It is normal for people to face obstacles in their lives that force them to grow up and mature. The protagonists Vita, from Wendy Kaufman’s short story “Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street”, and Lizabeth, in Eugenia W. Collier’s short story “Marigolds”, face similar challenges of maturing and taking on the responsibilities of being an adult. In both stories, the main characters find what is holding them back in their lives, whether it be the absence of a family member or poverty, and they work to remove it In Collier’s and Kaufman’s short stories, both authors reveal the importance of finding oneself through maturing; accepting new responsibilities will allow one to become a new independent person.
In the story, “Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street”, the