In this story, Lily starts her journey by experiencing the first stage of a monomyth, pre-separation. Within the first few pages, Lily has a flashback of the most traumatic memory she has... killing her mother. The guilt from this memory haunts Lily throughout her life and is the primary reason of her unhappiness. This is the pre-separation stage because Lily is extremely miserable with her life and is unaware of what is holding her back. She currently lives with her father T-Ray, who only adds to her depression. Although Lily is his daughter, he does not treat her with any kindness or respect. This is shown through his abusive ideas of disciplining Lily both emotionally and physically. Kneeling on grits is one of the many cruel ways T-Ray
Madeleine L’ Engle once said, “Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light.” Eugenia Collier, is a well-known author who is famous for “Marigolds”. “Marigolds” is a short story about a little girl named Lizabeth that discovers her womanhood after destroying marigolds and the happiness of a poor old lady. Years after Lizabeth discovers womanhood, she realizes what the marigolds truly meant to the old woman, and she creates her own marigolds in life. Collier’s style is different from many other authors because she uses flashbacks and juxtapositions from the character's past, and uses many different figurative languages such as similes, metaphors, personifications, and hyperboles throughout the story.
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
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
When a parent dies, any child will cling to the other parent for emotional support and comfort for dealing with such a loss. In Lily’s case, she wanted her fathers support more than anything but he was cold, abusive, and stuck in the past, that he wasn’t able to give her anything except for take his anger out on her, when she disobeyed him. Although if someone does not get that support from the other parent, and if someone else is there that is understanding and kind, its amazing to see how much you can start to really rely on them and grow a close relationship. When Lily deals with the loss of her mother and the poor treatment of her father, she doesn’t know what to do with herself, she has a load of all different kind of emotions, and it really harms her well-being. Lily deals with guilt because she has visuals that she was the one that killed her mother, and on top of that she has her father telling her that her mother left her and she just abandoned her, making Lily feel unimportant and then at the same time guilt. Rosaleen is the closest role model that Lily has for a mother, Rosaleen cares and sticks up for Lily but Lily doesn’t really have the mother-daughter connection with her. Although Rosaleen provides comfort for Lily, she helps her with her father and in return Lily defends Rosaleen as well as save her life from the hospital after she got beaten.
T. Ray breaks the news that Lily’s mom had left Lily with him and had come back to pack up her stuff when the big argument between he and Lily’s mom happened. At that point, Lily has enough of T. Ray, so she starts to have a mini-mental breakdown. Amidst the chaos going on inside her mind, she hears a voice say, “Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open” (41). That little voice means all the difference in the world to Lily. To Lily, it is as if her mother is saying to leave T. Ray and start a new life. Right then she knows that she has to
In this journal I evaluate why lily decided to leave, question why T-ray is so abusive to Lily and predict where lily where go next. What I have learned from this book is that you don’t need to keep your problems a secret, just tell someone and they will help
Knowing she probably will not receive this love, as her mother would never bother loving such a worthless child as a daughter, nevermind a second daughter, she still fights to be seen. Later, when her foot binding process begins, this vow becomes difficult to honor. The pressures to save her family from poverty with her beautiful feet and her determination to obey her mother and her duties proves to be a lot for a toddler to take on. The “mother love” she receives, however connected to the pain she must endure, is enough love for her to withstand the binding. Her need to be loved by her mother, the society that expects her to break her feet, and her future husband and his family pushes her through the breaking of all ten of her toes and the arches of her feet, shortening them to a mere seven centimeters. “The binding altered not only my feet but my whole character, and in a strange way I feel as though that process continued throughout my life, changing me from a yielding child to a determined girl, then from a young woman who would follow without question whatever her in-laws demanded of her to the highest-ranked woman in the county who enforced strict village rules and customs” (See 4). In Lily’s own acute sense of her world, she sees the journey she took in the name of love. That love meant such different things to her at different times, but until the end, it led her to accept pain without
Lily starts off stuck living in an unloving, abusive household and decides to free herself from the negative atmosphere that she had been living in her whole life. Lily is perpetually abused by her father. He forces her to kneel on Martha White's, gets exasperated every time she speaks, and yells at her for no reason. Lily is not the only one noticing the terrible treatment, Rosaleen does too. Once after Lily had to kneel on the Martha White's Rosaleen said to her, “Look at you, child. Look what he’s done to you” (Kidd 25). Noticing the unloving treatment Lily gets, Rosaleen knew that their household was demoralizing place for Lily to be in, which is why she didn’t question when Lily when she later runs away. Lily one day realizes she needs to do something about her horrible life at home. While sitting in her room she hears a voice in her
