Miss Lottie's Home By Eugenia Collier Summary

Way back in 1887, a journalist named Elizabeth Cochran assumed the alias Nellie Bly and feigned a mental illness to report on the truly awful conditions inside psychiatric hospitals in the US--which were known as asylums at the time. She found rotten food, cold showers, prevalent rats, abusive nurses, and patients being tied down in her famous expose "Ten Days in a Mad House". What she documented had been pretty standard mental health treatment for centuries, but her work led the charge in mental health reform.

As Wendy Martin says “the poem leaves the reader with painful impression of a woman in her mid-fifties, who having lost her domestic comforts is left to struggle with despair. Although her loss is mitigated by the promise of the greater rewards of heaven, the experience is deeply tragic.” (75)

(Collier 213). This symbolizes the beauty and significance that Miss Lottie’s marigolds had towards Lizabeth’s time during the Great Depression. In such way, through the haze of darkness, shines the beauty of Miss Lottie’s marigolds. In conclusion, in the short story, “Marigolds,” the theme that is represented throughout the story is, “Beauty can be found even in the darkest times.” This theme can be represented through Lizabeth’s thoughts, and through the importance and meaning that Miss Lottie’s marigolds

“Eugenia W. Collier uses elaborate use of diction, interesting and unique syntax, and very imagery and poetic figurative language to create a didactic, optimistic, and abstract tone in her writing of Marigolds” As the story begins, the author uses a very abstract feeling and tone towards the subject of poverty. In the quote, “Surely there must have been lush green lawns and paved streets under leafy shade trees somewhere in town; but memory is an abstract painting—it does not present things as they are, but rather as they feel” (1) it talks about how the memory of poverty is elusive. The second part of the sentence, “but memory is an abstract painting—it does not present things as they are, but rather as they feel” shows what the writer feels

Ain't no man ought to eat his women's food year in and year out, and see his children running wild. Ain't nothing right about that.” Maybelle responds, “Honey, you took good care of us when you had it. Ain't nobody got nothing nowadays.” This conversation between the mother and father contrasts the differences between the parents personalities and displays, just like the differences between childhood Lizabeth and women Lizabeth. Similarly to how Lizabeth's mother finds happiness in her family, Lizabeth found happiness in destroying other people's happiness. This consequently led to her loss of innocence by destroying Miss Lottie's yard, but because of this she gained compassion in others and through poverty. Marigolds represent happiness that sometimes have to be destroyed in order to lose innocence and gain compassion, but also the small feeling of hope and joy when the whole world around you is dark and sinister. The author uses the technique of symbolism of the marigolds to display how when people are so deep in depression and poverty, they look for something hopeful and happy to put or “plant” in their

By referencing the Great Depression, contrast is emphasized through the feelings of the couple. Fortunes were lost due to the sky being smeared “...green with doom” (13) resulting in many to suffer. However, this is contradicted when the air was “drenched… with an amber glow” (14-15) indicating that the sun was still shining despite this unfortunate event. Despite the devastating events correlated to the Great Depression, the couple views the simple positive moments such as the sun shining. Fairchild

The poem describes the weather and its effect on cotton flower by pointing out the dying branches and vanishing cotton. The image of insufficiency, struggle and death parallel the oppression of African American race. The beginning of the poem illustrates the struggle and suffering of the cotton flower; which represent the misery of African Americans and also gives an idea that there is no hope for them. But at the end the speaker says “brown eyes that loves without a trace of fear/ Beauty so sudden for that time of year” (lines 13-14). This shows the rise of the African American race, and their fight against racism. The author used mood, tone and

“Mrs. Manstey’s View,” a short story about the end of an old woman’s life, has a strong theme of the importance of nature. The titular woman has very little left in her life besides a small home with an extraordinary view of gardens and flowers. Indeed, early in the story, she states, “Mrs. Manstey’s real friends were the denizens of the yard, the hyacinths, the magnolia, the green parrot…” This dedication to her view causes a huge upheaval when a neighbor plans to expand her house, cutting off the view mentioned in the title.

The author of the story Marigolds has many different uses of literary terms to show the protagonist's voice and many other characters hardships that have happened during the great depression. Eugenia the author of Marigolds wrote “Dry September of the dirt roads,” “arid, sterile dust” (16)to show a wonderful use of imagery. This is just one of many amazing examples of how the author uses many different phrases to show images in your head. There are also many ways that the author used imagery in juxtaposition to compare different opposing images.

