The Garden

Being There by Jerzy Kosinski, is a great book about a man who has no identity and who knows nothing about life. All he knows about is a garden and yet somehow he becomes famous. The main characters name is Chance. Chance is a gardiner and he also watches television. Chance has lived secluded from civilization his entire life. The only life he has seen is the one on television. When Chance goes out into "the real world" he meets people. These people take Chance's description of the garden as a metaphor. This paper will argue what the garden means to some of the characters in the book.

An example of the misinterpretations is on page 58 when a character in the book named Mr. Franklin(who is the laeyer in the book) "The economy is supposed to be like a garden: you know, things grow and things wilt. Gardiner thinks things will be okay!(pg 58)" This quote means that Franklin thinks that the garden Chance speaks of is a metaphor for the economy.

Another character in the book named Mr. Rand states that " A gardener! Isn't that the perfect example of what a real buissnessman is? A person who makes a flinty soil productive with the labor of his own hands, who waters it with the sweat of his own brow, and who creates a place of value for his family and for the community. Yes Chauncey, what an excellent metaphor! A productive buissnessman is indeed a laborer in his own vineyard(pg 34)!" This quote states that a buissnessman takes care of his family like a gardener does his garden. He feels that the garden is like Wall Street. Mr. Rand misunderstood chance because he wants the garden to be a metaphor for Wall Street.

The president tells Chance that "Many of us forget that nature and society are one.(pg 45)" The president misinterprets Chance's statement and thinks that nature is like society. This quote clearly states what the garden means to the president.

Many people misinterpret the true meaning of what the garden stands for in Chance's opinion. They interpret the garden to be whatever they want it to be. Are people so self-involved that they have to turn a literal statement into a metaphor so that they can make it mean what they want it to mean so that they are always right and that would make them seem smart? Everyone does this, it is just that you might not notice that you are doing it. Every statement is open to interpretation. So this means that people can interpret the garden to be whatever they want it to be.