So be it / So Be It Droplets of water cascade down the luscious ferns of orange hues that adorn the trees, their rhythmic patter casting ripples into the water. A symphony of noise exuberates as my feet stomp against the burgundy leaves, crunching them with every step I take. It’s been a while since I have visited. Everything feels familiar, yet I cannot seem to fathom the change in my environment. All that I can remember are the vibrant blossoms of marigolds and their sweet fragrance, crushed by the soles of our sneakers in the summer. Where we would lie down and make flower crowns, and talk about our complexities in life. But now, it feels like a distant memory. The petals of marigolds lie untouched, yet are marred with decay. My face contorts at the putrid odour they exude. …show more content…
Where am I? Instead of a pair of eyes staring back at me, I am greeted by murky, dismal water, covered in debris. What lies beneath this tainted surface? Would they be there? I’ve got to find out. They can’t be gone. With a heavy heart and trembling hands, I swarmed my arms around, clearing the bunches of marigolds enveloped by a sheath of leaves. The smell of the damp, damp earth, prevalent. Underneath the leaves a colony of critters crawl up my arms, violating every sense of personal boundaries I’ve ever had, just like a tree and their static nature, bound by the changes in their environment, forced to adapt. The malodorous stench only seems to worsen with each minute that passes. A gust of wind blows the hair around my face, amplifying by the minute. A collection of clouds brew a storm in the sky. Ready to expel gushes of rain, just like the tears about to stream down my face, pouring all the baggage I’ve been keeping to
Lily is thinking “how much older fourteen had made [her]. In the space of a few hours [she’d] become forty years old.” She makes this connection after she realizes that maybe her mother's death could have not been her fault and that it could have been T. Ray’s and he was punishing her for it. This caused Lily to pack “...5 pairs of shorts, tops, ... shampoo, toothpaste...” $38 and a map (41-42). By doing this, it made her feel like she had aged, feeling like a 40 year old.
Marigolds “Marigolds,” written by the author Eugenia W. Collier, begins with the main character, Elizabeth. The story is told in first person, being told by Elizabeth when she gets older. “Marigolds” takes place in Maryland during the Depression. The reader can tell it is the time of the Depression because in the story it says, “The Depression that gripped the nation was no new thing to us, for the black workers of rural Maryland had always been depressed.” Both the setting and time in this short story are important.
'Marigolds' is a story written by the author Eugenia Collier. It is considered a 'coming of age story.' A coming of age story is a story where the protagonist becomes an adult through experiences, knowledge, or an adventure. Throughout the story the main character, Lizabeth, goes through experiences that upset her. These experiences teach her to have compassion and not to be afraid of hope and beauty.
The three pieces “Marigolds” By Eugenia W. Coller, “The Flowers” by Alice Walker and “The Problem We All Live With” by Norman Rockwell, all have have to do with defining moments because they all show 3 girls maturing, by having a specific moment in their lives that then defines who they are. For example in the story “Marigolds” by Eugenia W. Coller shows a girl named Elizabeth turning from an immature girl, to a responsible women. As it states in the story “The years have taken me worlds away from that time and that place, from the dust and squalor of our lives, and from the bright thing that I destroyed in a blind, childish striking out at God knows what… For one does not have to be ignorant and poor to find that his life is as barren as the dusty yards of our town. And I too have planted marigolds.” This means that when the years past she realize that the act that she has done was very bad,
cold, harsh, wintry days, when my brothers and sister and I trudged home from school burdened down by the silence and frigidity of our long trek from the main road, down the hill to our shabby-looking house. More rundown than any of our classmates’ houses. In winter my mother’s riotous flowers would be absent, and the shack stood revealed for what it was. A gray, decaying...
Freudian Analysis of Marigolds Most of the time there is a moment in life where one realizes they have lost all innocence and gained some compassion. “Marigolds” shows how one young girl transferred from a child to a young adult through her life experiences. Throughout this story, another young, but at the same time old in her prime, lady’s experiences are revealed: the author’s. In this short story, “Marigolds,” Eugenia Collier’s subconscious is unmasked through symbolism, diction, and Elizabeth’s actions.
In the short story, “Marigolds”, by Eugenia Collier a 14 year old girl, named Lizabeth, lives in a shanty-town in rural Maryland during the Great Depression. Because she lives in such poverty, she doesn’t have much to look forward to. Although it may seem a little early, Lizabeth is forced to grow up because she can’t afford to act like a child. Eugenia Collier shows that Lizabeth is forced to grow up because of poverty and racism.
“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,
Growing up is an extremely complicated and deep subject for just about everyone. The story “Marigolds” displays this throughout its plot. “Marigolds” tells about a young girl living in a rough situation, and how she breaks from her innocence and begins to understand reality. There are extremely different emotions that go along with innocence and maturity. Hearing Lizabeth's reactions and thought about her journey through growing up shows how maturation is a both beautiful and ugly.
It was a most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest, or the vines yield a more luxuriant vintage; but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature. And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles away, and whom I had not seen for so long.
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.
Without her friends to spend an idle life with, this becomes apparent to her, and the garden becomes a chamber where painful reminders of being left behind while the world grows older around her echo. In fact, Dai-yu notices that “[t]he garden outside, which had always been such a haven of quiet and solitude, now seemed alive with sounds – the wind, insects buzzing, birds chattering … all of which drifted in through the window and set her nerves on edge” (74). The sounds of the wind, for example, are not never absent. Rather, it was Dai-yu’s vulnerable state from knowing that the community she had built with her friends was being intruded upon by the responsibilities of adulthood that makes her come to notice the sounds of the garden that probably have always been there. The garden has largely been the same, but her perception of the garden has
Sometimes the grasshoppers would appear from around a blade of grass as if they were asking for approval to jump on my blanket. Every so often a leaf would jump off its branch to greet me as I sat. It would float through the air as light as feather and land softly on the grass. As the autumn drew near, it was like a rainstorm of brown, yellow and red leaves, all falling to make way for the beautiful spring leaves.
My senses awaken to the sound of the howling wind, cold and dangerous on my bare arms. My eyes open slowly, taking in the site of the crumbling landscape before me. A heavy, unnatural fog blankets the grey buildings, its smoky tendrils moving lethargically in the wind. My eyes follow a lone leaf above me, too green and healthy amidst the smog of pollution, a smog that makes my eyes sting and my throat ache. The leaf dances in the wind, gracefully brushing my outstretched hand, only to fall and settle in the melting tarmac at my feet.
The sunless sky covered the woods over the treetops which created a canopy over my head. The crimson and auburn foliage was a magnificent sight, as this was the season known as Fall. There was a gentle breeze, creating the single sound of rustling leaves. The leaves appeared as though they were dying to fall out of the tree and join their companions on the forest floor. Together with pine needles and other flora the leaves formed a thick springy carpet for me to walk upon.