Short Story The Monkey Garden By Sandra Cisneros

The short story The Monkey Garden, written by Sandra Cisneros, contains various changes within the meaning of the garden and even the garden itself. Everything started to change when the neighbors of the narrator moved. They owned a pet monkey that spent its life in a garden in the backyard. While the monkey lived in the garden, the children refused to enter. Once the monkey vanished, however, visitors entered the garden. But without the monkey, the garden shifted in appearance. Along with the change in appearance, the meaning behind the garden changed as well. In The Monkey Garden, the leaving of the monkey forces a change in the appearance and meaning of the garden. At first, when the irritating monkey left alongside its owners, the garden …show more content…
Plants started to overgrow and animals no longer thrived. The liveliness of the garden diminished. The author states, “Things had a way of disappearing in the garden, as if the garden itself ate them, or, as if with its old-man memory, it put them away and forgot them.” This shows the reader how the monkey garden changed in appearance and the mood of the garden. The mood changes from a happy, loving location to an old, rundown place. This change in the garden had no negative effect on the children and the games they played there. They still continued to spend their days there. However, the garden became a place where they valued more because nobody found them there and it was the place where they could do anything that they wanted. The garden was their …show more content…
She started to drift away from her normal friendship with the narrator. She began talking to boys and was no longer interested in spending time with the narrator and the other children in the garden. This change of the narrator’s best friend created problems within the conscious of the narrator. She was worried about her friend’s well being and about what she might be getting herself into. The narrator did whatever she could to preserve her friendship. She visited her friend’s mother when she found out about the deal that the boys had with her. She cared for her friend. This shift of personality changed the meaning of the garden. Sally’s behavior changed the reason of going to the garden. Before this, the children would go to the garden to stay away from their mothers and spend time together. They were able to do whatever they wanted. The garden resembled the innocence of the children. With the change of Sally, the garden changed from being a place where the young children spent their time, it was a place where Sally began to explore in aspects of life not yet experienced by the other children. It changed the meaning of wanting to go the