Experiencing Individual Identity

The process of experiencing identity manifests in several ways throughout the narrative, all of which can be broken down into four broad-strokes areas - discovering, defining, understanding, and maintaining. Marigold, as the novel's protagonist, experiences all three areas, as over the course of her various adventures she discovers who she is (and what she is capable of), defines who she is (often through defining who she is NOT), understanding who she is (often through attempting things she ultimately discovers she's not comfortable with), and maintaining who she is. This last is particularly apparent in her (obstinate? desperate? determined?) struggle to keep her relationship with Sylvia alive. Sylvia and everything she represents is, for Marigold, a fundamental component of who she is, and is also, for the READER, everything Marigold and her story represents - the power and beauty of both imagination and nature. Many (most?) of...