All This Time

Daughtry and Lippincott use flowers to create a line of communication between Kyle and Marley. Marley is painfully shy and finds being vulnerable difficult. Rather than tell Kyle her feelings, Marley uses flowers to convey what she wants to say. Just as Kyle gives gifts as representations of his feelings, Marley gives flowers as a gift of her emotions. Marley gives Kyle a daisy, the symbol of hope, to prompt his growth away from despair and grief. The cherry blossom symbolizes a new start, which characterizes Marley and Kyle’s relationship and their individual journeys to happiness. The hydrangea symbolizes gratitude, which is how Kyle and Marley feel about one another after seeing each other through arduous challenges. The peony is a symbol of good luck and fortune, which represents Kyle’s new internship and school. Flowers add to the fairy tale tone of the novel. In fairy tales, symbols are important ways of creating meaning. In writing their own version of a fairy tale, Daughtry and Lippincott use flowers to represent the growth and purity of Marley and Kyle’s relationship.