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Gardens In The Novel The Samurai's Garden

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People love serenity (Basic). People love customisable items. People love gardens (Parallel). People around the world keep gardens. Whether their gardens provide them with food, beauty, or a place to hold parties, people keep gardens for many reasons. Japanese gardens are a large part of their culture and represent different aspects of the person who tends it. The beauty of a garden only reflects the diligence of its’ caretaker. In Gail Tsukiyama’s novel The Samurai’s Garden several of her characters tend their own Japanese-style gardens. Throughout her novel, she reveals the importance of the gardens present, and how they represent their caretakers inner selves. Gardens represent the japanese culture (Basic). Japanese gardens contain many hidden elements. To someone who does not know much about the japanese-style gardens, they would view the gardens as just beautiful and would not know any meaning behind them. Tsukiyama’s character Steven, a chinese boy, spends a lot of time in Matsu’s garden. In the beginning novel he views the garden as beautiful and special, he only knew that Matsu’s garden whispered …show more content…

(Periodic) Japanese style gardens are only beautiful if they are cared for diligently. They require daily maintenance and years of development. (Cumulative) Whether or not they mean to, the garden will only be as beautiful as the person who cares for it. If laziness and indifference rules the caretaker then the garden will appear ugly and neglected. A person’s outer beauty will only mask the ugliness of their personality for so long. When their looks begin to fade the people around them will view the monster that lurked underneath the skin. (F.O.S) Inner beauty, however, shines through the skin and manifests itself into the surrounding world. The Japanese gardens throughout the book personifies the fact that inner beauty matters more than skin-deep beauty ever

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