How aware is Lizabeth of her own surroundings and the wider world

In the 1969 short story named Marigolds written by Eugenia Collier, the character Lizabeth is keenly aware of her surroundings as she grows up. It is the one major change throughout the book which takes place during the Great Depression. She changes from an innocent child to a woman. She often reflected that she no longer liked engaging in children’s games, saw men crying, realized the harshness of the wider world and therefore recognized in her last bad act when her whole life was falling apart and she destroyed Miss Lottie’s marigold patch that childhood ended and womanhood began.