers Kim’s sprouting lima bean seeds instead of drugs. After this, Ana buys binoculars so she can keep an eye on the bean sprouts’ progress—like many characters in the novel, Ana is inexplicably drawn to the garden and watching its progress. In her descriptions of the neighborhood’s history over the last 60 years or so, she describes the neighborhood as a “cheap hotel” where immigrants live only until they can afford to move elsewhere.
Ana Quotes in Seedfolks
The Seedfolks quotes below are all either spoken by Ana or refer to Ana. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2: Ana
Quotes
I never had children of my own, but I’ve seen enough in that lot to know she was mixed up in something she shouldn’t be. And after twenty years typing for the Parole department, I just about knew what she’d buried. Drugs most likely, or money, or a gun.
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I tried a new spot and found another [bean], then a third. Then the truth of it slapped me full in the face. I said to myself, “What have you done?” Two beans had roots. I knew I’d done them harm. I felt like I’d read through her secret diary and had ripped out a page without meaning to.
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Chapter 3: Wendell
Quotes
“What are they?” she asked.
“Some kind of beans.” I grew up on a little farm in Kentucky. “But she planted ‘em way too early. She’s lucky those seeds even came up.”
“But they did,” said Ana. And it’s up to us to save them.”
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Ana Quotes in Seedfolks
The Seedfolks quotes below are all either spoken by Ana or refer to Ana. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2: Ana
Quotes
I never had children of my own, but I’ve seen enough in that lot to know she was mixed up in something she shouldn’t be. And after twenty years typing for the Parole department, I just about knew what she’d buried. Drugs most likely, or money, or a gun.
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I tried a new spot and found another [bean], then a third. Then the truth of it slapped me full in the face. I said to myself, “What have you done?” Two beans had roots. I knew I’d done them harm. I felt like I’d read through her secret diary and had ripped out a page without meaning to.
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Chapter 3: Wendell
Quotes
“What are they?” she asked.
“Some kind of beans.” I grew up on a little farm in Kentucky. “But she planted ‘em way too early. She’s lucky those seeds even came up.”
“But they did,” said Ana. And it’s up to us to save them.”
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