But her father soon leaves the family making Marsha heart-broken.
'Then my father left , and a few months after that Boyd Ellison was killed behind the Spring Hill Mall , and what happened in other neighborhoods.'
I believe that Marsha see's these events are connected. Since her father's departure hurt her so much it must (in her opinion) have hurt everyone else as much. Boyd Ellison's death left a hole in the community. Her fathers death left a hole in her heart. She was devastated by this.
'in a moment , in a glance , life for us was changed forever , and we never saw a thing.'
Things hadn't changed for the better. The repetitive use of coma's indicate a list of heart ache and despair with the repetition of the phrase 'in a' emphasising this. She is very upset since she didn't expect her father to break her heart like this as she thought so highly of him. This can be shown by the quote '...and we never saw a thing.' This is because she hero-worshipped her father so much that she believed he was incapable of such human faults. She was so devastated because she loves her father so much.
This heartache soon turns to hate. At first we are led to believe that Marsha hates Mr Green because she is taking the hatred she feels for her father leaving out against. But this hatred is aimed at Marsha's mother as Marsha feels that she is trying to replace her father and she also doesn't blame her father for his leaving either she blames her mother.
'Mr Green's failure to be included in the Night Watch made me first pity , then detest him.'
Mr Green and Marsha's mother are very similar. They are both seen as different from other people and out-cast by society. By not including Mr Green in the Night Watch this is societies way of excluding him. All the other families are included in the Night Watch except Mr Green and Marsha's family.
But Mr Green is trying to improve his social standing.
'Or even how Mr Green next door had spent Sunday morning clipping the grass that edged his brick patio with a pair of poultry scissors.'
I think that this is a metaphor for Mr Green trying to self improve. The grass keeps growing like the hatred. The brick patio is his life which he is trying to make nicer and improve. But it is not just his life but also the things he treasures in his life , the things and people close to him. One of these things is Marsha's mother for it is clear that he really likes her. So this hatred and malice is not just affecting Mr Green but Marsha's mother as well. Why? I think it is because Marsha loves her father more.
Marsha only actually realises that she has loved her father when he dies.
'...suddenly there I was , ten years old all over again and he had just left me , and the world was a wide place in the dark...'
The 'world' has the symbolic meaning of Marsha's heart. When her father dies so does her heart. All the love is drained out and it turns her heart black. This is because I think that she loved her father more than anything else in the world so that everything else in the world is dark because she doesn't love anything else as much. At the end of the story there is no mention of her mother in the present and a very brief mention of her in the past. I believe that this is because she takes her fathers side because she prefers him. I believe that she bare not look back and remember fond memories of her mother as she does not want to upset her father by appearing on her mothers side.
Through-out the story the relationship between Marsha and her father seems rocky but really she had always loved him even if she didn't show it. She hurts so much when her father left because he was the love of her life. We are then led to believe that she torments Mr Green because she see's him as her father when I believe that she actually see's him as her mother. In my opinion she blames her mother for her father leaving even though it is clear that it was her father's fault. She does love her father and she loves him so much that she cannot see sense.
