Compassion And Innocence In Marigolds By Eugenia Collier

The author, Steinbeck, uses his own personal experience to “serve as an inspiration…” (Johnson 1) when writing this particular story. His past experiences also helped him for the future. Lennie, of all characters, is the least dynamic. He undergoes a significant amount of change and develops throughout the story. He has been isolated with George throughout his life. His sole purpose in life is to make George happy and to own a farm with George and take care of the soft rabbits. Lennie is the most innocent and defenseless. He also is the largest and strongest, which does not help in certain situations. Lennie is the protagonist in the story. He gains the readers sympathy by his intellectual disability and helplessness. Lennie murders things by accident such as the mouse in his pocket, the puppy and Curley’s wife. He enjoys the touch of and somehow uses those murders and experiences to scare him from doing it again. George’s opinion means the most to him.

First, Lizabeth displays immaturity in her actions when she plays with the other children in the neighborhood. After getting bored of playing around, Joey suggests that they go over to Mrs. Lottie’s to disturb her. Since the marigolds disturbed the children, they revolted

Eugenia Collier, the author of the short story Marigolds makes great use of literary devices such as imagery, diction, flashback, and juxtaposition in a way that creates a voice for the narrator that conveys both the regret over, and possibly the longing for her childhood. The diction, that is, the vocabulary choice is expertly combined with imagery, or the unique descriptions and sensory details, in order to allow the reader to formulate the experiences and the surroundings of the narrator's childhood in their imaginations. Flashback is used to allow the narrator to not only explain how she viewed the events of her past as a child, but to compare these views with her adult feelings of the same events. Juxtaposition aids in further explaining the connection between the setting and emotions of the main character, creating a better picture of the narrator’s life. These elements all combine to construct a narrative that effectively conveys the coming of age theme.

The text “Marigolds” states, “That violent, crazy act was the lack of childhood. For as I gazed at the immobile face with sad, weary eyes, I gazed upon a kind of reality that is hidden to childhood.” This suggests that Lizabeth notices her attitude and that she was

From this, Lizabeth feels ashamed of why she had chosen to tear apart Miss Lottie’s marigolds

Eugenia Collier, the author of Marigolds evokes empathy in the audience to inspire action and bring about a deeper understanding of the world by using first person point of view in her text, so she used Lizabeth an imaginary person to tell a story from her point of view. She uses Lizabeth as the narrator of the story, so Lizabeth tells a story about her life experience in dusty depression-era town. In the text where it mentions “whatever verve, there was left in her, whatever was of love and beauty and joy that had…. Awkward and ashamed”(Lizabeth 62-63) and “She never planted marigolds again….. And I too have planted marigolds”(Lizabeth 64), she is trying to describe something. She is trying to describe that the marigolds brought happiness

She can’t fully comprehend why she detests these flowers, and so all she knows is that they “did not make sense to her.” The child in her only has insight into her own world, and not into the worlds of others around her. Despite the marigolds being too troublesome for her to understand, she remains ignorant and does not try to seek any further meaning behind them. With Lizabeth in this naïve state, she has not yet felt the conflict between the child and the woman in her; she’s too ignorant at this point to attempt to develop an understanding for Miss Lottie and her flowers. After Lizabeth and the other kids launch the first attack on the marigolds, invoking great rage in Miss Lottie, Lizabeth feels a sudden urge to antagonize the old woman even further. Chanting vicious phrases at her, Lizabeth feels that she, “lost [her] head entirely, mad with the power of inciting such rage [in Miss Lottie].” Lizabeth has been taken over by a childish sense of pride after provoking Miss Lottie, showing her selfishness and lack of compassion. Being the child that she is, Lizabeth decides to further irritate Miss Lottie, only thinking about herself and how to ease her boredom. She is only concerned about her own little world. This sudden act of cruelty to Miss Lottie reveals

When I think of the marigold I think of the time when I was a child and I loved to see marigolds. They remind me of grandma’s house and the beauty of the garden. When I looked it up I found that the marigold is the flower that is most associated with the desire for riches (Month 2). By the end of the book Missy is still interested in riches, but it’s different than we would expect. Missy is interested in the riches of knowing and raising a child who she loves and cares for. This adds depth to the story because there is a drastic difference between the beginning riches and the riches at the end of this

The concept of the innocence of children contains the conventional association of Satire/Irony. According to literature, children are perceived to be innocent until exposed to the harsh realities of the world, where their maturity develops and the loss of innocence is achieved. The children in this story, however, appear as regular children in the beginning, with the normal intentions of playtime and fun. Jackson even describes Bobby Martin, a child of the village, stuffing his pocket full of stones with other boys following his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest ones (875).

