Childhood innocence and imagination are powerful elements and can shape a child’s life. In the story “Zolaria,” the author uses symbols and imagery to argue childhood innocence and imagination can be harmful. To fully experience life, one must grow out of childhood imagination and mature into adulthood. The narrator of “Zolaria” starts her tale as a young, wide-eyed girl and ends still naïve but as an adult. However, the narrator tries to rid herself of imagination by becoming friends with the popular kids. Throughout the story, the reader can detect how the narrator does not become fully mature and how it impacts and affects those around her. Childhood is meant to be pleasant and creative, but becomes detrimental as people grow and change
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As a child, the narrator and Hanna create an imaginary monster named Ogan Veen. Imaginary playmates are all right at a young age, but for her to become an adult and still believe in something strongly enough that it affects her children is not. Imagination is key to becoming a respectable adult when it is in the right quantities. Overall, imagination affects the narrator’s life in a negative way. Symbols and imagery accompany the narrator through her tale and foreshadow the severity imagination can have.
Popularity can lead people to do crazy things. The narrator starts her tale off with only one friend. In the second paragraph of the book the narrator says, “This year Hanna-Khoury-eight-houses-down and I are best friends, a thing I haven’t had before” (3). They spend the summer creating the fictitious world of Zolaria as well as creating Ogan Veen. The imagination they share is a bond few people have together. …show more content…
Ogan Veen symbolizes the narrator’s fears of becoming an adult and taking on responsibility. The narrator first thinks of Ogan Veen when she rides bikes with Hanna and Hanna says, “Ogan/Veen looks like the name of a monster” (4). Ogan Veen starts off friendly and ends up becoming an “enemy [that] will not show himself” (7). As the story continues, Ogan Veen becomes more frightening, representing the narrators cultivating fears of becoming an adult. Ogan Veen also symbolizes her fear of being a bad parent because her father will decide to “move to San Diego” (8) and abandon her completely. When the narrator finds out she is pregnant with twins, she will “be terrified… [wondering] which one Ogan Veen will ask for” (12). The fear she has of Ogan Veen will make the narrator question herself and fear the “day when Sophie complains of a headache… Madison reels dizzy in gym class… [and] a doctor has something to tell [her] he asks [her] to sit down to hear” (14). The fear Ogan Veen ignites in the narrator has a negative effect on her growing up and acting
As a child, the narrator and Hanna create an imaginary monster named Ogan Veen. Imaginary playmates are all right at a young age, but for her to become an adult and still believe in something strongly enough that it affects her children is not. Imagination is key to becoming a respectable adult when it is in the right quantities. Overall, imagination affects the narrator’s life in a negative way. Symbols and imagery accompany the narrator through her tale and foreshadow the severity imagination can have.
Popularity can lead people to do crazy things. The narrator starts her tale off with only one friend. In the second paragraph of the book the narrator says, “This year Hanna-Khoury-eight-houses-down and I are best friends, a thing I haven’t had before” (3). They spend the summer creating the fictitious world of Zolaria as well as creating Ogan Veen. The imagination they share is a bond few people have together. …show more content…
Ogan Veen symbolizes the narrator’s fears of becoming an adult and taking on responsibility. The narrator first thinks of Ogan Veen when she rides bikes with Hanna and Hanna says, “Ogan/Veen looks like the name of a monster” (4). Ogan Veen starts off friendly and ends up becoming an “enemy [that] will not show himself” (7). As the story continues, Ogan Veen becomes more frightening, representing the narrators cultivating fears of becoming an adult. Ogan Veen also symbolizes her fear of being a bad parent because her father will decide to “move to San Diego” (8) and abandon her completely. When the narrator finds out she is pregnant with twins, she will “be terrified… [wondering] which one Ogan Veen will ask for” (12). The fear she has of Ogan Veen will make the narrator question herself and fear the “day when Sophie complains of a headache… Madison reels dizzy in gym class… [and] a doctor has something to tell [her] he asks [her] to sit down to hear” (14). The fear Ogan Veen ignites in the narrator has a negative effect on her growing up and acting