The Secret Garden chapter 1 summary
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Explanation:
Mary is a girl, around nine years old, living in India. She is a sickly, "disagreeable-looking," child whose parents have nothing to do with her. Her father, Mr. Lennox, is busy with his job in the English government. Her mother, Mrs. Lennox, is "a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people" and "had not wanted a little girl at all." From the moment she is born, Mary is raised by an Indian servant, her Ayah, or nanny, who has been instructed by her mother to "keep [her] out of sight as much as possible." In order to not disturb Mary's mother, Ayah and the other servants "gave [Mary] her own way in everything."
When Mary wakes up one day, an Indian servant she does not recognize is standing at her bedside. Mary demands her Ayah. When the servant says Ayah cannot come, Mary has a tantrum and kicks and beats her. Left alone, Mary wanders into the garden and plays by herself. Then she sees her mother talking with a young man and overhears the man say, "You ought to have gone to the hills two weeks ago." When the sound of wailing breaks out, the man informs her mother, "Some one has died."
Mary realizes a cholera epidemic has reached their compound, and the servants have been dying in their huts. She senses her Ayah has just died, too. Three more servants die that day and others "run away in terror." No one comes to check on Mary. The next day, Mary hides in her nursery and is "forgotten by everyone." "She alternately crie[s] and sle[eps]," while around her "strange things happened of which she knew nothing." At one point she creeps into the living room and drinks some wine left in a glass. The wine makes her "intensely drowsy," and she returns to her nursery and sleeps soundly. When she awakens, the house is perfectly still. She hears no sounds, and still no one comes for her. Then two men, likely British army officers, enter the bungalow. They discover Mary in the nursery. She angrily demands to know why nobody has come for her. Barney, one of the men, tells her, "there is nobody left to come." He says that her parents have died and any servants who have not died have fled. Mary is orphaned, but she lacks sadness over her personal losses.
Answer:
Mary is a girl, around nine years old, living in India. She is a sickly, "disagreeable-looking," child whose parents have nothing to do with her. Her father, Mr. Lennox, is busy with his job in the English government. Her mother, Mrs. Lennox, is "a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people" and "had not wanted a little girl at all." From the moment she is born, Mary is raised by an Indian servant, her Ayah, or nanny, who has been instructed by her mother to "keep [her] out of sight as much as possible." In order to not disturb Mary's mother, Ayah and the other servants "gave [Mary] her own way in everything."
When Mary wakes up one day, an Indian servant she does not recognize is standing at her bedside. Mary demands her Ayah. When the servant says Ayah cannot come, Mary has a tantrum and kicks and beats her. Left alone, Mary wanders into the garden and plays by herself. Then she sees her mother talking with a young man and overhears the man say, "You ought to have gone to the hills two weeks ago." When the sound of wailing breaks out, the man informs her mother, "Some one has died."
Mary realizes a cholera epidemic has reached their compound, and the servants have been dying in their huts. She senses her Ayah has just died, too. Three more servants die that day and others "run away in terror." No one comes to check on Mary. The next day, Mary hides in her nursery and is "forgotten by everyone." "She alternately crie[s] and sle[eps]," while around her "strange things happened of which she knew nothing." At one point she creeps into the living room and drinks some wine left in a glass. The wine makes her "intensely drowsy," and she returns to her nursery and sleeps soundly. When she awakens, the house is perfectly still. She hears no sounds, and still no one comes for her. Then two men, likely British army officers, enter the bungalow. They discover Mary in the nursery. She angrily demands to know why nobody has come for her. Barney, one of the men, tells her, "there is nobody left to come." He says that her parents have died and any servants who have not died have fled. Mary is orphaned, but she lacks sadness over her personal losses.
Explanation: