Seedfolks, Paul Fleishman novel study: Sam reflections

Notes to understanding character 6 Sam: Sam is a pacifist, someone who promotes peace. He doesn’t believe in racial segregation. He believes that people should get along regardless of their race, religion, economic background. People should live peacefully together. Fishermen’s net metaphor: Sam says that he is like a fisherman who tries to mend his net, but he does this with people. Like Jesus, he wants people to get along, live together peacefully, and not be separated by racism, hatred of each other. Sam smiles at everyone. Smiling is a way of making people feel welcome and appreciated. This shows you that Sam is a nice character who believes that all people should feel welcomed and appreciated. He thinks that the garden is a paradise. He compares the garden to the Garden of Eden in the bible. Sam is against people putting barbed wire around their gardens. This shows that he is a peacemaker and doesn’t want people to feel separated. The garden was supposed to celebrate diversity and have all sorts of people be together in one space, but what happened in the city (the separation) ended up happening in the garden. Sam doesn’t want the garden to be a reflection of the neighbourhood. Like Jesus’ disciples, we are all called to “sew up rips” in the world. If we lived more in harmony with others, even smiled more often, there could be more peace in the world.