In Interdisciplinarity Joe Moran mentions the growing impact that physical science has on literature and other areas of academe. We see a form of this in Alice Walker’s essay which we previously read last class, In Search of our Mother’s Gardens. She mentions her mother’s wide variety of flowers she planted in her garden, which may metaphorically be various creativities her mother had in life such as painting, poetry, music, and so on.
Exploring a particular flower, the Petunia with originated in South America I learned that it’s often connected to the phrase “not losing hope”. It also comes in various colors, one of the most common being pink which symbolizes a mother’s love, gentleness, and compassion.
We don’t know for sure whether or not Alice Walker or her mother know that a Petunia symbolizes these things. Perhaps it’s simply ironic that the flowers in her Mother’s Garden posses all these unique and important symbols that are relevant to her own life and even her own writing. Personally, I think it would be pretty amazing if Alice Walker’s mother was conscious of all the different meanings of each flower and planted them intentionally with meaning.
Works Cited
Petunia Flower Meaning.” Flower Meaning. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.