Jean Zimmerman wrote The Women of the House: How A Colonial She-Merchant Built A Mansion, A Fortune, And A Dynasty. Harcourt, Inc. published the book in 2006. The anthology has 338 pages of the actual book and 402 including the prologue and other notes. This nonfiction, hard-back paper book portrays women’s roles both within and outside of the home starting in the late seventeenth century and ending in the early nineteenth century.

Depicted in the picture, “Bud Fields and his family”, the family of six produce a couple of emotions that people in today’s era can clearly feel. Walker Evan’s depiction of life and the people during the Depression of the 1930’s is empty , ashamed, and hopeful. An example of why this family feels empty is because in the photograph the family is shown as poor and torn. For instance the grandmother is the only one that is wearing shoes, but the shoes are falling apart and her hands look as if she has been working non-stop. The mother has the hands of a labor worker, which goes to show that she is helping provide for the family along with the grandmother and the father. Underneath the bed is kitten which is clearly malnourished, which is a perfect

Obviously the author has lived through the depression and was black because one could not write something so accurate in accordance to that time period and have one feel the deep emotional impact of her writings without experiencing it personally.  In the first sentence she writes “…all I seem to remember is dust—the brown, crumbly dust of late summer—arid, sterile dust that gets in to the eyes and makes them water, gets into the throat and between the toes of the bare brown feet.”  In this phrase the words give a harsh, cruel feeling of how the depression was, which could then explain how she remembers the depression and that it was a hard time for her.  Most likely it was a significantly hopeless moment in her life.  In the next paragraph she writes “When the memory of those marigolds flashes across my mind, a strange nostalgia comes with it and remains long after the picture has faded.”  Knowing the marigolds symbolize hope the word “nostalgia” gives a feeling of longing, since the denotative meaning is yearning.  When stating the marigolds give a “strange nostalgia” the author could be thinking how she, sometime in her life, longed to have hope.  She needed to have something to look forward to or just something to look at to give her hope.  Later, towards the end of the story she explains “…Innocence involves an unseeing acceptance of things at face value, an ignorance of the area below the surface.”  The words she uses give a sense of wisdom

I think the symbolism is that the family is going to get through the hard times, just like the tomato plant. The tomato plant lives among the dead and sprouts new life. The family will live among impoverished people, and will beat the Great Depression. This is important because without hope, the family will not survive the hard times: “Sitting in the cool, shadowy dark betwixt the trees, I tried to convince myself that us Cutlers-like the tomato plant-would git through these Hard Times” (Wiechman 73). This shows that the Cutlers can make it through the Great Depression, similarly to the tomato plant, that makes it through hard times. Another symbol that the tomato plant shows is that there is some sliver of good in every evil. The dead garden represents the evil of the hard times, and the growing tomato plant represents the little good that is produced by the hard times. The hard times brings people together to stand together and look out for one another. The Cutlers grow as a family when the Great Depression starts, because no one can afford to be alone during this time. Clearly, the tomato plant has a very powerful symbolism behind it in this

In the town of Maycomb county, there is a small, sad shack next to the dump. While the house is shabby and in a terrible state of disrepair, Harper Lee (the author of To Kill a Mockingbird) says, “against the fence, in a line, were six chipped enamel slop jars holding brilliant red geraniums, cared for as tenderly as if they belonged to Miss Maudie Atkinson... People said they were Mayella Ewell’s.” (Lee 228) The shabbiness of the house represents the people who live in it, the Ewells. The Ewells are all chaotic and unpopular. Like the house, they are unsightly and looked down upon; however, Mayella Ewell is an exception. While the others are content to live in squalor, Mayella is not. She expresses this through her flowers. She wants

Mrs. Mallard retires alone to her room and what first appears to be grief turns quickly to a realization that she is now “free”. She looks out the window in her bedroom and sees “the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life”. Mrs. Mallard has apparently been in a relationship for which she either regrets or has over time led to unhappiness. The trees out her bedroom window must represent to her a new chance at life. As spring follows winter, when the plants and trees die off, they are reborn again come spring. Mrs. Mallard must feel herself that the death of her husband is a rebirth for her.