Sae Young Character Analysis in Seedfolks

Sae Young is a middle-aged Korean woman and one of the novel’s narrators. She immigrated to Cleveland with her husband years before the novel begins and ran a dry cleaning business with him. Despite their efforts, Sae Young and her husband were never able to have children, and her husband died of a heart attack at only 37 years old. Two years later, someone robbed the business and violently attacked Sae Young until she was unconscious. This traumatic experience ushered in a period of several years in which Sae Young was too afraid to go into public, a major change for her—prior to this, she was outgoing and sociable. When readers meet her, Sae Young is finally able to face grocery shopping herself, and she’s at the point where she feels ready to be among people again. The community garden offers her a safe environment to work through her fears of people. When she first starts going, she doesn’t speak to anyone and simply enjoys listening to the conversations going on around her. But after a few weeks, she’s able to engage with others about their plants—something that makes her happier than she’s been in years. As it does with Mr. Myles, the garden transforms Sae Young’s outlook on life as well as her mental health.

Sae Young Quotes in Seedfolks

The Seedfolks quotes below are all either spoken by Sae Young or refer to Sae Young. 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:

).

Vietnamese girl was working there, picking beautiful lima beans. A man and a woman on other side, talking over row of corn. Hear man say his wife give him hoe for birthday. I want to be with people again. Next day I go back and dig small garden. Nobody talk to me that day. But just to be near people, nice people, feel good, like next to fire in winter.

Related Characters: Sae Young (speaker), Kim

Related Symbols: Lima Bean Seeds

Page Number and Citation: 47

Explanation and Analysis:

That day I see man use my funnel. Then woman. Then many people. Feel very glad inside. Feel part of garden. Almost like family.

Related Characters: Sae Young (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 50

Explanation and Analysis:

A fact bobbed up from my memory, that the ancient Egyptians prescribed walking through a garden as a cure for the mad. It was a mind-altering drug we took daily.

Related Characters: Nora (speaker), Tío Juan, Sae Young, Mr. Myles

Page Number and Citation: 64-65

Explanation and Analysis:

In India we have many vast cities, just as in America. There, too, you are one among millions. But there at least you know your neighbors. Here, one cannot say that. The object in America is to avoid contact, to treat all as foes unless they’re known to be friends. Here you have a million crabs living in a million crevices.

Related Characters: Amir (speaker), Kim, Wendell, Sae Young

Page Number and Citation: 73

Explanation and Analysis:

Sae Young Quotes in Seedfolks

The Seedfolks quotes below are all either spoken by Sae Young or refer to Sae Young. 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:

).

Vietnamese girl was working there, picking beautiful lima beans. A man and a woman on other side, talking over row of corn. Hear man say his wife give him hoe for birthday. I want to be with people again. Next day I go back and dig small garden. Nobody talk to me that day. But just to be near people, nice people, feel good, like next to fire in winter.

Related Characters: Sae Young (speaker), Kim

Related Symbols: Lima Bean Seeds

Page Number and Citation: 47

Explanation and Analysis:

That day I see man use my funnel. Then woman. Then many people. Feel very glad inside. Feel part of garden. Almost like family.

Related Characters: Sae Young (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 50

Explanation and Analysis:

A fact bobbed up from my memory, that the ancient Egyptians prescribed walking through a garden as a cure for the mad. It was a mind-altering drug we took daily.

Related Characters: Nora (speaker), Tío Juan, Sae Young, Mr. Myles

Page Number and Citation: 64-65

Explanation and Analysis:

In India we have many vast cities, just as in America. There, too, you are one among millions. But there at least you know your neighbors. Here, one cannot say that. The object in America is to avoid contact, to treat all as foes unless they’re known to be friends. Here you have a million crabs living in a million crevices.

Related Characters: Amir (speaker), Kim, Wendell, Sae Young

Page Number and Citation: 73

Explanation and Analysis: