Empathy In Eugenia Collier's Marigolds

Empathy and compassion are cycled by humans in response to another’s emotions, suffering, and misfortune. They are what further one’s understanding of a relative homosapien. The Southern Gothic Fiction, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, pays tribute to both empathy and compassion in its telling of a young girl’s coming-of-age and probing how racism, prejudice, or in other words evil and morality coexist within a community. Furthermore, in the short fiction crisis, “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier, Lizabeth, a fourteen-year-old African American girl in Maryland, struggles to find herself in the midst of adolescence and economic calamity, the Great Depression. Overall, Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird best elicits compassion and

Lizabeth’s “world had lost its boundary line. [Her] mother, who was small and soft, was now the strength of the family; [her] father, who was the rock on which the family had been built on” was comparable to “a broken accordion” and she did not know “where [she] fit” amongst “this crazy”, all she felt was “bewilderment and fear” (Collier 11). Lizabeth lost hope, a beacon of prosperity. Her innocence blinded her to a reality in which life was not perfect. Her beliefs were contradicted by reality and Miss Lottie. Lizabeth’s womanhood concluded with the end of innocence and the start of compassion. Collier evoked empathy by manipulating “Marigolds” first-person point of view to tell a story from her point of view. Fundamentally, Collier was able to capture the emotions of her readers by describing the transition from innocence to compassion. However, To Kill a Mockingbird best kindled empathy and compassion to give a deeper understanding of the world by providing a literary voyage through the eyes of innocence in a town where both evil and morality coexist. It is told from the eyes of six-year-old Scout Finch. Throughout the novel, she matures and learns the importance of empathy and compassion. This is demonstrated by those who she encounters with an insight into what it means to be a victim of racism, inequality, and rumors. A child's obliviousness is how Harper Lee is able to best evoke empathy in the