Hindsight

Classic Kids:  Day Four


The Secret Garden (1949) 

*Several television adaptions are also quite good.  

The film has a young Dean Stockwell, which is fun to watch.  From yesterday's movie, we have a more grown-up Margaret O'Brien.

The film based on the Novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.  My daughter, Joelle, loves this story. There are so many lessons here: Patience, forgiveness, loss, tolerance, compassion and hope. The scene where the garden changes is magnificent and can generate discussion on film language.   




The plot:  A spoiled girl, Mary, is sent to live at her Uncle Archibald's home, after her parents die.  Archibald is rarely at home, so Mary finds Friendship with the housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock.  One day, Mary discovers a key to a secret garden, once the favorite place of Archibald and his wife.   Before his wife died in an accident, she spent hours every day tending to the garden, but after her death, Archibald boarded and locked the garden up, and also threw away the key.   One night Mary hears a young voice screaming and crying.  She discovers that the young child is her uncle’s son, Colin.  He is confined to his bed and is spoiled to such a degree that he throws crying screaming tantrums at will.  So, Mary is on a mission to discover what is inside the garden, and also how to get Colin interested in something else beside himself.  Mary does find the garden, and she and Colin (he is now out of his bed) tend the garden.  When Archibald comes home, he finds them in the garden.  He sees the garden is beautiful again, and that his son is on the mend.  It now seems certain that Archibald will now work through his own sadness. 

Themes:  Positive thinking, the link to nature and serenity, kindness, common sense and mind over body, parenting.

Questions to rouse children’s interest:  Why is Mary so angry?  Why does she change?  How does the film show change?  What time period does this film portray. 

You can see the entire movie on Youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL4jnyhXPjY