David Lows Winterblossom Garden - Essay Example

David Low’s “Winterblossom Garden” “Winterblossom Garden” to a story written by David Low and it narrates abouta celibate son and his mother. The story begins with an argument of a photograph and ends when they agree on certain things at the end. In the story, there is a dispute on whether marriage is good or not for a person. They close the argument by expressing and discussing each one’s ideas concerning marriage. There are three plots that I will analyze from the story: Son and mom’s attitude to toward marriage, son and mom’s opinion toward food, and the photograph which serves as the connection and salvation between son and mom.

The story begins by the mother pouring two cups of tea for his son from a porcelain teapot. The author writers about this part, not to emphasize how the mother is obsessed by food, but, also to show her concern for her son. The mother as it may seem, did not live in a place where food was not enough and believed that food was important and everybody should treasure it including her son. In contrary, her son lives in a place where food is plenty. The son does not like the idea of her mother treating her as if he was from a land of starvation.

To him, he has never experienced hunger in his life. In this part, the issue of generation gap is brought about as they were born from different ages. The mother values food because she lived in a time of starvation while the son does not because he is born in a generation of plenty (Mayfield 546). Furthermore, the son and the mother argue about marriage. The mother thinks that marriage is a time when one should be happy and even take new pictures. This argument begins after the mother sees pictures of her son depicting old buildings falling down.

The mother believes that marriage should make someone grow up. In the contrary, the son thinks marriage is for losers. Her mother does not have his own decision on marriage as she still obeys her husband. Her mother is shown to have refused Lao-Hu’s invitation to Honolulu plus give up learning English because her husband refused. The son believes that her mother gave up her life for his father and is not happy in that marriage. The son does not want to enter into such a kind of marriage. The son thinks that through marriage, he might lose himself and be like his parents (Mayfield 546).

Concerning the photograph, the mother is depicted wondering why her son keeps taking pictures of old buildings falling down and believed in happy moments when taking photographs. From the son’s perspective, he wants her mother to appreciate her talents by not taking the photograph as it is. In this part, the photograph is viewed as a connection between the two. It is via communication that arguments are solved (Mayfield 546). In conclusion, the story describes the events which occur in every family.

Since children and parents are born from different generation, there always has to be a generation gap. The mom in the story tries to feed her son, force her into marriage, which the son refuses as things from the past (Mayfield 546). From this story, parents and children can learn and appreciate that generation gap exists and one should know how to cope up with it. Works Cited Mayfield, Marlys. Thinking for Yourself: Developing Critical Thinking Skills Through Reading and Writing. Stamford: Heinle, 2007. Print.