The change from childhood to adulthood can be perplexing to perceive. In “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier, the author provides an example of this transition through the main character, Lizabeth, and her relationship with Miss Lottie’s marigolds. Lizabeth lived in the time of the Great Depression where anything that resembled beauty seemed out of place. To her and the other children in her community, the marigolds were the beauty amidst the ugliness of their poverty. Without truly understanding the significance of their existence, she went and destroyed the flowers. The destruction of the flowers caused her to consider Miss Lottie’s motive for planting the marigolds in the first place, which results her in the loss of naivety and the gain of compassion of her and Miss Lottie’s situation.
To begin with, Lizabeth slowly started to mature when she apprehended the consequences of her actions and felt remorseful for them. In a part of the story, Lizabeth initiated the onslaught upon Miss Lottie’s marigolds, and after the assault, she did not “join the merriment” with the other children and felt “ashamed” instead. Unlike them and her very own brother, Joey, she felt responsible for what …show more content…
Once Lizabeth trampled upon Miss Lottie’s marigolds and faced the old woman, it led her to notice something she never did before. She said, “...I gazed upon a kind of reality that is hidden to childhood. The witch was no longer a witch but only a broken old woman who had dared to create beauty in the midst of ugliness and sterility.” She realized that Miss Lottie grew the marigolds to cope with her squalor and withstand her hopelessness during the times of the Great Depression. This realization marked the end of innocence and granted her something only an adult has - compassion. In conclusion, by seeing a different reality than the one before demonstrates a transition from childhood to