Respuesta :
Elizabeth says that destroying the marigolds is her last act of childhood because it leads her to finally comprehend the rationale behind Miss Lottie's seemingly cryptic habits. Through her new perspective, Elizabeth learns to refrain from superficial judgments, and she begins to have more empathy for others. Her more mature outlook characterizes her growth from childhood to young adulthood.
In the story, Miss Lottie is an impoverished old woman who lives with her mentally disabled son (John Burke) in a dilapidated house. Elizabeth notes that everything Miss Lottie owns is in a state of extreme disrepair. Even her house is the "most ramshackle of all...ramshackle homes." The only thing of beauty Miss Lottie can lay claim to is her marigolds. Yet, Elizabeth contends that the "warm and passionate and sun-golden" blossoms fit in poorly "with the crumbling decay" of the rest of Miss Lottie's yard.
Basically, Elizabeth thinks that the marigolds look out of place in Miss Lottie's dismal-looking yard. One night, in a fit of rage, Elizabeth proceeds to pull up all the marigolds. Her rage may well have been inspired by her sense of helplessness in overhearing her once-strong father weeping in agony over his inability to provide for his family. To Elizabeth's young mind, the world is full of cruelty, inexplicable in its relentless fury to destroy.
The world had lost its boundary lines. My mother, who was small and soft, was now the strength of the family; my father, who was the rock on which the family had been built, was sobbing like the tiniest child. Everything was suddenly out of tune, like a broken accordion. Where did I fit into this crazy picture? I do not now remember my thoughts, only a feeling of great bewilderment and fear.
To Elizabeth, the marigolds represent a mockery of life, and she works to destroy it. It is only when Miss Lottie appears before her with "sad, weary eyes" that she begins to comprehend the true reason behind Miss Lottie's seeming eccentricity. Elizabeth now realizes that Miss Lottie is only a "broken old woman who had dared to create beauty in the midst of ugliness and sterility." Growing marigolds was the only way the old woman had been able to preserve some semblance of beauty, joy, and love in her life. When Elizabeth realizes this, she begins to mature in her outlook on life. This is why she says that destroying the marigolds is her last act of childhood.
Answer:
In the short story, Marigolds, the narrator, Lizabeth, now grown up, reflects on an incident when she was an adolescent. This incident is important because it showed her transition from childhood to womanhood. In the beginning of the story, Lizabeth remembers the “chaotic emotions of adolescence” she felt that day she destroyed the marigolds, and how that day was “the beginning of the experience that in some inexplicable way marked the end of innocence.” Lizabeth’s adolescence affects her decisions and actions throughout the story. She feels suspended between childhood and womanhood, and this affects her decisions throughout that day. That night, after she joins the children from the shantytown to annoy Miss Lottie, she overhears a conversation between her parents. Her father is unemployed and cannot find a job, and from frustration he suddenly begins to sob. Lizabeth is shook and recalls, “Everything was suddenly out of tune, like a broken accordion. Where did I fit in this crazy picture?” Her father was supposed to be the rock that the family leaned on, and seeing him so broken unleashes multiple feelings through Lizabeth. Overwhelmed by all of this, she wakes her brother and runs to Miss Lottie’s garden. In a fit of rage, Lizabeth destroys the marigolds, the only beautiful thing in her shantytown. Many years later, she looks back on herself during this moment, saying, “I had indeed lost my mind, for all the smoldering emotions of that summer swelled in me and burst - the great need for my mother who was never there, the hopelessness of our poverty and degradation, the bewilderment of being neither woman nor child and yet both at once, the fear unleashed by my father’s tears.” After destroying the garden, Lizabeth is sitting there crying when Miss Lottie comes out. Looking up at Miss Lottie, Lizabeth says, “...And that was the moment when childhood faded and womanhood began.” Lizabeth begins to look at Miss Lottie in a whole different way. She said, “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.” Growing marigolds was the only way the old woman managed to create some sort of purpose and joy in her life. Lizabeth, now free of the feeling of being stuck between childhood and womanhood, begins to feel something new - compassion and empathy. Lizabeth says, “This was the beginning of compassion, and one cannot have both compassion and innocence.”
