Adolescence is a bumpy and unknown section of the road known as life. Both the short story “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier and the poem “Hard on the Gas,” by Janet S. Wong relate to the theme that “the road to growing up and maturing isn’t always smooth”. “Marigolds is the story of an adolescent who is growing up in the Great Depression. Through hard experiences and tumultuous emotions, the narrator learns that growing up is full of ups and downs. “Hard on the Gas” is a poem about a grandchild driving with his or her grandfather. The grandchild realizes that the road isn’t always perfect and that there will be bumps along the way. The theme “the road growing up and maturing isn’t always smooth” is conveyed in both of these selection. In “Marigolds” a young girl is growing up during the Great Depression. For Lizabeth, the narrator, everyday is a challenge. As she transitions from an innocent, naive child to an aware, yet unsure young woman, the smooth road she’s been traveling on suddenly becomes bumpy and unfamiliar when a fit of anger taken out on her neighbor marks Lizabeth’s growing up. “All the smoldering emotions of that summer swelled in me and burst- the great need for my mother who was never there, the hopelessness of our poverty and degradation, the bewilderment of being neither child nor woman and yet both at once…”, (Collier, “Marigolds”). All of the emotions that Lizabeth has been holding in spill out of her in an audacious, violent action that will exile her childhood; the destroying of Miss Lottie’s prized marigolds.When Lizabeth realizes with remorse what she’s done, she gains the heavy burden of adulthood. “In that humiliating moment I looked beyond myself and into the depths of another person. This was the beginning of compassion, and one cannot have both compassion and innocence”, (Collier, “Marigolds”). When Lizabeth conveys that Miss Lottie had planted marigolds as a show of passion and hope, she becomes compassionate towards Miss Lottie, ridding her of her childish innocence. While “Hard on the Gas” is minimally worded, the meaning of the poem speaks volumes. The poem conveys growing up, and the fact that the road to adulthood is not, in fact, smooth. “Rush, rest, rush, rest”,
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
Lizabeth does not care about Miss Lottie’s feelings until after she destroyed the flowers. In effect, having Lizabeth destroy the marigolds gives Lizabeth a lesson that would turn her into a compassionate person. The night that the flowers became destroyed, Lizabeth had heard an argument between her parents. Significantly, she did not like how her father was being weak while her mother was being strong. Then, to let all her emotions out, she went to Miss Lottie’s house to destroy the marigolds. After her deed, Lizabeth calms down and realizes Miss Lottie saw the mess. This moment was when Lizabeth realizes her destruction on the marigolds. The moment she saw Miss Lottie and her expression of the mess, Lizabeth comes to a realization of why Miss Lottie planted marigolds. Thinking back on her past, Lizabeth said “Yet, there are times when the image of those passionate yellow mounds return with a painful poignancy. For one does not have to be ignorant and poor to find that one’s life is barrens the dusty yards of one’s town. And I too have planted marigolds” (30). Every time she remembers the marigolds and how they look she describes them as, “the images of those passionate yellow mounds return with a painful poignancy.” The “passionate yellow mounds” is the description of marigolds and every time she remembers them, she has a “painful poignancy” which can be indicated that the marigolds represent the lesson she has learned and her experience to becoming a compassionate person. The end sentence of the quote “And I too have planted marigolds” is the overall lesson that Lizabeth learns from her experience that made her a compassionate person. Lizabeth learns why Miss Lottie had planted her marigolds, but as a lesson, she realizes the meaning behind this. As a result of destroying the marigolds, Lizabeth changes
In the story "Marigolds", a story by Eugenia Collier, the author uses the literary techniques of juxtaposition and symbolism to show the overall message that during the coming of age and maturity in a world full of poverty and darkness, people always look for a light of happiness. The author uses juxtaposition of the conversation of the mother and father to show how the darkness, which is represented by the father, is trying to destroy the lightness, which is represented by the mother. In rage and pain of his poverty bent life, Lizabeth’s father is clouded with darkness and fear, but Lizabeth’s mother a still hopeful and looking for something to bring joy to the family. Lizabeth's dad explains to Lizabeth’s mother, “Twenty-two years, Maybelle, twenty-two years, and I
The story Marigolds by Eugenia W. Collier is a tragic coming of age story. In the story, she uses setting and dialog to create a rich atmosphere. Both help explain the motivation of the characters and their reactions to events.
Have you seen a marigolds? Well do u know what its? A marigolds is a flower a really beautify flower that is red,orange,yellow . This boo.k is written by eugenia collier the book is entertain you about the wonders of the flowers. The tittle of the book is Marigolds. The main thing about the book is the the flowers and how the girl thought ms lottie was evil cause she had beautify flowers.
