People’s lives change in many ways, but everyone experiences at least one time where their life is redefined. This is known as loss of innocence. In Marigolds, Eugenia W. Collier uses internal conflict to illustrate how knowledge is gained through the loss of innocence. Lizabeth gains knowledge that changes her perspective of the world as a result of internal conflict, and experiences loss of innocence. Lizabeth felt internal conflict when she has just destroyed Miss Lottie’s Garden. previously, when Lizabeth leads a crowd of unruly and bored children, including her younger brother, to tease and bother an old woman named Miss Lottie. They considered Miss Lottie different and abnormal, so Lizabeth was happy and thought nothing of her actions. …show more content…
Lizabeth feels conflicted when she overheard her mother and father arguing as her father displayed distress over the fact that he could not support his family.When Lizabeth awoke in the middle of the night as her mother returned home, she she overheard her parents arguing and realized that her life was not as simple as she had once thought. Her father that she had once remembered as the strong, hardworking parent, was crying to her mother, “who was small and soft”, about how he could not support his family. This is new and unfamiliar to Lizabeth, and she feels as though, “The world had lost its boundary lines...Everything was suddenly out of tune, like a broken accordion… I do not now remember my thoughts, only feelings of great bewilderment and fear.” (8). While she had once understood her family’s dynamics, Lizabeth now feels confused and frightened as her view of her parents who she once believed she could lean on in times of need, was changed and they were not as perfect as the once thought. Not only was her family affected, but so was the rest of her town, her race, and much of her country, and all was the effect of The Depression. She is in conflict at what to think, and is upset and unsettled to this new knowledge that she has just gained, and how it has changed her …show more content…
Miss Lottie, the woman that she had once believed was different from those she thought of as normal, was really a person aged from difficult times. Lizabeth’s actions, although at the time had brought her small joy and an antidote to her boredom, had effected Miss Lottie by taking away the last bit of hope and care put into the flowers. Her father was no longer the center and the support of her family, but just a person who could no longer work and earn like he had once done. Lizabeth had not noticed the change and the depression in her father, as a result of childhood blinding her to the troubles of the rest of the world. Lizabeth’s confusing emotions spurred her to continue the destruction of the marigolds, as her brother, who did not understand her actions, sat confused and upset. He was not experiencing the rite of passage that his sister was faced with. As Lizabeth is sitting in the middle of the mess she made in Miss Lottie's garden, “...that was the moment when childhood faded and adulthood began.” Lizabeth's actions as child had opened her eyes as an adult and “... gazed on a reality that is hidden from childhood.”
All of these causes trigger Elizabeth to take her anger and distress on the Marigolds. He follows her; chasing her down the road, Elizabeth approached the marigolds. She pulls the marigolds from the ground. Soon enough, Miss Lottie stood in front of her. The book states, “And that was the moment when childhood faded and womanhood began.
...en-year-old girl”. She has now changed mentally into “someone much older”. The loss of her beloved brother means “nothing [will] ever be the same again, for her, for her family, for her brother”. She is losing her “happy” character, and now has a “viole[nt]” personality, that “[is] new to her”. A child losing its family causes a loss of innocence.
Loss of Innocence is a classic theme in literature. Protagonists are forced into situations where they must sacrifice their goodness/what they believe. It is a theme that runs through both “ Young Goodman Brown” and “ The Most Dangerous Game”, though each of them happen in a different way.
The heroine, Mrs. P, has some carries some characteristics parallel to Louise Mallard in “Hour.” The women of her time are limited by cultural convention. Yet, Mrs. P, (like Louise) begins to experience a new freedom of imagination, a zest for life , in the immediate absence of her husband. She realizes, through interior monologues, that she has been held back, that her station in life cannot and will not afford her the kind of freedom to explore freely and openly the emotions that are as much a part of her as they are not a part of Leonce. Here is a primary irony.
Childhood is a time in one’s life where innocence and experience are seemingly two separate worlds. Only when one becomes an adult, and has been thoroughly marked by experience, one realizes that innocence and experience resides in the same world. Innocence and experience are equivalent to the flipsides of a single coin. William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience demonstrate that religious doctrine and experience are responsible for destroying and understanding innocence in childhood.
Do you know anyone who is destructive when they get mad? In “Marigolds”, Lizabeth does not know how to express her anger. In the beginning, Lizabeth thought that the marigolds were useless and pointless but at the end she matured and realized that it symbolized beauty. The theme of this story is The loss of youth’s innocence comes compassion for others and deeper understanding of life.
Loss of innocence can happen in many ways. Some losses are enormous and hugely impactful, like killing, while others are small and subtle like growing up. Innocence is lost in the most innocuous ways, most of which aren’t noticeable, which brings this paper to a closing question, something implied through both of these works; something to think about. Is every loss of innocence bad, or are they just stepping stones on the path to becoming an adult?
