Summary

The Cement Garden is a gripping novel that tells the story of four parentless children who had completely lost their senses for being on their own. First their father dies after two strokes, and then the mother who had some strange illness.

Being on their own has a strange effect on all four children: Julie, the eldest, seems normal, although the events towards the end of the story suggest that she was not. She starts an affair with a 23-year-old boy named Derek, while Jack, already a loner during his father’s life, completely estranges himself from the world. He refuses to tend to his personal hygiene, causing his two sisters, Julie and Sue, to be disgusted of him. He masturbates constantly, and cares seemingly for nothing else. Sue, an emerging teenager at 13 lives in her own world, recording her everyday life in a diary. Tom, the youngest, had been fearful of school tugs. Now, with his mother gone, he impresses on his sisters his desire to be dressed up like a baby.

The children realize that reporting the death of the last adult in the house could mean being split up forever, losing their home. What they do not understand are the grave consequences of burying their mother in the cellar.

Derek, driven by jealousy, since Julie surrenders her body to Jack, uncovers the grave and notifies the authorities. By then, sanity has already left the four children.

Title explanation

The house the children live in stands on a deserted street in a deserted neighborhood. Most of the houses in the street have been knocked down to make way for a new highway. The isolation of the house is amplified by the fact that nobody notices it.

The children’s father had, in an attempt to preserve the garden, set about cementing it completely after his first stroke. He never finished the job, because a second stroke knocked him flat. When the mother dies, the children, for fear of being split up, never reported the death, but buried her in a trunk in the cellar after filling it with cement; hence the house became a real life cemetery. [Cemeteries mostly stand isolated from towns and residential areas.]

Characters

The story is told by Jack, a 14-year-old  at the start of the story. He is not sure how to deal with the changes going on in his body. When he discovers that he can produce sperm, he masturbates twice a day, exhausting his body. He also quits taking baths and changing clothes, causing a horrible odor to hang about him. Jack secretly wants to win Julie’s favor, for he feels deserted and neglected. He cannot communicate with either Sue or Tom, because they rather turn to Julie for guidance. Jack is a symbol of neglect, the same neglect the children experience when they are on their own.

Jack is round.

Julie, at 18, is the eldest of the children. When her mother grows ill, she takes on the task of managing the household. Jack in his obsession to obstruct everything, has a hard time taking orders from Julie. When Julie starts dating Derek and invites him to their home, Jack becomes more distant. Julie, up to that point, has kept her sanity, but she gradually loses it when she gives in to Tom’s whimsical behavior and allows him to dress and act like a baby. Julie is slowly turning into a mother figure bend on taking care of ‘her’ family.

Julie is round.

Sue seems normal, but she is probably more distant than Jack. She cannot comprehend that her parents are gone, but she replaces the feeling of loneliness with a schizophrenic reaction. She starts writing a diary, mainly conversing with her late mother, disclosing to her all that takes place in the house. Towards Derek she is overtly polite, probably for fear that he will spill the beans on their bond and tear up their family.

Sue is round.

Tom is six. He has always clung to his mother and needs a protective shell to hide in. When he is beaten at school by bullies, he considers turning into a girl the best shell. When his mother dies, he pretends to be a baby who needs constant attention.

Tom is round.

All four children live outside reality. They dare not try to comprehend the situation they are in, parentless and on their own. Yet they are so much vulnerable and the only way to stay together is to act as if nothing has ever happened.

The parents’ role is minor. They do not even get a name from the author and are merely referred as mother and father.

Themes

Fear is a powerful theme in this story. The children unconsciously fear their family might be broken up if the truth about their parents is ever revealed. This fear guides their every action.

A strong sense of togetherness/family bond is another theme. With both their parents gone, the children long to stay together as they have always been. They do not have outside contacts and they keep it that way until Derek comes along.

Setting

The story is set in some London residential area, most probably in the late 50s or early 60s, although there is no definite proof for this (it is not specifically mentioned in the story.) The only indication about the time is the construction of the building blocks that replaced the prefab houses surrounding Jack’s home. Those blocks were erected in the late 50s. The whole story takes place in about a year.