Writers are able to leave their personal fingertips on their pieces, which is why writing is such a beautiful hobby. Whether one is writing poetry, short stories, novels, scripts, articles, etc., the diversity and uniqueness is absolutely amazing. In order for writers to keep their pieces original, they use literary devices such as imagery, juxtaposition, and diction. These devices help create something called voice, which is essentially the special way an author writes, including word choice and the way the author communicates his or hers ideas. These three literary devices are used frequently in the short story “Marigolds,” and each of them contribute to the author’s voice.
Guilt is like a sickness. If you don’t get medicine, no matter how much you wait it out, the sickness is staying with you. No matter how much time passes, if you don’t deal with your guilt, it will stick with you and never go away. The main character in Marigolds by Eugenia Collier ruins an elderly woman's beautiful marigolds because of her own issues. The main character in The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst leaves his handicapped brother alone in the woods and comes back to find that he’s dead. Lastly, the main character in The Cat’s In The Cradle never takes part in his son’s childhood and comes to realize his boy is just like him when he gets older. These three pieces all show a coexisting theme of how guilt sticks around forever if you don’t deal with it.
“Marigolds”, a short story written by Eugenia W. Collier, describes the events leading up to Lizabeth’s loss of innocence. In the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Lizabeth, a girl who is living in a poor, barren, sad, shanty town during the Great Depression. When we first meet her, she acts very childish as she and some of the other children begin to destroy Miss Lottie’s sunflowers. These sunflowers are very special to Miss Lottie, because they bring hope to the sad times and also bring positivity and color to the poor town. Further in the story, Lizabeth is very frustrated and emotional about the state her family is in. First of all, she is upset that her Mom is never home because she has to work. Next, her father is frustrated that he has no work, which also upsets Lizabeth. Finally, she is confused on whether she is a young lady or still a child. All of these lead up to her letting out her frustrations, destroying all of Miss Lottie’s marigolds. In the story, the marigolds represent different things for different people. For Miss Lottie, they are the one thing giving her joy and keeping her
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
In Flowers for Weddings and Funerals, we view the surroundings of an unnamed narrator. The people closest to the narrator are her grandmother, Omah, and her friend named Laurence.
Lizabeth, the narrator of Eugenia Collier’s short story, “Marigolds,” tells the story from the point of view of an adult looking back on a significant childhood experience. The narrator’s voice is that of a teenager and is revealed throughout the story by the author’s well-versed use of diction, imagery, syntax, and juxtaposition. The narrator sets the tone by saying that she is recalling “that devastating moment when I was suddenly more women than child” that occurred in her “impoverished, little community” (Collier 15) many years ago. Right away, the reader can sense that the tone of this story will be sad, gloomy, and unhappy/depressing. Additionally, “Poverty was the cage in which we all were trapped, and our hatred of it was still vague.
For example, after Lizabeth tears up the marigolds she sees Ms. Lottie and notes that, “Whatever verve there was left in her, whatever was of love and beauty and joy that had not been squeezed out by life, had been there in the marigolds she had so tenderly cared for.” (6) This quote shows the compassion that Ms. Lottie had for her flowers. The hope the marigolds symbolized angered Lizabeth, because, in her innocence, she envied the happiness the flowers gave Ms. Lottie. When Lizabeth saw Ms. Lottie’s face she lost her innocence and understood why Ms. Lottie planted the
The sun is out shining down on the bright sparkling marigolds, it’s quiet, nothing's open and nothing to do, but lay around and think about the stage of the world right now. I walk outside and see nothing but dullness, the dust against my feet, and the small town around me, there may have been green grass, and roads at one point a while ago “but memory is an abstract painting” . Behind me is a small shack “leaning together like a house that a child might have constructed from cards”, with no porch, on a small lot with no grass around. I have one thing that is held close to me that makes me happy, they are bright against the dust, they are my marigolds. I notice Lizabeth has her eye on the marigolds, LIzabeth doesn’t want someone to have something
In the narrative,”Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier, is a story about Lizabeth, the narrator, tells a story from her childhood in a dusty Depression-era town. The main characters were this story is taking place in a shanty town during a hot september, where the narrator tells a story about Miss Lottie.The main conflict of the story is that a devastating moment in where Lizabeth, lose her innocence, her is past for a bad time and her not feel compassion for anything and Miss Lottie feel only compassion for the flowers when she see that are destroying.The parents of Lizabeth are past by a bad time, they argue in your room and Lizabeth and her brother listen aut when your father cry because he don’t have job and your mother have is responsible for
Charlie Gordon was a 32 year old man with an I.Q. of 68. Charlie has always had a goal of being smart, he achieved this goal after Dr.Strauss preformed a surgery that dramatically increased his mental capabilities. In the movie Flowers For Algernon Charlie learned a lot about himself that he never knew. Throughout the story Charlie got a lot smarter and realized he had all sorts of feelings especially for Miss.Kinnian. “Flowers for Algernon” was a great way to develop the theme for self understanding.