Darkness In Eugenia Collier's The Marigolds

298 Words1 Page

In the short story “The Marigolds,” Eugenia Collier uses symbolism to show how lightness within of darkness can affect a person. The author put Lizabeth as the narrator to be able to compare her emotions towards the marigolds as a child to as an adult. As an adult, Lizabeth “feels again the chaotic emotions of adolescence” (Collier 1). And as a child they gave Lizabeth confusion, “they said too much that we could not understand; they did not make sense” (Collier 4). This is because they did not fit into the town, they were too beautiful to be in the shantytown. Eventually, the hopefulness and brightness of the flowers made Lizabeth break. As Collier says, “those feelings combined into one great impulse toward destructions” (Collier 6). This

Show More
Related

  • The Historical Age Of Faith In J. B. By Archibald Macleish

    1199 Words  | 3 Pages

    conveys an important message that the people living during this era should remain hopeful and optimistic, despite their suffering, and should focus on finding love in the world instead of dwelling on the injustice. Initially, Sarah loses her faith in God and seems like she has lost hope. However, at the end the end of the play she eventually returns to J.B. As she does so, the light increases and she says,” Look, Job: the forsythia, the first few leaves...not leaves though… petals… I found it growing in the ashes, gold as though it did not know” (MacLeish 149-151). The light increasing is a deliberate stage direction that serves to indicate the return of happiness and optimism in J.B. and Sarah’s lives. The forsythia is also a symbol that represents the return of happiness. A forsythia is a shrub whose bright yellow flowers appear in early spring before the leaves begin to grow on the branch. Sarah’s return, along with the light and the forsythia, all show that there is hope for happiness after tragedy and misfortune, and this parallels to the post-WWII era. Furthermore, when Sarah approaches J.B., he questions her departure from him and Sarah answers, “You wanted justice, didn’t you? There isn’t any. There’s the world… cry for justice and the stars will stare until your eyes sting… I loved you. I couldn’t help you anymore. You wanted justice and there was none -- only love” (MacLeish, 151). At last, the couple finds comfort in love and family, instead of dwelling on

    Read More

  • Essay On Owl By Mary Oliver

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    Whenever she encounter fields of flowers, she becomes captivated by the allure of the flowers. After seeing the flowers she is“stuck, I’m taken, I’m conquered, and I’m washed into it.” Nature captures her mind and hypnotizes her with its beauty, it becomes all she sees and experiences. Nature stops her in her tracks, and completely captures her attention.When she sees fields of flowers she “drops to the sand, I can’t move.” She becomes immobilized in its beauty, it controls her and becomes the only important thing on her mind. On the other hand, the complexity of nature also makes her overwhelmed. She states that the roses leave her “filled to the last edges with an immobilizing happiness. And is this not also terrible?” The rose’s beauty becomes too overbearing for Oliver, and keeps her captive from everything else; It becomes too much of a sensory overload. Nature has the ability to work with both sides, beauty and an

    Read More

  • Janie and the Pear Tree in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    Under the pear tree on that spring afternoon, Janie sees sensuality wherever she looks. "The first tiny bloom had opened. It had called her to come and gaze on a mystery. From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom. It stirred her tremendously" (10). Gazing across the garden...

    Read More

  • Jane Eyre vs House of Mirth Lily

    2029 Words  | 5 Pages

    word “art” which may imply something about the materialistic world that she tries to be a part of. Interestingly, and perhaps most symbolic, is the fact that the lily is the “flower of death”, an outcome that her whirlwind, uptight, unrealistic life inevitably led her to.

    Read More

  • Georgina's Use Of Symbolism In The Birthmark By Nathaniel Hawthorne

    1057 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Birthmark, 1843 is a story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne an author who has written several well-known literary classics. This author is known for his excellent use of literary elements. In the story, The Birthmark, Hawthorne does a great job of capturing symbolism throughout its entirety. The author is able to incorporate everyday things into his story and give them a meaning beyond their everyday definition. The biggest and most important example of this would be the birthmark.

    Read More

  • Juxtaposition In The Violets By Gwen Harwood

    302 Words  | 1 Pages

    Through the use of several poetic devices, Harwood is able to articulate and format her ideas in a way that adds to the appeal of the text. Harwood incorporates juxtaposition in order to depict the binary oppositions and the dualistic nature of human life and experience. "Frail melancholy flowers among ashes and loam." (The Violets) is a given example, with the 'ashes' symbolising death and fragility, contrasted by 'loam' as a symbol of life and growth. "On what flood are they borne, these memories of early childhood/iridescent, fugitive" (At Mornington) juxtaposes the secretive nature of memories that can also be both splendour and colourful. The frequent use of enjambment in 'The Violets', captures the stylistic feature of the train-of-thought

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Flowers

    632 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Protagonist of The Flowers is Myop. She is a 10-year-old African-American “the stick clutched in her dark brown hand (walker)” who sees no wrong in ‘her world’. Myops character is introduced as playful and content. Her character then develops to include curiosity and careless “today she made her own path vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes (Walker).”By the end of the story Myops character evolves in maturity, thoughtfulness and wisdom “Frayed, rooted, bleached, and frazzled—barely there—bu...

