The Girls in the Garden: A Novel

Content Warning: The source text includes the assault of a minor, the death of a minor, suicide, substance overdose, and depictions of a schizophrenic episode.

The motif of the changing seasons develops the theme of The Dual Nature of Green Spaces. The Wilds move into the Virginia Park community in January. The park is a “mystery during these winter months [...] it wasn’t until the onset of spring [...] that the secrets of the winter were revealed” (17). The winter season doesn’t allow for much socializing in the park due to the cold. The seasonal isolation and hibernation reflect how the Wild family, as the newest residents, don’t know much about their neighbors yet. There is a kind of darkness to the private park.

When spring comes, the darkness lifts and people begin spending time together in Virginia Park. Socializing in the green space is weather-dependent. When “the sun was out but it wasn’t that warm; there were people scattered here and there” (98). Only a few people come out when it is still chilly. Spring is when Grace and Dylan’s romance begins, and when Pip can play with Rhea’s rabbit. This is a more positive time when connections are made.

The height of socializing is the Virginia Park Annual Summer Party on July 5th. This is when the park is “full of people” (280). Passions run highest at this time. It is when Grace and Dylan become sexually intimate and when Tyler’s jealousy turns into violence. The park becomes dark and dangerous again when Tyler harms Grace there in the summer.

Ten months pass between the final two chapters of The Girls in the Garden. Jewell skips over fall and winter, and the final chapter occurs in spring. The weather is “too nice to be indoors, one of those spring days that made you nostalgic for a summer that had yet to begin” (397). This inspires Adele to take her children to the Tate, and she runs into Clare nearby. The final line of the novel includes “the sugar-spun cherry blossoms” that come out in the spring (404). The world feels new again to Adele after Clare assures her that Grace hasn’t told the police anything about Tyler. The blooming and flourishing quality of the spring is also associated with the Wild family being happier in their new home while Adele and her family are happy in the Virginia Park community.