The Theme Of Eugenia Collier's Marigolds: Hope Is Possible

“Marigolds”, written by Eugenia Collier in 1969, is a coming-of-age story about a girl who makes the development from an immature and innocent child to that of a compassionate and mature woman. Taking place during the Great Depression in rural Maryland, the story shows both external and internal conflicts of Lizabeth, a 14-going-on-15 year-old girl. She was stuck not only in a nation ransacked by an economic crisis, but also in the confusion and fear that comes along with growing up. With all the changes happening (both inside and outside of herself), she finds that “the world had lost its boundary lines” and that she also had to cross a line herself: the line which marks the end of childhood and all its innocence. Lizabeth’s internal turmoil

Eugenia Collier uses diction and imagery to create the voice of her narrator, Lizabeth, in her short story “Marigolds.” Lizabeth has a negative tone in the beginning of the story. The imagery she stated, “When I think of my hometown, all that I seem to remember is dust- the brown crumbly dust of late summer-arid, sterile dust that gets into the eyes and makes them water (Collier)...” proves that she is unhappy to be in that place. There are a lot of reasons why she is unhappy in that place and one of them is poverty. Lizabeth hinted that one of their struggles was poverty when she said “Poverty is a cage in which we all are trapped, and our hatred of it was still the vague, undirected restlessness of the zoo-bred flamingo who knows that nature created him to fly flee (Collier).” Lizabeth established the juxtaposition when she said, “And one other thing I remember, another incongruency of memory-a brilliant splash of sunny yellow against the dust-Miss Lottie’s marigolds (Collier).” She is stating that Miss Lottie’s marigolds were the only beautiful thing in that unsightly place. Those marigolds did not give her a pleasant feeling because she thought that they were too beautiful to exist in that kind of place. Miss Lottie was believed to be a witch when Lizabeth was young but she knows she is mature enough not believe in those things anymore. Their first encounter resulted in Lizabeth and her company destroying some of Miss Lottie’s marigolds and they left Miss Lottie and John Burke, her son, enraged. When she got home and went to her room hoping to rest after a long day, she overheard her parents talking. She heard her dad say, “ Twenty two years, Maybelle, twenty two years…and I got nothing for you, nothing, nothing (Collier).” She then realized that her father got fired from his job and was not taking it too well after what they have been through. Maybelle, Lizabeth’s mother, attempted to comfort her husband by saying, “Honey, you took good care of us when you had it. Ain’t nobody got nothing nowadays (Collier).” After a while of discussion Lizabeth’s father began to sob, loudly and painfully. At this point, LIzabeth is confused because she never heard a man cry before. She did not even know that men cry.

Fatima has suffered from many social problems that affecting many members of the rural community. Poverty, for example, has caused several problems of the family and they still suffer from them. Rural poverty is very severe than other societies and is widespread in remote areas (Duncan & Tickamyer, 1988). Since a father of Fatimah’s family is drug addict, he is unemployed. He has spent most of his time with his drug abusers. Therefore, the family gets financial income from the handicrafts performed by the mother. However, this is not enough to provide a decent life and cover the basic needs of the family.

Living in poverty and having to face one’s crumbling society is extremely stressful. In Eugenia Collier’s short story, “Marigolds,” the main character, Lizabeth, and the other citizens of the town she lives in, including her parents, her friends, and Miss Lottie, must learn to cope with that stress, and in Lizabeth’s case, learn how to deal with the effects of maturation. The different types of conflict within “Marigolds” are man versus man, man versus society, and man versus self because Lizabeth has to face peer pressure, the living conditions brought by the Great Depression, as well as the development of her own emotions.

Lizabeth begins to talk about what her family life is like. The passage states,”I did not notice my father’s silence, for he was always silent these days, nor did I notice my mother’s absence, for she always worked well into evening.” (220). Lizabeth’s family life has a huge influence on why she does not want to grow up. Seeing what her parents have to live through prevent her from having any hope and indirectly characterizes her as hopeless. That night, Lizabeth hears her parents arguing about how hard living is. She hears her father break down into tears (221). This was the last straw for Lizabeth. After hearing what her parents had to say in their conversation, she comes to the conclusion that if her life is not fair, then the life of others should not be fair either. The conclusion that Lizabeth comes to indirectly characterizes her as depressed as she feels as if her life is empty. Her conclusion also further develops Lizabeth’s self-centered character trait. Although there are people that have life worse than Lizabeth, she does not view it that way.

