Bailey
Rigby

I Was Meant to Make a Garden of This Land

I Was Meant to Make a Garden of This Land aligns two opposing storylines from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, finding the nuances within current and historical pilgrimages of faith.

I Was Meant to Make a Garden of this Land directly references John Steinbeck's magnum opus East of Eden, a novel brimming with biblical allegories tied to the Garden of Eden. Steinbeck aligns the story of farmer Adam Trask with that of Adam from the book of Genesis. "I mean to make a garden of my land," he proclaims as he sets out to foster many generations forward in the Salinas Valley of California.

The work proposes the idea of a garden as a metaphor for legacy, lineage and religion, and contemplates the choice to continue harvesting these given gardens, or to leave them behind for something greater fit for ourselves.