Seedfolks book review
Seedfolks, by Paul Flischman is a book that ties a
metropolitan area with farming. What I would like to discuss during this book
review is how farming has been able to bring groups of people with different
struggles together. This can be noticed in the background throughout most of the
book. Some of the struggles people deal with that farming has helped are,
communication, cleanliness, and loneliness. Through farming in metropolitan
areas there has been improvements in these three fields. The book, Seedfolks
helps to illustrate these improvements and will provide evidence of such.
After man evolved, it had to learn how to communicate.
Language and communication has been some of the keystones to human development.
Without communication, our world that we currently live it would not be
possible. Research, Construction, and progress would be hindered. Farming
requires communication. The ability to phrase ideas or desires can be
fundamental to a farms success. Paul Flischman does not talk about
communication specifically this in his book, but it can be examined in multiple
instances. One of these instances was when the character Sam held a competition
for finding the best way to store or transport water for their gardens. Sam had
to communicate to the people of the garden that their methods of getting water
were strenuous, and that there had to be a better way. Through Sams’ efforts
and the help of a little girl this problem was then solved by collecting the
water from the rain. (Flischman, 49) Doing this eliminated the needs for
carrying water long distances. This is a perfect example of how communication
based with farming has helped farm success and human development. It was also
through communication that the character Leona could solve the gardens garbage
issue.
People of the garden also had to make efforts to clean up
all the garbage. At the start of Pauls’ book, it describes that the lot was
covered in trash. Even a couch, that was inhabited by a homeless teenager, was
present in the middle (Flischman, 3). However, the desire of the garden people
to farm helped motivate the city into cleaning the lot (Flischman 28). If these
people had not been farming there would be no need for the lot to be cleaned. After
the lot was cleaned the garden people refused to let people dump their trash
their again. The worked together to get the city to clean up their
neightborhood and kept it that way. They have a pride in ownership of their
community that was missing before. There was a homeless teenager by the name of
Roice that I would like to examine. I would imagine that he was rather upset
about the couch being removed, but he later found employment by one of the
gardeners by the name of Curtis (Flischman, 56). The people of the garden also
came to find that he was rather sweet and good hearted. This is a good example
of how metropolitan farming has helped clean city streets of garbage and help
homeless people find a purpose. I am sure that this can be portrayed in many
farms and not just the examples in Pauls’ book.
People of the garden also learned how to become friends. The
feelings that are portrayed at the beginning of the book give the reader the
feelings of isolation and loneliness. The further the reader gets into the
book, the warmer the feelings. Why does Seedfolks do this one might ask. My
response would be that the group of people are becoming friends. Humans are
naturally social creatures. We like attention and we like having friends.
Towards the end of Seedfolks it is apparent that there is a new circle of friends
that has arisen, causing us as readers to feel warmer. One of the key role
players in the book that tied people together was Anna Fleck. She was a teacher
that tied many of the groups together. She was mentioned multiple times
throughout the book by different people. It is apparent based on this data that
she was what some might call a social butterfly. One example of this is when
Ms. Fleck talked to her student Virgil. (Flischman, 40) it can also be
concluded that the reason Ms. Fleck talked to her student was due to farming.
If there was not a community garden they would not have crossed paths.
Gardening gave people an excuse to cross cultural barriers and start
conversation that would not have happened without the garden.
In conclusion, it is apparent that through farming people
have crossed communication barriers leading to human development. Through
farming people have also helped metropolitan communities become cleaner and
friendlier. I am confident that there are many more instances and examples of these
improvements due to farming. However, to me, these are some that I feel have
been in the background of Paul Flischmans book and are easy to see in our own
community.
Works Cited:
Fleischman, Paul, and Judy Pedersen. Seedfolks. Print.