Hurdles in Life: Understanding The Samurai's Garden Anonymous 9th Grade

The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama is a book about a young man, Stephen, who is faced with tuberculosis changing the course of his life by taking him to a small peaceful village, Tarumi. When he first arrives at Tarumi, he meets Matsu, Sachi, and other characters from the village. His experiences at Tarumi are one of a kind, and he learns many lessons from the experiences that Sachi has gone through. At a time before Stephen, Sachi was a young, beautiful woman that was admired by everyone in the village. This was all until the leprosy outbreak in Japan. Many people all across Japan, and many parts of Tarumi were affected. Out of the many people being infected, Sachi, unfortunately, was one of the many people who caught the disease. When this happens, Sachi is faced with obstacles that she can’t overcome through her limited understanding, at the time, of these obstacles.

In the story, time after time Sachi has demonstrated power over her fears and obstacles through experiences in life, that brought her to realization. Throughout Gail Tsukiyama's, Samurai’s Garden, the author uses Sachi’s thoughts and feelings about the Japanese idealism of honor and her experiences with leprosy, to show that the path of overcoming adversity...