Driven Back to Eden · Chapter
A Country Christmas in a City Flat explained
The family celebrates Christmas in their city flat with gifts that reflect their upcoming move to the country, including a gun for Merton, flower seeds for Mousie, and china eggs for Winnie.
What happens
The family celebrates Christmas in their city flat with gifts that reflect their upcoming move to the country, including a gun for Merton, flower seeds for Mousie, and china eggs for Winnie. Their Christmas dinner consists of vegetables they plan to grow. The narrator reflects on his research into farming, visiting Washington Market to learn about profitable crops, and concludes that the family must be realistic about the modest success they can expect from country life.
Themes in this chapter
Escape from City Life
The chapter emphasizes the family's eagerness to leave the dusty city flat for the countryside, with the narrator researching farming to support the move.
Family and Parental Duty
The narrator prioritizes his children's upbringing and education, stating that his main crop is 'a crop of boys and girls' and that the move is for their sake.
Self-Reliance and Hard Work
The narrator emphasizes practical research, careful budgeting, and realistic expectations about the modest success achievable through farming.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The narrator leads the family's planning, researches farming at Washington Market, and encourages the children's education through discussions of various industries.
- Merton
Merton is excited to receive a gun for Christmas and agrees with the narrator about staying near civilization.
- Mousie
Mousie delights in receiving flower seeds as a Christmas gift.
- Winnie
Winnie receives china eggs for the future chickens and imitates a hen's cackle.
- Bobsey
Little Bobsey gets toys and candy shaped like barnyard animals.
Key passages
““See here, youngsters, you forget the most important crop of all that I must cultivate,” I said one evening. “What is that?” they cried in chorus. “A crop of boys and girls. You may think that my mind is chiefly on corn and potatoes. Not at all. It is chiefly on you; and for your sakes mamma and I decided to go to the country.””
The narrator tells his children that his primary concern is their upbringing, not farming, and that the decision to move to the country is for their benefit.
This highlights the theme of family and parental duty, showing the father's focus on his children's welfare over agricultural ambitions.
“Our Christmas dinner consisted almost wholly of such vegetables as we proposed to raise in the coming summer.”
The family's Christmas meal featured vegetables they planned to grow on their future farm.
This illustrates the family's anticipation of their new life and their practical approach to celebrating the holiday.
“I came to the conclusion that I could give my family shelter, plain food, pure air, wholesome work and play in plenty, and that not very soon could I provide much else with certainty.”
The narrator realizes that the farm will provide basic necessities and a healthy lifestyle, but not quick wealth.
This reflects the theme of self-reliance and hard work, emphasizing realistic expectations about farming.