Marigolds Theme

Coming to grips with reality as one matures of passage celebrated around the world. Many young children are given ceremonies to celebrate the advancement to adulthood. What these ceremonies do not show is the confusion and turmoil caused by coming of age. Rudolfo Anaya’s novel, ‘Bless Me, Ultima’, shows the constant conflicts of adulthood and childhood. Anaya conveys this idea with the constant fighting between his family, hypocritical advice given by authority, and the death of vital characters to show that blossoming isn’t a pretty process.

In the short story “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier, a woman named Lizabeth tells the story about her 14-year-old self maturing into the woman she is now while having to deal with the Great Depression. This story tells the events that occurred in Lizabeth’s childhood that causes her to mature, it takes place in a town that struggles with poverty. Although Lizabeth’s adolescence affects her actions when she would disrespect Miss Lottie and her garden, her adult perspective in the story reveals that she learned that one can’t have both compassion and innocence. An important aspect to the story is adolescence and how it plays an important role to how Lizabeth would act and treat others.

Maturity is the feeling of needing to prove that one is sophisticated and old enough to do certain things. In the short story “Growing Up,” Maria’s family went on a vacation while she stayed at home, but when she heard there was a car crash that happened near where her family was staying, she gets worried and thinks it is all her fault for trying to act mature and angering her father. Society wants to prove how mature they are and they do so by trying to do things that older people do and the symbols, conflict, and metaphors in the text support this theme. First and foremost, in “Growing Up,” Gary Soto’s theme is how society acts older than they are and that they just want to prove they are mature. Maria wants to stay home instead of going

Youth is often paralleled with an utopian ideal that adults cling to. In “Musée des Beaux Arts,” Auden asserts the the idea that age is not equivalent to youth, and these concepts do not affect the natural order of society, “Its human position: how it takes place / While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along: / How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting / For the miraculous birth there always must be / Children who did not specially want it to happen…” (3-7). In A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, The Hours by Michael Cunningham, and Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, all the authors use adults who act like youth, and youth whose maturity level surpasses their age to depict the disconnect between age and youth. Each author uses an age difference related to a maturity level to assert that youth is merely a permutation of attitude, and is not related to age.

The short story ”Marigolds” follows the narrator, a 14 year-old-girl living in extreme poverty during the Depression, as she transitions from the innocence of childhood to the raised consciousness of adulthood. Lizabeth has been poor for a long time, and her story describes her battle with feelings of frustration and hopelessness at being trapped in such a desperate situation. I believe one theme of “Marigolds” is the idea that as we grow up, the innocence of childhood is replaced by compassion. We see this in Lizabeth’s emotional state after she taunts Miss Lottie, when she ruins Miss Lottie’s marigolds, and finally in her reflection at the end of the story.

In this part of the story we see how she really is. When she is locked inside her house she starts to cry, “She cried out, she cried out for her mother…”(Oates 242) This tells us that she is still un-mature and still a

Furthermore, the narrator thinks that people forget about the life they had as a child after a certain age when an adult figure tries to console him he responds by saying “you tell me it’s too early to be looking back.” (8) This statement portrays the fact that growing up is done alone, and the learning and grasp of life that comes with it cannot be shared as adults are used to it and have forgotten their life as a child. Finally, the narrator contrasts his life currently from when he was younger as he says that “now [he] is mostly at the window” (17). His comprehension of the world comes with consequences as he no longer enjoys the little things he used to anymore. But, as does every child, he comes to terms with it, he admits to himself that when he skins his knees he bleeds, this is way of understanding that growing up is inevitable.

The Terrors of Youth There are many memories that may come to mind when someone speaks the word of adolescence. Some people recall times of gratification and innocent adventures, but for others the phrase “teenage years” holds horrific memories. For a section of the populace their “teen experiences” may be the most appalling time period, as they begin to undergo many changes. This concept of dark adolescence is present not only in the real world, but in the literary world as well.

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” demonstrates the personal growth of the dynamic protagonist Louise Mallard, after hearing news of her husband’s death. The third-person narrator telling the story uses deep insight into Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts and emotions as she sorts through her feelings after her sister informs her of her husband’s death. During a Character analysis of Louise Mallard, a reader will understand that the delicate Mrs. Mallard transforms her grief into excitement over her newly discovered freedom that leads to her death. As Mrs. Mallard sorts through her grief she realizes the importance of this freedom and the strength that she will be able to do it alone.

In enduring these complex emotions, this section was the most remarkable part. One of the first apparent emotions the boy experiences with the death of his father is loneliness to make this section memorable. The boy expresses this sentiment when he stays with his father described as, “When he came back he knelt beside his father and held his cold hand and said his name over and over again,” (McCarthy 281). The definition of loneliness is, “sadness because one has no friends or company.”

Marigolds by Eugenia Collier is about a woman named Lizabeth looking back on her past, specifically the moment and things leading up to when she became an adult. “Chaotic emotions of youth” as she calls it are what really lead to the main event and are caused from confusion. In the story she as well as other children don’t understand how something like their neighbor, Miss. Lottie’s, marigolds could be so beautiful amid such a poverty-stricken, dilapidated town.

Arnett has provided enough detail about the stage and how it is successful in some cultures compare to the other. This article has also shown how emerging adulthood stage helps prepare adolescence for better future and help them explore their identity while getting them ready for adulthood. This comes with the disadvantage because some young people can take longer till they fully contribute to society. This is a type of a luxury that can’t be afforded by everyone.

As adolescences enter adulthood, they enter a long transitional period, often known as “emerging adult”. This transitional period takes place over a range of 18 to 25 years old (Santrock, 2013). At this stage, emerging adults are still in exploration in the various aspect of life such as the career path they are interested in, defining their identities and a style of living they would want to adopt. Thus, adolescences who are in transition will be caught with many intense changes and will experience major life events that are all of great importance.

The appeal of adulthood and independence reaches its apex in fervent children. However, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, poet of My Daughter at 14, Christmas Dance, 1981, conveys the paternal perspective of viewing one’s own kin experiencing the “real” world through her daughter’s first relationship. The Family of Little Feet, written by Sarah Cisneros, illuminates the negativities of young girl’s eagerness to physically develop in hope of acquiring attention from possible suitors. While both pieces of literature possess varying perspectives of epiphanies, Gillan and Cisneros divulge the significance of cherishing one’s youth, as the realities of maturity divest children of their innocence.

As children are able to differentiate themselves from their parents they begin to recognize the difference between them and others. Also, between the ages of 17-22 there is a transitional period of about five years from pre adulthood to young adulthood. At this point, the affiliations with family begin to change as people begin to assert themselves in the adult world (Levinson, 1986, p. 5). Next, is the early adulthood stage that goes from 17-45. Levinson states, “It is the adult era of greatest energy