Shamsa Hynra P.

Afdal ENGL - 65
BSN4 – NE Ma’am James
Creative Nonfiction Assignment
1. How did you feel after reading each piece? Give a separate answer for each.
- Upon reading the story, it made me feel angry and sad as what Violetta
experienced happens so easily to young girls in plain sight and without anyone
knowing. And it is troubling to think that these girls must deal with this trauma
for years without getting the appropriate help/counseling. For the man it may
be just a simple one touch or tap at the young girl’s body, but the man took a
great piece from Violetta with that touch. At that moment she lost her security,
safety, and innocence, meanwhile the drunk man may not even remember what
he did all what he has taken.
- On the other hand, The Disturbances of the Garden was quite confusing for me.
The author had so much to tell that I got confused and lost on where her story
was going, so I had to reread the story again to understand what she was trying
to share. It was only then that I realized she was writing about her gardening
obsession, her relationship with her mother, and the paradise of home. It was
fun reading her story, she had so many thoughts and stories about her garden
that it became somewhat overwhelming, but it was fun reading how she came
to love plants, gardening. It reminded me of how my mother also loves
gardening and it made me wonder if the time would come that I would also
get interested with plants especially with the ongoing quarantine.
2. What lines in the CNF struck you the most? You can choose between the two or
mention lines from both. Explain why they are significant to you.
“But, I wondered, for something to be good would there not have to be
something that was not good, or not as good?”
- This line is from Jamaica Kincoid’s The Disturbance of the Garden, it also made
me wonder and look at life at another perspective. This is just like saying that
we wish our life would be perfect, however, how can we label life as perfect
without knowing what is an imperfect life is? For something to be good there
is always something that is not good or not as good because how can you say
something is good without knowing what is not good. This line somehow
explains the balance of life, nothing is constant because eventually you had to
know what not good or not as good feels before knowing what good feels. This
is significant to me because in times that I feel like everything is not good or
 imperfect in my life, there is that glimmer of hope that when there is not good
in life, I can still turn it around and make changes.
3. What insights did you get from each piece? How do they relate to your own life?
How are they significant to what is currently happening in this world?
- In the story of The Truth is I Never Left You, reading the title it made me think
this will be a cute story but upon reading the first few lines I knew where the
story was going. It is saddening that we already know what is about to happen,
which shows that this kind of story is very common. On the other hand, I was
amazed and proud of Violetta for having the courage to share her story and
spread awareness. Luckily, I haven’t experienced what happened to Violetta,
but it is still very enraging that this is still happens today. There are still a lot
of victims out there that haven’t had the courage to speak up because of the
trauma, the fear that their stories will just be dismissed, and the fear of being
blamed of what happened. A lot of people kept saying “this is the reality”, but
it is not. Let us stop normalizing sexual harassments to any age, gender, and
race, and let’s star opening our eyes and minds, and help one another.
- I haven’t quite grasped fully the story about The Disturbances of The Garden,
but one thing that I learned from the story was when she talked about how
agriculture is the tree of life and horticulture is the tree of knowledge. She also
referred agriculture as humans’ needs, and horticulture as humans’ wants.
What I understood from what she shared was that the moment we step out
from our circle and start exploring the world, seeking for more, cultivating
ourselves more, and wanting something more that is the time we seek things
we want, we go outside the zone of the Tree of Life which has everything we
need. I think what she meant by “garden” was our growth. I wasn’t very
creative by then; I only do things I need like focus studying and then go home.
I never really explored which made my “garden” small and dull. However, I
realized that my own insecurities and fear of going out of my comfort zone has
kept my garden small and beautiful but still dull, there’s always something
missing. That’s when I started questioning things and my life choices, when I
entered college, I promised myself that I will try my best to do things I want to
do without being hindered by the fences of the garden I created. It was a new
beginning indeed, but an opportunity to expand my garden.