Finally some Light in a Dark World

I have found Elizabeth to be one of the most complex and unique characters that I have ever read about.  Personally I find the story of Elizabeth, and her life, to be pretty depressing, and almost hopeless at times.  The book starts off very darkly in my opinion, detailing some of the past events of Elizabeth’s life. The emotional traumas that Elizabeth faces throughout her life are painful to say the least.  I think because of this its easy for the reader to spot the bright lights in Elizabeth’s life as well as this novel because they come as a relief to the darkness.

I think that Elizabeth feels very unstable as an individual character, and as such, she looks to other things or people to lean or rely on for that stability in her life.  It is also shown that she will use her vivid imagination to give herself that comfort.  I think the person that she relies on most throughout her story is Tom.  I believe that Elizabeth really trusts Tom much more then she trusts anyone else.  Tom is a young American man who is working in the Peace Corps.  I believe that it is also Tom who finally gets Elizabeth out of the state of her mental breakdown.  I think that Elizabeth saw him as a symbol of good in honesty, and I think this is what she needed because she was almost completely surrounded by the opposite. 

The other most notable thing that I believe helps keep Elizabeth stable and sane is her gardening.  Elizabeth is a very talented gardener, and she is known well throughout her village as “Cape Gooseberry” because of how we she can make the fruit and jam from that berry.  Being good at something, and being well recognized for it can be a very important thing in a person’s life.  It can give you meaning, purpose, hope, comfort, and stability, even if you had none before.  I think that Elizabeth also sees her gardening as therapeutic because how she compares it to human nature.  On page 72 she says “It is impossible to become a vegetable gardener without at the same time coming into contact with the wonderful strangeness of human nature.”  I think that shows that she sees this gardening as more then just a way to bring in goods and income, but also as something that is helping her on many different levels. 

As we progress further along in the story more beacons of hope are shining for Elizabeth, as it seems she has now became comfortable in many ways.  It is great to see this because, for someone that has endured such hardships, its great to see them triumph over them in the end.