24 April 2012
6th
To Kill A Mockingbird vs Marigolds Round 1
Coming of age may not be an easy thing, but it makes you the man or woman that you are. In these two stories the main characters begin as young wild children, but they mature to young adults. Although, coming of age may seem simple to some, these characters show us how difficult it can really be. While they are young and wild in the beginning, they end up being young adults that take things more seriously.
In the beginning of To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout and Jem were terrible children. They were always pulling pranks and just aggravating people in general. But little by little they start maturing and taking things more seriously (Lee). By the end of the story, during Tom Robinson’s trial, they finally come to the point in their life where they change from being a child into being young adults. An example is when Scout and Jem see Dill crying and they say “He just doesn’t understand what’s happening.”
Secondly, in “Marigolds” the main character Lizabeth also starts as a hyper child: she doesn’t aggravate people but she just destroys their property. In the beginning of the story, they are all around Ms. Lottie’s house; then a boy decides that they should destroy her marigolds. Lizabeth was against it in the beginning then she gave into peer pressure and told them to throw the rocks and destroy her flowers. After they were chased by Ms. Lottie’s crazy son John, Liz felt remorseful and couldn’t sleep. Later that night she decides to go back and let her anger out on the rest of the beautiful flowers. While she is ripping them out of the soil, she looks up only to see Ms. Lottie staring at her. She feels very embarrassed and starts to cry. After this event is when she finally kicked the childish habits out of her life and became a young woman (Collier). Thirdly, growing up in a broken home is very hard on a young child. In the story To Kill A Mockingbird Scout and Jem grow up only
Cited: Collier, Eugenia. Marigolds Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Warner Books, 1960.