Erickson Hadley Mrs. Stone English 9 21 May 2024 Finding the Good in ‘Negative’ Situations Maturing is something that sometimes comes of age, or for many others, it comes through a ‘humbling’ experience. Every day, humans across the world encounter humiliating moments that eventually build up to make them the person they are today. We see this experience occur in protagonist Lizabeth in Marigolds by Eugenia Collier. When Lizabeth faces trials, she expresses her wounded emotions violently but turns out to find the learning lessons in difficult situations, which is why I can relate to her. Lizabeth is a small-town teenage girl, living with her family who is doing the most they can to get by. Her mother, working in a domestic work environment daily while her father searched hopelessly …show more content…
Lizabeth took this occasion of anger out on the elderly lady living down the street, Mrs. Lottie. Lizabeth marched up the sidewalk, turned straight to the beautiful garden within Mrs. Lotty's front yard, and began ripping handfuls of marigold flowers straight out of the ground. Through this experience, Lizabeth comes to a maturing point, realizing that her response to anger was inappropriate and out of hand. “And then I was sitting in the ruined little garden among the uprooted and ruined flowers, crying and crying, and it was too late to undo what I had done” (Collier 5). Lizabeth expresses this sorrowful feeling as ‘contrition’, referring to deep feelings of regret and repentance. However, it is very important to not only focus on the negative aspects of poor situations like these, but also to learn what could be perceived better in the future. Lizabeth goes on to state how this incident brought her to the person she is today, “In that humiliating moment I looked beyond myself and into the depths of another
After reading and annotating Marigolds by Eugenia W. Collier, I learned that there are some things we don’t know or realize when we are a child. When we become a woman, we have a different perspective on things. That is what Eugenia learned by the end of the story. Once she ruined all of Miss Lottie’s marigolds, she immediately felt guilty. Miss Lottie stood there with no anger on her face, just disappointment. Eugenia said that was when she saw her childhood fade and womanhood start to begin. Once she began womanhood, she learned that those flowers were precious to Miss Lottie and she was tying to make some beauty out of her shanty house. She viewed Miss Lottie as “… only a broken old woman who had dared to create beauty in the midst of ugliness
whole life changes in one night though, when Elsa is raped by a GI soldier, and
White Oleander is an exciting novel written by Janet Fitch. It is a novel that describes the life of Astrid, a teen girl that had to experience abuse, sexual awakening, grief and occasionally a glimmer of love. Ingrid Magnussen was Astrid's mother, she would play an important role in Astrid life. It is a novel that describes how Astrid's own life experiences and her own intellectual knowledge influences her mind to become a better person in society. This novel created has a double meaning for me because it helps me to realize that I am able to apply what I have learned from other human beings to better myself. This novel also describes the role of women in a "men's world."
In the novel, Beauty by Robin Mc Kinley, the family of a wealthy merchant looses their wealth when the shipment boats get lost at sea. There are three daughters named Hope, Grace, and Honour, whom is nicknamed Beauty, and a father. The family is forced to move to the country and start a life more modest than accustomed. After the family adapts to country life, one of the older sisters gets married to an iron worker who used to work at the shipyard owned by the father. They have babies. Life goes on in the country.
As one can see, the actions of Lizabeth can tell a lot about the author. Finally, the impact of harsh times during the depression affected Eugenia Collier considerably. Through that experience, she did grow up and made a realization that may have taken others a very long time to conceive. I did learn more about the author just by reading what she had to say through “Marigolds.” The symbolism, diction, and Lizabeth’s actions and reactions to things helped to reveal her subconscious and could make one aware of the difficulties and hardships during this era.
Guy de Maupassant’s Mathilde Loisel and Eugenia Collier’s Lizabeth are two characters enduring what they perceive to be an abject state of existence. In Maupassant’s narrative, “The Necklace,” Loisel longs for material things she cannot have. In a similar way, Lizabeth, the protagonist of Eugenia Collier’s “Marigolds,” perceives her own life in the shantytowns of Maryland as dreary and dull. Despite their different character traits and backgrounds, Collier’s and Maupassant’s characters have similarly negative perspectives towards their own lives that greatly influence their actions and consequently, the outcome of the story.
