The Greenhouse Symbol Analysis

The greenhouse symbolizes the Garden of Eden, and Morrison uses that symbolism to subvert the moral of the biblical story of the Fall, pointing to the harm and complicity in evil that come with ignorance. The Isle de Chevaliers, where Valerian has built his house and garden, is initially portrayed as a kind of paradise. Valerian spends almost all his time in the greenhouse, which metaphorically represents the Garden of Eden. In the Bible, the Garden of Eden is the paradise where Adam and Eve live before they eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and are consequently exiled from paradise. Valerian’s “paradise” collapses after he learns that Margaret repeatedly abused their son, Michael, when he was a child. After that revelation, Valerian feels like he is innocent of the crime itself because he did not abuse Michael, but he is horrified by how his supposed innocence allowed Margaret’s abuse of Michael to continue. Valerian realizes that his supposed paradise has been an illusion all along. He realizes that his discovery of Margaret’s abuse of Michael does change the fact of the abuse—it has simply forced him to confront how his willful ignorance of Margaret’s mistreatment of Michael allowed that abuse to continue, making Valerian himself complicit in that abuse through his inaction. Indeed, Valerian describes his prior innocence (or rather his ignorance) as “revolting” and becomes ashamed of that innocence, just as the biblical Adam became ashamed of his nakedness after eating from the tree of knowledge. After Valerian’s revelation, the greenhouse gradually falls into disrepair, representing Valerian’s exile from the supposed Eden he previously inhabited.