'Mary's Character In Too Soon A Woman'

An eighteen-year-old-girl, trekking across the middle of nowhere, risking her life for three children. This was the childhood story of Mary, a character in the story, “Too Soon a Woman.” While traveling through some fields, when she meets a family consisting of a father, a son, and two daughters. When the family becomes desperate for food, she finds a mushroom and risks her life by testing whether it is poison or not. This act proved her to be courageous, selfless and responsible and showed that she was “too soon a woman.”
One of Mary’s most defining character traits is her courage. She demonstrates her courage in numerous ways. However, one is most prominent and truly demonstrates how she is forced to take on a woman’s job. This is seen when
This plays a crucial role in the survival of the children. Without her responsibility, Mary would have likely lost some of the children or her own life. Her woman-like responsibility is demonstrated when the author states, “She sliced that big solid mushroom and heated grease in a pan. The smell of it brought the little girls out of their quilt, but she told them to go back in so a fierce voice that they obeyed. They cried to break your heart... We feasted, we three, my sisters and I, until Mary ruled, ‘that’ll hold you,’ and would not cook anymore”(Johnson 117-118). In this quote, Mary does the right thing by both preventing the children from eating a potentially poisonous mushroom, and when they find out that it isn’t, she also keeps the children from consuming the entire food source in one sitting. This is a difficult task since the children cannot comprehend Mary’s reasoning behind not letting the children eat the mushroom. Thus, they will see her as an evil person, constantly trying to persuade her to let them eat it. However, she does not give in and does what is right, which requires great responsibility, the responsibility of a woman.
In conclusion, there are multiple ways that Mary was too soon a woman. But, mostly she was too soon a woman because of her defining character traits. She had the courage of someone much older than she was. She also possessed the selflessness a mother would have. Finally, she could take on the responsibilities of a woman It was these three character traits that morphed Mary into a woman, someone that was capable of helping children survive. However, what would have happened to the children if Mary didn’t act like a