“Marigolds”, a short story written by Eugenia Collier, illustrates a very complex struggle,but one almost all of us can relate to. It was set in the Great Depression, yet it has relevance today. It is a struggle all of us must go through, though it may hidden unlike the struggle Collier describes. “Marigolds” conveys the struggle between an aimless and innocent adolescent, and a mature and compassionate adult. The clash of two minds and two consciences. Looking through eyes of a 14 year old girl named Lizabeth, Collier declares a very important and relevant message to the reader. One summer night, Lizabeth learns the same lesson Collier wishes to tell the reader. Her theme in “Marigolds” is living a ignorant life, like that of a child,
It is the first time that Lizabeth hears a man cry. She could not believe herself because her father is “a strong man who could whisk a child upon his shoulders and go singing through the house.” As the centre of the family and a hero in her heart, Lizabeth’s dad is “sobbing like the tiniest child”She discovers that her parents are not as powerful or stable as she thought they were. The feeling of powerlessness and fear surges within her as she loses the perfect relying on her dad. She says, “the world had lost its boundary lines.” the “smoldering emotions” and “fear unleashed by my father’s tears” had “combined in one great impulse toward
I'll be honest; I picked this short story first because of the bright, blooming title, "Marigolds." But when I read the story, I felt torn, like the marigolds that were when destroyed by Lizabeth[ADM2]. Throughout this story I felt overwhelmed with reality;[ADM3] I was showered with confusion, contradictions, and it seems as though I read this story of harsh truth in a dream. Lizabeth's character is so close to myself, yet so far away, that I detest her, especially for her furious outrage taken out on a sliver of hope surrounded by despondency, yet I feel compassionate towards her.[ADM4]
The end of child innocence is a significant part of transitioning into young adulthood. This is illustrated in “Marigolds,” a short story written by Eugenia Collier, that takes place in a small town trapped in poverty during the Great Depression. The main character Lizabeth is a fourteen-year-old girl who is playing with her brother and neighborhood friends and just being kids when she simultaneously encounters an experience that teach about compassion, which eventually helps her step into adulthood. Through Lizabeth’s childhood experience, Collier portrays that maturity is based on compassion and overcoming the innocence of childhood.
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews Have you ever imagined living locked up in an attic for 3 years and 5 months? Have you ever imagined not growing up with your mother's care and love at the time you were 5? Flowers in the Attic is one of the more original series written by V.C. Andrews of the Dollanganger series. It is one of the best books I've read because it's depressing and dark yet heart-touching. In this book report, the setting, plot and the characters of the book will be included. Flowers in the Attic is one tragic yet a hopeful story of four children.
Eugenia Collier’s “Marigolds” is a memoir of a colored girl living in the Great Depression. The story does not focus on the troubles society presents to the narrator (Elizabeth), but rather is focused on the conflict within her. Collier uses marigolds to show that the changes from childhood to adulthood cause fear in Elizabeth, which is the enemy of compassion and hope.
Innocence is something always expected to be lost sooner or later in life, an inevitable event that comes of growing up and realizing the world for what it truly is. Alice Walker’s “The Flowers” portrays an event in which a ten year old girl’s loss of innocence after unveiling a relatively shocking towards the end of the story. Set in post-Civil War America, the literary piece holds very particular fragments of imagery and symbolism that describe the ultimate maturing of Myop, the young female protagonist of the story. In “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, the literary elements of imagery, symbolism, and setting “The Flowers” help to set up a reasonably surprising unveiling of the gruesome ending, as well as to convey the theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing the harsh reality of this world.
The Flowers By Alice Walker Written in the 1970's The Flowers is set in the deep south of America and is about Myop, a small 10-year old African American girl who explores the grounds in which she lives. Walker explores how Myop reacts in different situations. She writes from a third person perspective of Myop's exploration. In the first two paragraph Walker clearly emphasises Myop's purity and young innocence.
"A laotong relationship is made by choice for the purpose of emotional companionship and eternal fidelity" (See 56). A friendship comes with many challenges, but with a strong bond between one another, friends can overcome the obstacles they are faced with together. In the book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, Lily and Snow Flower are laotongs who face obstacles throughout their lives. Throughout the novel, the two girls have to follow the strict cultural practices to please Chinese Society. They are faced with the pain of foot binding, and the everyday chores women have to do. Together, the girls face big and small obstacles that make the theme of the novel about the bond between women.