Saturday, September 12, 2009

How does the author characterize Margot in "All Summer in a Day"?

Margot is characterized as introverted and lonely.


Margot is always described as being isolated from the other children.  They all are wary of her and jealous of the fact that she came from Earth.  Margot is a timid child.  She does not play games with the others.  She does not even try to be included.



She was a very frail girl who looked as if she had been lost in the rain for years and the rain had washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth and the yellow from her hair. She was an old photograph dusted from an album, whitened away, and if she spoke at all her voice would be a ghost.



Margot wants to go back to Earth.  Since she remembers the sun, she wants to be there even more than the other kids.  She is fading away on Venus, with its constant rain.  She does not care what the financial ramifications for her family would be if she went back to Earth. 


Margot seems traumatized by being on Venus, and the other kids do not know what to make of it.



And once, a month ago, she had refused to shower in the school shower rooms, had clutched her hands to her ears and over her head, screaming the water mustn’t touch her head. So after that, dimly, dimly, she sensed it, she was different and they knew her difference and kept away.



Due to instances like this, the kids either ignore Margot or tease her.  The teasing comes to a head when poor Margot gets locked in the closet on the one day the sun finally comes out.  The children are being normal bullies.  However, even they are horrified by their cruelty when they realize that Margot missed the one day that the sun came out.

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