The Secret Garden — Chapter 5

About This Passage

Burnett pauses the chapter to count. She does not call these things 'happy' or 'wonderful' — she calls them 'good,' which is plainer and more pedagogical. Notice the order: understanding a creature, running in wind, healthy hunger, sorrow for another person. That is a little staircase of growth, and Burnett is showing us every step.

Narration Prompt

Summarize Chapter 5 in six to eight sentences. Describe how Mary begins to go outdoors every day, how she finds the ivy-covered wall and meets the robin a second time, what she figures out about the locked garden, what Martha tells her about Mrs. Craven's death, and what Mary hears at the end of the chapter.

Discussion Questions

1. The narrator says the wind from the moor 'had begun to blow the cobwebs out of her young brain.' Burnett chose this image carefully. Using evidence from the chapter, explain what cobwebs in a brain might stand for, and what Mary's behavior shows is being blown out of her.
2. When the robin returns in the ivy walk, Mary calls out, 'Oh! is it you — is it you?' and runs after him. Based on how Mary spoke to Martha in Chapter 4, what does this new voice of Mary's tell us about how a child changes — slowly, with one creature at a time, or all at once? Defend your answer from the chapter.

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide