Eugenia Collier's Marigolds Short Story

I really liked it when someone connected “Marigolds” with “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. They said that the simile with the old, inedible biscuit also referred to Miss Lottie. I had never realized how similar Miss Lottie and Marguerite were. Miss Lottie really was unwanted and unappreciated like an old biscuit. But, the difference between her and Marguerite was that Miss Lottie actually tried to make something out of her unwanted and unappreciated life. She made her marigolds in hopes that she could stop being unwanted and unappreciated, and become a happy, wanted person, but the theme of this story was to look beneath the surface in people, so, of course, Elizabeth saw that she looked the same, and so did her house, so she still treated

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

The theme of “Marigolds” demonstrates Lizabeth’s change in attitude throughout the story just as maturation affects every modern teen. The short story “Marigolds” is about when the main character, Lizabeth, slashes up the marigolds in Ms. Lottie’s garden. When she realized what she was doing, she saw the time at the end of her childhood and the start of her adulthood. This theme can be seen throughout many teens’ lives. She and teens today experiencing this can be blind to happiness because of the setting they’ve grown in, influenced by rebellion, but can also find happiness as they grow older and realize the settings around them.

Both Lee and Collier use diction and imagery to create a mood of lethargicness. In “Marigolds” by Eugenia W. Collier the narrator starts by discussing how “I remember only the dry September of the dirt roads and grassless yards”(Collier 6-7). In this excerpt the diction in words like dry and the imagery of the lifeless landscape show the mood that it is lethargic and slow. In the second excerpt, from “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee she talks about her hometown, Maycomb, and describes the town on a sweltering day and says “In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalk, the courthouse sagged”(Lee 1-2). The diction in the words like slop and sagged indicates that there is an absence in people taking care of

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

At a young age, children do not understand the importance of having compassion as for they hold innocence within themselves. Growing up and maturing into an adult, children begin to progressively lose their innocence as they become more of a compassionate person because one can not have both innocence and compassion simultaneously. In fact, a coming of age short story called “Marigolds” written by Eugenia Collier, tells about a young girl named Lizabeth who grows up to become a compassionate person. For the most part, Lizabeth tells her childhood experience in a flashback on how she mostly remembers Miss Lottie’s marigolds. Ultimately, Lizabeth decides to destroy Miss Lottie’s marigolds out of anger because she hears about her parent's economic struggles. Shortly after Lizabeth realizes what she had done, she realizes the meaning of why Miss Lottie plants the marigolds. Throughout the short story, “Marigolds,” the characterization of Lizabeth helps develop the author’s argument that one can not have both compassion and innocence. The three events that show this is, when Lizabeth hesitates before throwing the rocks at the marigolds, hearing the sounds of her father’s sorrowful cries, and eliminating Miss Lottie’s marigolds.

“The Flowers” by Alice Walker is a short story written in the 1970’s. The story focuses on Myop, a ten year old African American girl who loves to explore the land in which she lives. Carefree and naïve, Myop decides to travel further away from her ‘Sharecropper cabin’ and travels deep inside the woods to unfamiliar land where she discovers the decomposed body of an African American man. It is then Myop quickly grows up and suddenly becomes aware of the world in which she lives. The story relies on setting and symbolism to convey the theme of departing innocence.

Marigolds have always been her favorite flower. They reminded her of the stages she onced performed on. Staff members would decorate the stage with summer-bloomed dahlias and bright sun-colored marigolds, and tie silk ribbons to the bark of trees during celebrations. Crowds were surrounding her, cheering and watching her gracefully move her body across the stage. The light hue of her pink hair shined as the sunlight struck her like a spotlight center stage. She wore a pure white, flowing dancer’s garment which allowed her to move the way she wanted to. Her arms would stretch out as if she was reaching for someone’s palm, and her legs move as if they were made of the wind. Sometimes, there was a special someone; a pair of eyes that could see through the heart of her dance,

