A Mix of Aspects

In the third section of The Lost Garden you can see a difference in Ms. Davis’ character, this is expressed in many ways. First off, the girls that live in the house with Gwen Davis have created a mixture of life stories on the black out sheets that cover the window, everyone has their own section. Gwen being the horticulturist that she is pins a variety of flowers to the sheet each day, "Some days I make a garden for colour-say, a garden of yellow with dahlias and lilies, snapdragons and yellow geums."(170) The girls look forward to this and on one occasion even gets the help of one of the girls. This shows that she has indeed gotten over most of her insecurities and has bonded with the girls through gardening, sharing life stories, and preparing for dances.

As her confidence builds, a conflict rears its ugly head. Ms. Davis' conflict is with herself and her feelings. She has discovered that her feelings are stronger than that of friendship towards the Canadian officer named Raley, "Will Raley come? I would be a fool to think he would ever dance with me... Raley does come. He looks lovely. I know this is not the sort of thing one thinks about a man, let alone says to him, but he does. He looks lovely."(151-152)

In this section I would like to say that she is tempted by Raley and imagines loving him, physically. She has a book The Genus Rosa, that weighs a 'ton' imagining Raley on top of her instead of a book that names and classifies roses. She wrestles with the idea of doing anything about it as she believes, "Sometimes our passion is our ruin."(146)

After reading this section and seeing how Ms. Davis has bonded with other characters, including Raley it is easy to determine she is already out of her comfort zone and is experimenting a new life. Taking a chance in order to discover love should be next on her list. Go for it, Gwen (Davis)!