A Garden Of Her Own Analysis

In the stories, “A Field of Wheat” by Sinclair Ross, and “A Garden of Her Own” by Shani Mootoo, we can see too similarly structured, yet contrasting marriages. The stories deal with the struggle of a partner being absent, both mentally and physically. The insight into these marriages are written from the perspective of the wife, Martha in “A Field of Wheat” and Vijai in “A Garden of Her Own”. Along with the similarities we see between these two stories, there are also differences to go with them. For instance the idea of following in your parents footsteps are varied throughout the stories. There are four well defined topics of marriage paralleled within these stories which are the perfect aspects to compare and contrast.

Martha is a hard working woman, she helps her husband, John, tend to their farm, take care of …show more content…
By the end of the story Vijai has found a way to try to help overcome her feelings of loneliness and unappreciation, she starts herself a garden and begins to pick up french by watching television. She no longer tries to depend on her marriage for attention, and instead finds that within herself she can achieve fulfillment. Martha, however has a fiery anger within her, she decides she can no longer be in this marriage centered around wheat, she feels as though it has taken away her once loving husband. Her anger quickly disintegrates though when she finds her husband sobbing in the barn. Seeing that rush of emotion from John seems to make her understand how her husband feels, and that he is just as upset as her about their situation. Knowing that they felt similar seemed to make her feel more at ease in their marriage, as by the end she is going back to what she was doing beforehand. In these two stories we see examples of two imperfect marriages, both share similar struggles, but face them in different