Toward the end of the story she realizes she was taken. Elisa had been taken advantage of because the man had no need for the chrysanthemums. On page 293 she finds the chrysanthemums and earth in the "dark speck" on the road. He kept the pot, her fifty cents, and a small piece of her pride but disregarded the flowers. His story of the woman who wanted chrysanthemums was just a facade and a devious scheme to get work.

As a little girl, I saw the world in the best light simply because innocence clouded my judgement. As a child, I was innocent of mortality, as a teen hope, and as a young adult love. However, later on that innocence took on the role of ignorance. Not in the sense of not being knowledgeable or educated on the matter, but rather knowing it all too well that I choose not to acknowledge it. Innocence can be served as an instrument to block out surroundings when problems arise. It is an illusion of reality to protect what the individual desires to be true to what is actual. In Wendy Cope’s poem “Reading Scheme,” Cope writes about an affair more from the perspective of children by using the villanelle form to illustrate the inability of the

The setting of Alice Walkers short story” The Flowers” is important for us, the readers to obtain a perspective of how life was like growing up for a 10 year old African American girl by the name of Myop. The title of the story is “The Flowers.” When you think about flowers, you instantly compare them to being beautiful, pure, and innocent. The title of the “The Flowers” is a symbolism that correlates to Myop who is the protagonist of the story. Myop is just like a flower in the beginning of the story. She’s a pure and innocent child but that pure innocence changes when she discovers something that’ll change her life forever.

“In all our lives, there is a fall from innocence. A time after which, we are never the same.” – Stand By Me. Innocence can be found at any age or any point in one’s life. It means chastity, freedom from wrong, lack of knowledge, SIMPLICITY. When one has innocence the world seems easy without any worries, however that can all change when one loses their innocence. The loss of innocence can feel as though one has fallen into a black hole and can never escape, darkness, voicelessness, LONELINESS. In Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club”, Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time”, and Laurie Halse Anderson’s “Speak”, the authors use main and supporting characters to show a loss of innocence at a young age. In “The Joy Luck Club” loss of innocence is expressed through the old woman from the fourth parable, “Queen Mother of the Western Skies”. In “Once Upon a Time” loss of innocence is expressed through the young boy. In “Speak” loss of innocence is expressed though Melinda. Although all three of these characters go through the same struggle of loss of innocence, Anderson’s character Melinda is able to come to terms with her loss and regain her strength. In these three stories, Tan, Gordimer, and Anderson use the theme of loss of innocence to portray loneliness, fear, and barriers to show how one can learn from past experiences.

Most of the time there is a moment in life where one realizes they have lost all innocence and gained some compassion.  “Marigolds” shows how one young girl transferred from a child to young adult through her life experiences.  Throughout this story another young, but at the same time old in her prime, lady’s experiences are revealed:  the author’s.  In this short story, “Marigolds,” Eugenia Collier’s subconscious is unmasked through symbolism, diction, and Lizabeth’s actions.

Chopin uses common household features as a metaphor for Mrs. Mallard’s exclusion from the outside world. When she first learns of Brently’s death, Louise looks out an open window into an open square. Next, Chopin chooses to use treetops a quiver with new spring life as the first thing Louise sees prior to having her revelation, with a description of the delicious breath of rain in the air. Spring, of course is when things grow anew, and we know that water, as a a symbol cleanses ill pasts. This type of rich symbolism, returning to form, helped Chopin to make her story into simply “an hour”. As well, Chopin, makes use of parting clouds to provide Louise a blue sky, again, freedom like the