Use Of Diction And Imagery In Marigolds By Eugenia W. Collier

In one’s everyday life, we are surrounded with environmental factors that could potentially shape the aspects of our lives. These types of factors range anywhere from negative to positive on a broad spectrum. For instance in Eugenia Collier’s short story “Marigolds”, The main character Lizabeth, is surrounded by an abundance of environmental factors, as she struggles with own internal conflict of coming to terms that her reign of innocence is slowly fading away. As the story continues, Lizabeth’s environmental factors are exposed, and as a result of these factors, she commits certain actions, in which she faces consequences for. The particular theme that is emitted from this short narrative, is “symbolic experiences that one may experience in life, have a probability of changing aspects in our lives”. This is tied in with main emphasize of exploring in the text how this particular theme is exposed by the characters, setting, and the plot of the story.

The short story, “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier is a short story about a young girl who feels trapped between child and adult. The theme of the story is, poverty limits people’s lives and deprives them of lifes beauty. The theme first appears in the story during the exhibition. The narrator, Lizabeth, is describing her life as a young person during the great depression. She says, “I suppose that the futile waiting was the sorrowful background music of our impoverished little community when I was young” (Collier 422). She describes the waiting for relief from poverty as background music, which means it was always at the back of her mind. No matter how great things were poverty was always going to be at the back of her mind, depriving her

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.

Poverty is a major issue in today’s world. Not only does it hurt families, but it can create a feeling of hopelessness. Lizabeth, from “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier, knows just what it feels like to be hopeless. In the story, Lizabeth’s family struggles with poverty. Through this struggle, Lizabeth learns a very important lesson about finding hope in her life. Symbolism, characters, and setting help to illustrate the theme of the story; that hope can be found in everything, even the tough times in life.

Alice Walker’s “The Flowers” incorporates foreshadowing that infers to the readers about the truth about the dramatic ending. One example, Alice walker uses foreshadowing in her short story, is when myop talks about her jaws in the beginning. “That caused excited little tremors to run up my jaws.” This foreshadowing prepares the readers of what is about to happen to Myop when she finds a deep dark cave at the end of the story. Myop finds a dead body with large cracked teeth inside a cave .

In the short story ”Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier the author uses several literary devices to create narrator’s voice and point of view. Collier uses flashback to create voice in several examples. When the narrator states “When I think of the hometown of my youth” (16) she is referring to a memory from a long ago in a flashback. This creates a point of reference for the reader to understand that the following story will be told from the narrator’s point of view as an adult. And the author uses flashback to cite some past scenes. When the narrator states “I remember fishing for minnows in a muddy creek and watching sadly as they eluded my cupped hands, while Joey laughed uproariously” (17) she is referring to a scene happened as in the past.

“Marigolds”, by Eugenia Collier is a story about the coming of age. The story takes place in the 1930s in a small town in Maryland. It describes the Lizabeth and her friends torturing their old neighbor, Ms. Lottie, by destroying her flowers. They say that the flowers are too perfect for their boring world. Later in the story, Lizabeth changes for the better. This is due to hardships in her life and her learning to sympathetic towards others. Collier creates Lizabeth as a child-like character in the beginning, and changes her to become mature and compassionate by the end, showing the process of adolescence and transforming into a woman.

Change is never easy especially when you don’t realize it’s happening. Eugenia W. Collier's short story “Marigolds” is an excellent example featuring Miss Lottie, a positive woman who tries to overpower the ugliness by bringing colour in the grey times and planting marigolds. She faces daily struggles of being taunted by a bunch of bored kids including Lizabeth, an unbalanced teenager who is fighting her own battle inside. They use Miss Lottie as a source of entertainment by yelling dirty words, mocking her age and many other shameful actions. In this short story Colliers shows that you shouldn’t be selfish and hurt anyone just for the point of your entertainment.

When asked about what they know of the Puritans, many people immediately mention their strict lifestyles. Puritans are mostly pictured wearing rigid black clothing and thumping their Bibles. However, Puritans were fascinatingly smart and creative people. Their writings, though mostly dedicated to God and his glory, contain beautiful scenes from nature and interesting metaphors. One common comparison that these writers make is that of comparing themselves to flowers. By looking closer at why and how this metaphor is commonly used, one could learn many things about the Puritans and their theology.

Lizabeths character has developed quite a bit throughout the short story “Marigolds” by Eugenia W. Collier. At first she was insecure in who she is. She became scared. By the end Lizabeth had developed regret.

The day I planted my marigolds was when I was little there was this really nicely colored blanket that my cousin got the day before. He loved it so much he would take it everywhere; So one day I decided I wanted it one too so I took it, I would sleep with it and it had colorful designs on it, also I knew it was wrong but i was so mad that i wasn't thinking about it.

The daisies were just so beautiful in the store, resting atop the display like princesses lounging in wait, petals soft and pliant, steams arching as if begging to be touched, that Cinderella had to buy them, no matter that the yard is over weeded there was no place for them. To She carried the pot to her horse and carriage as if cradling a baby; made a blanket for it in the seat next to her out her resorted winter scarves so that if they did fall over everything would cushioned; and sped home to find the perfect spot for her daisies.

In my short story, “A Rose for Lillian”, I used figurative language and details to make the story interesting. I choose this title because the “rose” in the story is meant to symbolize the conflict and death in the story. Rose is also Lillian's sister who ends up killing her because of her jealousy. The setting of the story takes place in a made up kingdom with luxurious objects.

Authors who use imagery wish to give the readers a physical feeling of literature while reading any sort of piece. It allows for the audience to connect to the characters on a deeper level by having them experience the same feelings, smells, noises, etc, as did the roles in the novel. Alan Paton uses a strong voice packed with imagery in his passage, “For they grow red and bare; they cannot hold the rain and mist, and the streams are dry in the kloofs. Too many cattle feed upon the grass, and too many fires have burned it. Stand shod upon it, for it is coarse and sharp, and the stones cut under the feet. It is not kept or guarded, or cared for, it no longer keeps men, guards men, cares for men” (Paton, 34). The overwhelming senses of touch and vision are more than prevalent in this brief passage, with Paton perfectly conveying the atmosphere of rural South Africa in the 1940’s. The reader gets a catholic impression of the arid climate as well as the deteriorated lands on which it rests. By including this in his novel, Alan Paton establishes a thorough setting, one of which the reader can fully understand for the remaining duration of Cry, The Beloved Country.

As is characteristic of Amado, depictions of female characters start with a focus on their physicality to then move toward their inner qualities. Amado introduces the secretive Malvina in the second chapter of the novel and describes her with a focus on her physical attractiveness. As Malvina is tending her garden, the narrator tells us that she “knelt among the flowers (which she excelled in beauty)” (98). Amado compares Malvina to the flowers, beautiful and fragrant, but silent beings. At a first glance, it may appear that Malvina, like those flowers, will be limited to the role of a pretty object. However, Amado will later on give Malvina more depth. Amado’s strategy in depicting female characters first with their bodies to then