Frightening Transition Essay

700 Words3 Pages
Innocence is a child’s most prized possession, and ultimately what makes a child a child. “Marigolds,” by Eugenia Collier, exhibits the transition from ignorance to compassion in the main character, Lizabeth, through one instance. Living in rural Maryland during the Great Depression, Lizabeth feels as if there is not an ounce of hope in her life. Collier emphasizes Lizabeth’s living conditions, growing pains, and family situation, which all lead to her senseless act of destruction. These factors ignite Lizabeth’s rage like a match to gasoline, which, in the end, leads to her maturity. The abject poverty Lizabeth is exposed in her hometown also adds to her destructiveness. Collier continues to reiterate the dusty landscape: “crumbly dust of late summer” (135). Collier also emphasizes on the dust in a negative way: “[the] dust that gets into the eyes…into the throat” (135). It is obvious that Lizabeth is miserable and despises her own hometown. Never once throughout the story does she speak of Maryland in a positive manner. It is apparent that Lizabeth longs and desperately desires better: “there must have been lush green lawns” (135). Poverty holds the minds of the children of her community captive, and they feel trapped. The children in Lizabeth’s dusty community do not even comprehend that there is an entire world outside of rural Maryland. Lizabeth’s mind is so wrapped in the poverty that Miss Lottie’s marigolds frustrate her. The marigolds appear to be the only article of beauty in all of rural Maryland: “they did not fit in with the crumbling decay” (138). The contrast of the marigolds to the rest of Maryland, in Lizabeth’s eyes, infuriated Lizabeth. Transitioning from child to adult brings about growing pains. This transition is not an easy, quick process. Lizabeth is coming to the realization that she is growing up, which brings about utter confusion. Her
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