Paradise

Gardens in this story represent Paradise, the Garden of Eden or Jennet al Adn, which is the seventh level of Paradise or Heaven. The walled garden of Uncle Aziz’s home is where Yusuf first appreciates what peace and beauty a garden can bring, and he “desired nothing more than to be banished for a long time in the silent grove” (43). However, as a walled garden, it keeps some people (Amina and the Mistress) in while keeping others out.

There are other “paradises,” too. When Maimuna hears of the merchant’s garden, she complains that Yusuf is lucky and that God gave them “only the bush beyond their backyard which was used for rubbish. It shuddered with secret life, and out of it rose fumes of putrefaction and pestilence” (66). Hamid attempts to create a garden for his white pigeons, called his Birds of Paradise, but he gives up when it proves too hard. Paradise, as symbolized by the garden, is something that cannot be built through human effort alone, but rather seems to be a luxury randomly bestowed by God.

On the journey Yusuf makes with Hamid, he encounters a beautiful waterfall area, which the men speculate must be like Paradise.