In life, it is important to always have a positive outlook when it comes to negative situations. ----In the short story, “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier, the main character, Lizabeth, changes from a childish girl to a mature young adult when she realizes the pain she brought to Mrs. Lottie when her marigolds were destroyed. Her repressed feelings from her father’s breakdown, the hopeless of her financial standing, and her mind’s confliction between immaturity and maturity causes her to commit her last act of childhood, which was ruining Miss Lottie's marigolds. After seeing the pain in Miss Lottie's eyes, Lizabeth finally understood the true meaning behind the marigolds and its importance to Miss Lottie. In the

Circumstances, no matter how terrible, can be made better by knowing that there are people who care about you. The main focus of the articles "The Suitcase Lady" by Christie McLaren and "The Firewood Gatherers" by Thierry Mallet are the two old women the articles describe. One woman is homeless, forgotten by her family and the rest of the world. The other woman is blind and shriveled, gathering firewood with her grandchildren. While the two women are largely alike, both old and on the sidelines of society, their circumstances are made vastly different by their familial situations.

Can bad issues from your own family cause you to destroy the goodness of someone else’s life? Lizabeth grew up in a place where the community wasn’t the prettiest thing to look at nor, was it a good place to grow up in. In the short story Marigolds by Eugenia Collier in the genre of adulthood , you will see the relationship between Miss Lottie and Lizabeth and the difficulties of growing up culturally deprived .

Do you remember of your childhood and can describe detail by detail everything? The author Eugenia Collier uses flashback, imagery, and diction to help create the voice of Lizbeth. This story was written as a flashback because Lizbeth the main character was remembering all and telling it. She explained some of the things in detail and used a lot of wording too. In all the story Lizbeth used literary elements.

The character Lizabeth lives in a poor, low-class town, and is young at the time the story is told. She lives with the desires to harass her elderly neighbor. But, this neighbor is who ends up being the reason Lizabeth truly grows up. To start with, in the story "Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier, many believe marigolds are a symbol of happiness, hope, and overall

The sun is out shining down on the bright sparkling marigolds, it’s quiet, nothing's open and nothing to do, but lay around and think about the stage of the world right now. I walk outside and see nothing but dullness, the dust against my feet, and the small town around me, there may have been green grass, and roads at one point a while ago “but memory is an abstract painting” . Behind me is a small shack “leaning together like a house that a child might have constructed from cards”, with no porch, on a small lot with no grass around. I have one thing that is held close to me that makes me happy, they are bright against the dust, they are my marigolds. I notice Lizabeth has her eye on the marigolds, LIzabeth doesn’t want someone to have something

This pushed them to do something terrible. In lines 180-182, it states, “We had to annoy her by whizzing a pebble into her flowers or by yelling a dirty word, then dancing away from her rage, reveling in our youth and mocking her age.” Lizabeth and her friends were acting very childish by planning on destroying Ms.Lottie’s marigolds just to make her unhappy. At first the kids were scared to go back, but now there were actually going to put this plan into

In any ugly situation, you can find beauty in, only if you are willing to see it. In the story “ Marigolds” the author as a child did not understand why Miss Lottie’s marigolds were so important to Miss Lottie until she was older. The theme for the story is in any ugly situation you can find beauty in it , only if you are willing to see it . Another theme for the story is beauty is in the eye of the holder, in this literary analysis i will explain the theme of the story “ Marigolds” .

Without any doubt, Pericia “Perry” Marigold was the nicest girl in the whole school. In fact, she never seemed to do anything remotely wrong. If you had the pleasure of having her walk past you in the hall, you might smell her lilac perfume (which always seemed to be tinged with another smell. And if you asked what it was, she would smile and say: “Oh, just something from a little hobby of mine”). If you were even more lucky, she would stop you while you were on your way to class and say ‘hi’ or ‘how are you doing?’.

Francie and Neeley, the main characters, struggled against many opposing forces as children. One of their major problems was poverty. Many times, Francie and Neeley had to drink coffee to sustain themselves on days when there was no food. Many times, Francie and Neeley wished to have nice clothing and shoes, but were never able to afford them. Although they never got the things they wanted, both Francie and Neeley never complained, they still worked hard no matter what, and earned money whenever possible. In addition, because both Francie and Neeley were poor, they were humiliated a lot by people in their society. Francie hated to be humiliated. But, despite all of their problems, they continued to work hard and earn money for the family.