    Read More

  • Examples Of Foreshadowing In Tender Is The Night

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    Symbolism is used to explain “Daddy’s Girl,” the movie in which Rosemary takes part in. “Daddy’s Girl” portrays the sexual relationship between a girl (Rosemary) and her father. Although, it is merely just fiction; for Nicole, it is the source for her mental breakdowns. She was a daddy’s girl when she was small and Dick played a similar role acting as a father figure helping Nicole regain her mental health. Another key point of symbolism is the frequent use of the word “blooming”. For instance, when Dick tells Rosemary “‘You’re the only girl I’ve seen for a long time that actually did look like something blooming.’” (Fitzgerald 33). Not only was the word “blooming” used, but it shows Dick’s interest in Rosemary beginning to develop. Nicole in her garden is another great example in which it shows her breaking that barrier where she no longer has to rely on the flowers to bloom for her; her ego now blooms on its own. For example, “Her ego began blooming like a great rich rose as she scrambled back along the labyrinths in which she had wondered for years” (Fitzgerald

    Read More

  • Loss of Innocence in The Flowers, by Alice Walker

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although imagery and symbolism does little to help prepare an expected ending in “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, setting is the singular element that clearly reasons out an ending that correlates with the predominant theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing a grim realism from the cruel world. Despite the joyous atmosphere of an apparently beautiful world of abundant corn and cotton, death and hatred lies on in the woods just beyond the sharecropper cabin. Myop’s flowers are laid down as she blooms into maturity in the face of her fallen kinsman, and the life of summer dies along with her innocence. Grim realism has never been so cruel to the innocent children.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Poem 'A Moon-Lily' By Ted Hughes

    938 Words  | 2 Pages

    The speaker personifies the flower by describing how the moon-lily sings: “…it is singing—very far/ but very clear and sweet” (10-11). The voice of the flower is the voice of the woman. The flower is calling out to the man. The fact that the flower has to call out to the man implies that he does not accept the love of the woman. The speaker also describes the distance between the two people. He states, “The voice is always in some other room” (12). Once again the speaker is describing distance, but the man does not try to close the distance. The reason the man does not try to close the distance is because he does not love the woman. The lily represents the female and their love. In the poem, the speaker talks about a “garden” which is a metaphor for the female’s life (13). In the garden the speaker describes the flower as “in bloom” and that the flower “stands full and/ proud” (13,14-15). This section of the poem tells the reader that the woman’s love is strong and unwavering. The speaker compares the woman’s love to a lily because the love is pure of heart and beautiful. The relationship that the poem depicts is unhealthy for the female. The woman is putting too much effort into a nonexistent

    Read More

  • Pear Tree Symbolism

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    The reciprocated romantic love symbolized by the pear tree is found to be unnecessary as Janie reaches her horizon at the end. The horizon reflects the state of happiness that Janie thought she could only reach through true love, but changes as she finds the strength to be happy with her independence. This message is important as it disproves the restricting status quo that women are dependent on men pushing for further equality between the

    Read More

  • Scarlet Letter

    1567 Words  | 4 Pages

    Nature, color and light are used as symbols throughout the novel to illustrate several areas of the story (Waggoner 154). The prison door, for example, was described as being composed of “oak and iron” and its coloring “sad” and “gray”, symbolizing the rigidity of the Puritan society against sinners (Waggoner 154). The rosebush situated outside of the prison door is like a “moral blossom” growing amongst the bitter weeds of society, in the “most unlikely of places” (Hawthorne). The placement of the rosebush in such a dank, improbable position as outside of a place housing sinners (the prison), imparts the fact that such an element of beauty and innocence is nevertheless able to be born out of a station with such an ill aura. Pearl is symbolic of the rosebush in that she was spawned from the same evil air of sin (Waggoner 156). However, her purity is just as real as that which comes from a origin of virtue (Waggoner 156). She is often associated with roses (Waggoner 156). For example, in the governor’s she cries and pleas that she must have one (Waggoner 156). In addition, her very name is an indication of the symbol she conveys (Waggoner 157). Like a pearl comes from the mangled, impure exterior of the oyster, Pearl comes from the equally impure and squalid exterior of the sin her parents willingly committed (Waggoner 157). Another nature related symbol comes in the forest. The forest itself holds its own variety of symbolism. “Freedom” is one expression of the forest. There is no reason for Hester and Dimmesdale to be secretive among the trees where no one can witness their union (Matthiessen 299).

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis: Kew Gardens

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...that suspends the boundaries of man and nature, the way in which she structures the last image to be one of hostility indicates the unsustainable nature of the garden.

    Read More

  • What Laura Didn't learn in The Garden Party

    1959 Words  | 4 Pages

    At the conclusion of The Garden Party, Laura is exposed to a side of life she has never encountered before, and comes to a sudden realization that "life and death may indeed coexist and that their common existence in one world may be beautiful" (Magalaner 101). Death is not necessarily associated with ugliness, she learns, but rather it is a natural process which she likens to sound, peaceful sleep. However, her ostensible epiphany is really only astonishment. Laura’s world revolves around the finer things in life, garden parties, and flowers, and she has been surrounded by beauty her whole life. Her social class is too ingrained in her for a momentary glimpse of the contrasting life of the lower class to really affect her (Sorkin 445).

    Read More

  • William Carlos Williams' The Rose - A Symbol of Love

    1124 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem starts out as a description of the flower that we all have either received, given, longed for, or been cut by. Instantly, there is the feel of conflict in the language that is being used. Abrasive, heavy words that could be used to describe a murder are mixed with other words that seem to convey a sense of hope and spacial energy. The clusters of thought that somehow constitute a complete sentence make the reading somewhat difficult from the very beginning, but it seems to take on a multi-layered personality as the poem plays itself out. Although there is no mention of the thorny stem, words such as 'sharper', 'cutting', and 'edge', instead describe the flower itself. The constant reference to materials that possess qualities different from any rose such as 'metal', 'copper', 'broken plate", and 'steel', serve to indicate that this flower is being seen through a set of eyes that have perhaps been cast and hardened by the capacity for love.

    Read More

More about Darkness In Eugenia Collier's The Marigolds

Open Document