Analyzing the text

The main theme in the short-story is coming of age. When we first meet Lizabeth, she is one of the older children, a leader of the pack.... bored, troublesome, and without a true knowledge that there are repucussions for our actions. Like most young people, Lizabeth thinks of herself.

Over the course of the story, Lizabeth life is shaken by the realization that her family is experiencing problems.... that her mother is bearing the load, that her father is devastated by his position, and worst of all she hears him cry. In her own confusion, anger, and what she perceives as the ugliness in her world, Lizabeth strikes out and destroys the one thing of physical beauty in her community..... Miss Lottie's flowers. In doing so, she comes to see that she herself has brought ugliness into someone else's life..... left Miss Lottie feeling the same devastation. It is in that moment.... she begins to grow up.