I'll be honest; I picked this short story first because of the bright, blooming title, "Marigolds." But when I read the story, I felt torn, like the marigolds that were when destroyed by Lizabeth[ADM2]. Throughout this story I felt overwhelmed with reality;[ADM3] I was showered with confusion, contradictions, and it seems as though I read this story of harsh truth in a dream. Lizabeth's character is so close to myself, yet so far away, that I detest her, especially for her furious outrage taken out on a sliver of hope surrounded by despondency, yet I feel compassionate towards her.[ADM4]
Towards the middle of the story, Lizabeth, her brother and the other neighborhood children rush over to Miss Lottie’s to throw pebbles at her flowers that she so deeply cared for. The children flung stones at the blossoms and Lizabeth with her “expertly aimed stone cut the head off of one of the blossoms” (Collier 146). This sent the other children into a stone flinging frenzy and ended up destroying all of the blossoms. Miss Lottie became enraged and began to cry over her ruined flowers. Lizabeth never thought of the repercussion this would have on Miss Lottie and the love she had for her flowers. She did this for her own entertainment without thinking about who she could hurt. After the stone throwing incident, Lizabeth continued to stay with Mrs. Lottie and yell insults at her, because she was “mad with the power of inciting such rage” (Collier 146). For the second time Lizabeth was not concerned with Miss Lottie’s feelings in the slightest and only taunted her and called her cruel names to entertain herself. Lizabeth’s actions and words presented to readers just how selfish she was in her
Imprisoned in the “cardboard world” for a long time, Antoinette feels so lonely. “Long ago when I was a child and very lonely I tried to kiss her”(Rhys 180). She thinks of her childhood, and she does not remember many things. Undoubtedly, she becomes more abnormal. “One morning when I woke I ached all over. Not the cold, another sort of ache. I saw that my wrists were red and swollen”(181). Something bad has happened to the poor woman. “Grace said, ‘I suppose you’re going to tell me that you don’t remember anything about last night’”(181). Grace’s words imply that Antoinette often forget about something. A submissive wife is changed by her husband’s indifference-- she endures loneliness, coldness and despair.
It is the first time that Lizabeth hears a man cry. She could not believe herself because her father is “a strong man who could whisk a child upon his shoulders and go singing through the house.” As the centre of the family and a hero in her heart, Lizabeth’s dad is “sobbing like the tiniest child”She discovers that her parents are not as powerful or stable as she thought they were. The feeling of powerlessness and fear surges within her as she loses the perfect relying on her dad. She says, “the world had lost its boundary lines.” the “smoldering emotions” and “fear unleashed by my father’s tears” had “combined in one great impulse toward
Innocence is usually associated with youth and ignorance. The loss of one’s innocence is associated with the evils of the world. However, the term “innocence” can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Similarly, the loss of one’s innocence can be interpreted in more than one way, and, depending on the interpretation, it may happen numerous times. The loss of innocence is culture specific and involves something that society holds sacrosanct.
The loss of innocence is an occurrence that happens in every life, and it is so easily taken. A traumatic moment is often the thief of innocence, leaving the victim scarred from the experience. Events like these are often the process of paving the road into adulthood, and aid in the metamorphosis of a child to an adult. In “My Father’s Noose” by Grace Talusan, “Dothead” by Amit Majmudar, and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, each of the characters do not understand the concept of negligent personages. Once the protagonist knows that society is not composed of perfect people, their character and personality changes, as it forces them to take a look at their own morals. This prepares the protagonist for the lives
Although imagery and symbolism does little to help prepare an expected ending in “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, setting is the singular element that clearly reasons out an ending that correlates with the predominant theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing a grim realism from the cruel world. Despite the joyous atmosphere of an apparently beautiful world of abundant corn and cotton, death and hatred lies on in the woods just beyond the sharecropper cabin. Myop’s flowers are laid down as she blooms into maturity in the face of her fallen kinsman, and the life of summer dies along with her innocence. Grim realism has never been so cruel to the innocent children.
In actuality, she was defiant, and ate macaroons secretly when her husband had forbidden her to do so. She was quite wise and resourceful. While her husband was gravely ill she forged her father’s signature and borrowed money without her father or husband’s permission to do so and then boastfully related the story of doing so to her friend, Mrs. Linde. She was proud of the sacrifices she made for her husband, but her perceptions of what her husband truly thought of her would become clear. She had realized that the childlike and submissive role she was playing for her husband was no longer a role she wanted to play. She defied the normal roles of the nineteenth century and chose to find her true self, leaving her husband and children