Nelson Mandela once said, “Poverty is not natural it 's man-made.” This quote states that a person can overcome poverty if one has the desire to live a better life. In a novel called Poor People written by William T. Vollmann, the author travels around different countries and places to learn about poor people and to get a global perspective view. While interviewing different kinds of people, Vollmann would ask them one question: why are you poor? Looking at people 's answers Vollmann noticed that some of the people gave quite interesting answers. Vollmann went through a lot of situations where he just couldn 't imagine what life would be if he was ever to live like that. Another novel that has a similar poverty situation is called Let The Water Hold Me Down, written by Michael Spurgeon. Hank, the main character of the novel, experiences a tragic moment in his life. Losing his wife and daughter while drowning, this tragedy left him feeling like it’s all due to his miscarrying about them. His life becomes full of sorrow, and the only way out it was to go to Mexico to his friend’s place and restart his life over. In a new country of Mexico, this story takes place. Even though he had money, a house, and friends’ support, he still experienced lots of pressure trying to survive in Mexico. Poverty has different meanings in everyone 's lives but by reading these two novels, there are three similarities that can be made about people living in poverty.

One interpretation of the marigold's meaning is passion in the middle of forlorn town. The Narrator describes her memory of the town as dusty and grey, the grumpy old woman seemingly had one joy, the one burst of color in her dull life, tending to her garden. Once the girl ruin this, the old woman seems done, for there was no more reason to care. Her passion for creating beauty in the somber world died. This adds to the theme of growing by showing how, with age and the experiences, people change. The marigolds could also be seen as Lizabeth's innocence, once flourishing and now destroyed. In the story after hearing her parents argue about money she recognizes life isn't how she thought. Shortly after, she sneaks out to destroy the marigolds. Once caught, she realizes the severity of her actions, she is no longer naïve. The theme is assisted by this because it shows the process of her transitioning from a child to a young

As you can see, there are more than the basics of poverty. These poor people struggle on a daily basis to provide the needs of themselves and their family. Poverty affects adults and their children in so many ways. I believe that poverty should be one of the main focuses of America. I have deep sorrow for these people doing whatever they can to make money. I think that poverty needs to be decreased in the United States. I don’t know how the people in poverty do it. They have a weight that they are carrying on their shoulders that they shouldn’t. It’s time for a change.

All the Marigols And The Migrant Mother The Great Depression Era,a time in American history when the nation feel into a time of poverty and hopelessness. People standing in lines for hours for a bowl of soup and a piece of bread.When jobs were few no matter how desperatly people looked for them.Doing without and wondering if or when a better time would come. The story "Marigolds"by Eugenia Collier is the memories of Lizabeth, a fourteen year old black girl in rural Maryland.When I think of that time and place ,I only remember the dry September of the dirt roads and grassless yards of the shantytown where I lived.Memory is an abstract painting - it does not present things as they are,but rather as they feel. Another inconsistency of memory, a brilliant splash of sunny yellow against the dust, Miss Lottie's marigolds. Lizabeth has a lot of memories.Fishing for minnows with cupped hands just to have them slip away.Loafing around trying to find something to do.The Childrens favorit thing to do was to annoy Miss Lottie.An old Indian woman they called a witch. Why ,when her shack seemed like it would fall down at anytime would she have beautiful mounds of

In Marigolds by Eugenia Collier, Lizabeth is a 14 year old girl during the Great Depression. She spends her days playing with the other children and occasionally annoying Ms. Lottie, a grumpy, old lady that is very protective of her marigolds. One day the children throw rocks at Ms. Lottie’s garden and taunt her. That night she hears her father sobbing, this combined with the guilt of mocking Ms. Lottie is too much for Lizabeth, and in a state of emotional unrest she runs to Ms. Lottie’s garden and destroys it. Lizabeth reminisces on this moment and recognizes it as her last act of childhood.

On this day it was hard to get out of bed, so I had to use my window seal to pull myself up and all I could see was complete darkness throughout my house. Then I heard someone yelling “Lizabeth!” and I looked out my front oval window and saw my Marigolds all smashed and ruined. So then I opened the window and all I could smell was the newly developed smell of dew and my smashed Marigolds. Finally, the yelling stopped for a second and then I could hear a little boy crying and saying, “Lizabeth, stop, please stop!” So I walked out and saw a little girl in my Marigold garden. So I walked up to her and she got really scared and just stared at me and I think she was just trying to recognize who I was because it was pitch black out. Then she recognized

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.