Relations of Coming of Age in Tears of a Tiger and in Nothing Gold Can Stay

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English Mohammed Zaman

Mrs.D'amico 11/3/09

Andy, in the book Tears of a Tiger goes through a very sad and depressing time and does not now what to do and need to grow up and deal with the fact that his friend Robert is dead. In the poem Nothing Gold Can Stay means that nothing good or young can always forever. The books “Tears of a Tiger” by Sharon M. Draper and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost both allocate the theme Coming of Age. There are many literary elements that contribute to the theme Coming of Age. Literary elements such as similes, metaphors, characterization, hyperbole's, etc.

In Tears of a Tiger, Andy feels very down in the dumps and feels lost. One quote by Andy is "I feel like I got cotton in my brain,”, which is a simile because it is comparing all the thoughts in his head is stuffed like cotton. Another quote that Andy says is "I wish I could sleep forever," which is a hyperbole because he is exaggerating that he wants to sleep forever so he doesn't have to deal with the problems he has when he is awake. One theme in Tears of a Tiger is to control your emotions. Andy’s emotions carried him away and caused him to give up all hope. Conflict is also in this story because there was a lot of conflict such as person vs. self because Andy was facing his emotions. Also, there was person vs. society because some people viewed Andy differently, such as writing “killer” on his locker. Characterization develops into this story by showing a lot of the characters feelings, thoughts, and sayings, by expressing them in a poem or a personal essay that the students had to write.

In Nothing Gold Can Stay, the whole entire poem is a metaphor but it contributes to the theme Coming of Age. The first line "Nature's first green is gold" means that when nature is green, it means that it is still young, and every living begins when it is young. The second, "Her hardest hue to hold" means that it is very heard to stay young because you will always get older in life. The third line "Her early leaf's a flower, mean that being young is also being innocent as a flower. But the fourth line "But only so an hour," means that you are not always going to be young and you will grow up and start doing bad things, so you won't seem innocent no more. The fifth line "Then leaf subsides to leaf," symbolizes that when you are a child you get older and become and adult, loosing your virtue. The sixth line "So Eden sank to grief," means that you are no longer a child and you have to face the word own your own. The seventh line "So dawn goes to day," means that your childhood is done and will not return. Finally, the last line, "Nothing Gold Can Stay," means that people change and you will not be young forever. The interpretation of this poem relates to the theme Coming of Age.

Tears of a Tiger and Nothing Gold Can Stay both connect to the theme Coming of Age. “Tears of a Tiger” connects because Andy is helpless until the point where he commits suicide. Instead of moving on and growing up even though that his friend Robert would not come back, he takes it to another level. In Nothing Gold Can Stay, no one is dying; it’s just trying to prove a point. Nothing good last’s forever, and you need to grow up and face the world. All of the childhood memories you can always remember but you need to live life and move on.

As you can see, in Tears of a Tiger, by Sharon M. Draper and Nothing Gold Can stay by Robert Frost both share the theme of coming of age. There are also many literary elements that contribute to the theme. Even though those “Tears of a Tiger” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” are two complete different stories, they all attach to the theme Coming of Age.

Poem

Life's a pain
when you get a lot of in your brain
its all jammed up and crumbled
when you walk you feel like you gonna stumble
when you hear all that rumble
you think to yourself, why your not dead
and when is all the blood gonna shed
you shouldn' t live your life being mad
because you should always be glad : )

Coming of Age Marigolds

Coming of Age is when teenagers go through a hard time because they are changing and are growing up, realizing how the actual world is like. Lizabeth is going through a time when she is changing from a girl to a woman. A lot of things happen during this phase in her life. In the story marigolds by Eugene Colliene characterization, conflict, and symbolism develop the theme “Coming of Age.”

Characterization develops in Marigolds because Lizabeth says many things and as a lot of feelings and emotions. Lizabeth feels very ignorant of Miss Lottie because she didn’t realize the real Miss Lottie. When she was young she thought was a witch, but now she sees that she is an old broken down woman who has a carless son named John Burke and cares a lot about those marigolds. One quote she says is “Y’all children get the stones. I’ll show you how to use ‘em.” One of her actions is that at the end she destroys Miss Lottie’s marigolds and regrets it after she had realized what she had done. She also looks like an African-American girl who has a southern accent.

Conflict also develops in Marigolds because Lizabeth versus herself. She is having different emotions in this change from girl to woman. Another conflict is person vs. society because she is living during the 1930’s which is the time of the Great Depression. The Great Depression is a time when the stock market crashed and many people were loosing their jobs, such as Lizabeth’s father. She hears her father cry one night because he does not have a job. Another conflict is person vs. person because Lizabeth has to face Miss Lottie after she destroys her marigolds.

Symbolism develops in Marigolds because the marigolds and the dust represent many things. For example, the marigolds represent beauty, accomplishment, and responsibility. They represent beauty because they are the only flowers that actually look good compared to the dirt roads and grassless yards. They also represent accomplishment because after she destroys the marigolds that were the last moment of childhood and Miss Lottie feels very accomplished when she takes care of those flowers, which brings this to my next point, responsibility. Miss Lottie is has to be very responsible to take care of the marigolds. The dust represents despair and barrenness. Dust represents despair it seems like everything is crashing down and the dust is the only thing that Lizabeth can remember. It also represents barrenness because the yards are empty and there is nothing there but dirt, except for Miss Lottie’s yard.

Marigolds by Eugene Colliene is about a girl living during the Great Depression and is going through hard times. Characterization develops in this story because Lizabeth says, feels, and does many things. Conflict then develops because there is a lot of conflict that encounters in this story. Symbolism also develops because the marigolds and the dust mean a lot in the story.