Eugenia Collier's Marigolds Conflict

Eugenia Collier’s “Marigolds” ,a short story about an adolescent African American girl living during The Great Depression, deals with the struggles and pain that accompany a life of poverty. “Marigolds” includes many interesting ideas such as how children filled time their time during the day and fought off constant boredom by finding amusement in the pain of others. The short story also addresses conflict in the form of an internal man v. self conflict spurred on by an external man v. society conflict.
In “Marigolds” a man v. society conflict develops throughout the text. The antagonist ,The Great Depression, fights against the protagonist, the narrators community and the narrator herself. The narrator describes how the depression has affected her and her community through the poverty it brings as “a cage in which we were all trapped.”(Collier 13). The Depression has prevented people from thriving and living a happy

life because it has trapped them in a cage of poverty with no way to make money and escape from the cage. Even though poverty has trapped people they still have not given up the hope of escape and are trying to improve their lives.
When the narrator's father goes off to try and find a job the narrator describes it as a “daily unsuccessful quest for work.”(123). Her father will never stop trying to fight the Depression and give his family a better life.
The second conflict of man v.

self seen more obviously throughout the text than the previous conflict deals with the narrator fighting the urge to grow up and remain a child. The narrator illustrates the protagonist feelings, staying a child,“The child in me sulked, and said it was all in fun.”(Collier 127). The child within her is still a very vital part of her personality. Despite this the narrator still is growing up and must deal with this fact. After destroying Miss. Lottie's marigolds the antagonist, the change to womanhood, “flinched at the thought of malicious attack that I had led.”(127) The narrator addresses her more mature side and thus begins to question her innocence. It is also important to point out that the man v. society conflict accelerates the maturity of the narrator because “Everything was suddenly out of tune, like a broken accordion. Where did I fit into this crazy picture?”(128) By questioning herself because of the struggles that the Depression causes the narrator becomes forced to decide what path she takes, woman or

child.
At the end of the story the conflicts come to a resolution. As the narrator looks deeper within herself in the defining moment of the story when she sees Miss Lottie after destroying the Marigolds she becomes more woman the child. The narrator grows up to face the darkness of the adult world and deal with the Depression and the poverty it brings. Even as the Depression continues the narrator discovers her true inner-self and resolves to plant her own marigolds and make the world a better place.