Lily’s first meeting with the black Mary occurs when she meets the Boatwright sisters: August, June, and May. At that moment Lily feels the nurturing of a mother and a deluge of emotions rain down on her. She could feel all sides of her, favorable and detrimental because “that’s what the black Mary did to me, made me feel my glory and my shame at the same time,” (Kidd 71). Lily, for being barely an adolescent, at first is not capable of grasping the concept of people being both angelic and corrupt. At the beginning of the story she sees T. Ray as the human embodiment of evil. Counter to her initial beliefs, Lily learns that people are not as simple as she wants them to be. This is largely the result of the mothering force of August, which is a more physical representation of what the black Mary embodies. The black Mary illustrates Lily starting to see the world from a multidimensional perspective. In the same manner as the black Mary representing a mother for Lily, she represents a mother-like figure to all the Daughters of Mary. While the other Daughters may not have been missing mothers, the black Mary creates a family-like binding between them, keeping them together throughout even them most poignant times. The black Mary is a mother to all and all Lily wants in the Boatwright house is to be seen as one of them. Ultimately, “they didn’t even think of me being different,” (Kidd 209). This acceptance
Lilies of The Field is a book written by William Barrett. Mr. Ralph Nelson, a producer, was introduced to this book by his agent Fred Ingles. Ralph Nelson was so intrigued by this story that he wanted to put it on film. Finally after much negotiation it was brought to the silver screen in 1963 by Mr. Ralph Nelson with a very low budget. With determination and tenacity Mr. Nelson achieved his dream. The entire film was shot in fourteen days! Incredibly, the picture was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Additionally, Lilies of the Field achieved motion picture history as Sidney Poitier was awarded the Best Actor Oscar, marking the first time in history an Academy Award was awarded to a black man.
Monk Kidd characterizes T. Ray as a savage and a resentful widower. Before of his wife’s death, it seemed as if he was mistreating his wife, but the reason is unclear why he would be hurting her (7). For example, while his wife is packing he comes upstairs and shakes her to stop her from leaving him. T. Ray clearly shows the audience that he is not one to solve problems by simply talking, but rather by physical abuse. However as the story slowly progresses, it seems as if he loathes his daughter, Lily more than his wife. At the beginning, the reader learns how T. Ray refuses to buy his daughter new clothes, celebrate her birthday, and creates harsh punishments when she misbehaves. From the back story, it seems that T. Ray is more cruel
In the poem written and read by Lily Myers, she make a claim the if you spend a lot of time with someone you accidentally inherit their actions or beliefs. She makes this claim by saying, "... I never meant to replicate her, but spend enough time sitting across from someone and you pick up their habits. " She also supports this claim by using a metaphor and showing imagery. In the metaphor Myers claims that her mom is shrinking and that makes the house look larger because she is taking up less space.
The bond between a mother and child is often spoken of as being unlike any other. Yet there are always exceptions to the rule where this connection isn 't as impenetrable as one might assume. This book is an example of this bond gradually becoming weaker over time. It shows how it affects the child, Bone, and leaves her vulnerable to the abuse of her step-father. Bone’s mother, Anney, had fallen in love with a man who abused her which at first, she’s unaware but eventually comes to realize but still chooses to stay with him. Throughout the book there are instances of Anney’s negligence in recognizing her daughter’s abuse and being of aid to her but wasn 't. In having to deal with her
Instead of relying on another power that is above her, she takes her fate into her own hands and tries to save her own home. This self reliance develops early, and can also be seen much later in her life. When she is twenty-seven, Lily learns that her husband has a secret second family. She leaves him immediately and manages to annul the marriage. Although he had taken all of her money from their joint bank account, she does not go back to her parents in Arizona or try to find another husband to take care of her. Instead, she begins preparing for her future alone. “Since I obviously couldn't count on a man to take care of me, what I needed more than ever was a profession. I needed to get my college education and become a teacher . . . the time flew by, and when both the dispensation and the acceptance letter arrived, I had enough money for a year of college” (p. 90). Instead of wondering what to do and moping about her ex-husband, Lily is practical and knows what she wants to do next. She also mentions that she cannot depend on a husband to take care of her. If she did not have to fend for
I was asked to think of a metaphor that describes who I am. Even though there are many metaphors I could use, I narrowed it down to one in particular. The one metaphor I found best suited for me was that i'm strong and tough as a cactus. The first reason I compared myself to a cactus is because it’s very hard to get under my skin and if you hurt me, you’ll end up hurting yourself. Like for an example a cactus has thorns that are sharp, so if you try to hit or kick it you’ll hurt yourself. The second reason I compared myself to a cactus is because I thrive in the most harsh conditions and environments. Like a cactus has to adapt to it’s weather conditions and environment. In addition, to all these obstacles, This lead me in the right direction