Sam’s hobby is studying words, so readers shouldn’t be surprised when he focuses on words that have special meaning to him. Sam also seems to love a particular way of using words to explain what he means. Throughout his chapter, he makes different kinds of comparisons to explain what’s happening in his neighborhood.
For instance, Sam compares the way he crosses the street to investigate the activity in the vacant lot to “a cat who smells herring.” (Herring is a kind of fish.) Later in the chapter, when someone throws a bottle into the lot from a nearby building, Sam says that the bottle arrived “like a meteor.”
Sam creates much more elaborate comparisons, as well. He uses words to build analogies, which are detailed comparisons used to explain a concept or an idea. Each tab below describes an analogy that Sam develops in his section of the Seedfolks story.
Sam compares what he does to “fishermen mending the rips in their nets,” claiming that he “used to try to patch up the whole world.”
Now that Sam’s retired, though, he focuses on this one little corner of Cleveland, “sewing up the rips in the neighborhood.”
Question
How does Sam try to repair the “rips” between groups of people in his neighborhood?
The garden in the vacant lot on Gibb Street reminds Sam of the Garden of Eden, with people working together happily and “a robin singing out strong all the while.”
Eventually, though, people in the neighborhood realize that they can no longer use the vacant lot as a trash dump or a place to sleep at night. Will paradise be lost?
Question
What does the garden on Gibb Street lack, which makes it different from the Garden of Eden in the Bible?
Sam refers to another Bible story at the very end of his chapter: The Tower of Babel. According to this story, people in ancient Babylonia began building a tower that would be tall enough to reach into the heavens.
As the tower neared completion, the people became a little too proud of the masterpiece they were creating together. To humble them, God tore down the tower, and he made all the people involved speak a different language. Once they could not understand each other, the people left and settled into separate groups based on which language they spoke and could understand.
Question
According to Sam’s analogy, what are the people in his neighborhood doing that is similar to the people of Babylonia?
