Lilies of the Field

In “Marigolds,” Eugenia W. Collier describes a young girl that came to understand the dire financial situation her family was in to illustrate the loss of innocence. Lizabeth thinks that she was living a perfect life, but she soon finds that it was just a fantasy that she herself concocted. Collier uses ordinary symbols, a simple title, and a descriptive style to get across her message that everyone needs to have hope despite how powerless they are.

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.

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.

In the short story, “Marigolds,” by Eugenia Collier, the theme that is shown through the story is, “Beauty can be found even in the darkest times.” An example of this theme is represented through Lizabeth’s thoughts after she tears apart Miss Lottie’s marigolds. As Miss Lottie looms over Lizabeth, she thinks, “The witch was no longer a witch but only a broken old woman who had dared to create beauty in the midst of ugliness and sterility. She had been born in squalor and lived in it all her life” (Collier 223). This shows Lizabeth’s realization that the “witch” she had known for all her childhood years was simply a woman who wanted to create beauty through her wretched condition.

At a young age, children do not understand the importance of having compassion. Instead, children hold innocence. Due to growing up, children lose their innocence that they mature into a compassionate person. In fact, a coming of age short story called “Marigolds” 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.

Through her use of diction, imagery, and syntax in her story, "Marigolds" Eugenia Collier captures the voice of an adult looking back on a significant event from her childhood. When the narrator thinks about her past she remembers, "I opened my swollen eyes and saw in front of me a pair of large, calloused feet; My gaze lifted to the swollen legs, then the shadowed Indian face surrounded by stubby white hair" (Collier 22). These words are examples of imagery because it captures the narrator's voice as a sacred child looking up at the old woman. Another example of diction is when Eugenia Collier writes 'I leaped furiously into the mounds of marigold and pulled madly, trampling and pulling and destroying perfect yellow blooms" (Collier 21). This

In the story “Marigolds”, by Eugenia Collier, the theme consists of accepting who you are- because if you put it off, you may do something you may regret. The main character, Lizabeth, is on a path to adulthood, which is greatly treacherous and is a journey full of many challenges. Lizabeth quotes in many parts of the story that she feels conflicted in whatever she does, making her very emotionally frustrated. “The child in me sulked and said it was all in fun but the woman in me flinched at the thought of the malicious attack we led.” (Collier 124). Lizabeth’s statement proves that she feels very split on what to do, because of the emotions interfering with her. Her statement proves that the path to adulthood is not as easy

Have you ever been crammed in to a small space for a short amount of time? Yeah it’s terrible right! How would you like to be like that for several days, even months? The glory field talks about the horrid things that the slaves were put threw when they were being transported. They were shoved on to a small boat chained together for several months. Not only that but they barely had food and even light. But really thing question is, did Walter Dean Myers write the Glory Field historically accurate?

John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums”, is a story about a woman struggling with strong inner feelings of loneliness and isolation. Elisa Allen is initially portrayed as a woman who overcompensates and whose tasks are far exceeded by her abilities. She appears content with her life and adores tending to her garden. However, a tinker briefly enters her life and through his power of persuasion and manipulation provides Elisa with hopes of change and excitement. He gives her the much needed attention she is so desperately looking for. As the story continues we learn that these hopes are crushed as we unravel the betrayal the tinker has bestowed upon Elisa. He exploits her and takes advantage of her hunger for company, aspirations, and

The three writers grew up in different places. In the Essay, “The Soul of Black Folks” , Du Bois illustrates the soul of a black young boy who saw his life in two different worlds. The world of a black person and the world of a white person; the life of being black and the problems in the hill of New England where he grew up and faced racial discrimination. Du Bois was a sociologist, writer, educator and a controversial leader of the negro thought. Alice Walker wrote about how creative and artistic our mothers and grandmothers were in her essay “In Search Of Our Mother 's Garden”. She grew up in the 1960s in south Georgia where her mother worked as a maid to help support her eight children. Alice described her as a loving, strong and talented artist who showed her work in the garden. She wrote about her mother 's garden and how happy and radiant her mother was when she worked in her garden despite her busy days. She had no moment to sit down to feed her creative spirit because she was busy been a mother, a provider and a slave in the face of the society. She grew up seeing the struggles of hardworking,creative and strong African American mothers and grandmothers. She was a poet, novelist, and a womanist who was against racial and gender oppression of women. Glenn Loury grew up in Chicago’s South Side, where he attended political rallies. He described his childhood as being part of lower middle class. The writing of Du Bois , Alice Walker and Glenn Loury manifests

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,

The story “Marigolds”, written by Eugenia Collier, is a story about a young woman who is just becoming an adult. She goes through many internal conflicts about whether she should do the mature thing, the adult thing, or the immature thing, which is what kids would do. The whole story is conveying the idea of adolescence and how people change from a kid to an adult. “Marigolds” tells the reader that one cannot have compassion along with innocence. The story generates a fine line between the innocence of being a kid and the compassion that comes with adulthood. There are many examples of this theme in the story, the first one being when the group of kids attacked the marigolds, the second being when Lizabeth overheard the conversation between her parents, and the third is after she destroyed the marigolds.

The Society Of The Prim Roses, an organization on Truman State University’s campus, is hosting their annual Battle of the Bands Competition this Saturday 5:30 at Wrongdaddys The Battle of the bands competition know as L.I.F.E, Leaving an impression for Erin, is thrown annually to honor the memory of one of their sisters, Erin, that passed away in 2002 from bone cancer. All the money raised at the event is sent to the center that cared for her Holden’s Comprehensive Cancer Center.

John Steinbeck’s, The Chrysanthemums, was published in 1938 in a book of short stories, entitled The Long Valley. The Chrysanthemums has been a rather powerful draw for scholars because of its wide gap for interpretations and analysis of its main protagonist character, Elisa Allen and also the unique descriptions used to portray the deeper meaning behind the setting of the story. Themes of sexuality, oppression of women, as well as other numerous types of conflict portrayed in this rather somber short story have made it a popular study among scholars and students alike. Steinbeck also uses literary elements including a dramatic tone, rich symbolism, and personification which increase the stories feeling and value exponentially. Steinbeck

The novel The Language of Flowers, is one written by author Vanessa Diffenbaugh. The novel centers around a young girl named who goes by the name of Victoria Jones. As the reader begins, they are made aware of Victoria’s upbringing and all the difficult challenges she had endured during her time living within the foster care system. Diffenbaugh does an excellent job intertwining both the past and present to help readers understand her turmoil, as well as her joy. The author expresses this through the main character Victoria, who eventually develops a gift for flowers in which she uses to changer not only her life, but others’ lives as well. In fact, flowers are the only way that Victoria feels connected to the world around her because she