Lizabeth Internal Conflict

The authors use of conflict conveys Lizabeths emotional maturation from girl to women. Lizabeth has numerous internal conflicts over the course ranging from Lizabeth taunting Ms. Lottie to hearing the true extent of her family’s troubles.

Lizabeth is a young black girl in the time of the depression. Like many others in that time period she lives in a shantytown. Her father in unemployed and her mother works a domestic job. In her "neighborhood" there is an old Woman referred to as Ms. Lottie in the story/ Ms. Lottie lives in a ramshackle hut as well but unlike the other members of the "neighborhood" she has planted bright marigolds in the front of her house. A beautiful contrast to the time period. However, Lizabeth and her brother

Joey along with their friends take great pleasure in throwing stones at the marigolds while remaining out of sight.

However this time Lizabeth and C.O. go one step further. While Joey and his friends throw rocks at Ms Lottie Lizabeth runs around her taunting obscenities. However, once they run back to an oak tree Lizabeth feels conflicted about her actions. “Suddenly I was ashamed, and I did not like being ashamed. The child in me sulked and said it was all in fun, but the woman in me flinched at the thought of the malicious attack that I had led” (33). This quote clearly shows the internal conflict of Lizabeth the child in her reveled in attacking Ms. Lottie but on the other hand the growing women inside her was ashamed at her actions. That same day after her dinner as Lizabeth was lying on her cot she overheard her parents talking. ““Damn, Maybelle”—and suddenly he sobbed, loudly and painfully, and cried helplessly and hopelessly in the dark night……How could it be that my father was crying (42)?.... The world had lost its boundary lines. My mother, who was small and soft, was now the strength of the family; my father, who was the rock on which the family had been built, was sobbing like the tiniest child(43).” This quote shows the dawning realization of Lizabeth of her family’s problems and her struggle to comprehend her famil’ys struggles nad

the unbalance of life. Lizabeth laid in her bed unable to sleep until 4am when she awoke Joey and left the house heading over to Ms Lottie’s. Lizabeth ran so fast to Ms. Lottie’s house that it prompted her brother joey to ask her if she had lost her mind. “I had indeed lost my mind, for 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, the fear unleashed by my father’s tears. And these feelings combined in one great impulse toward destruction (paragraph 61).” This quote displays the internal conflict of Lizabeth’s finally boiling over to the point where she destroyed each and everyone of Ms. Lottie’s marigolds. That final childish act sealed Lizabeth’s childhood as she said I her own words: “and that was the moment when childhood faded and womanhood began. That violent, crazy act was the last act of childhood.”
In conclusion, the author’s use of conflict in the story Marigolds effectively conveys the main character Lizabeth’s maturation from childhood to womanhood.