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Benji Hammond “Marigolds” Essay
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.
Poverty was a major factor in the coming of age of Lizabeth. At the time, not only was the Great Depression ruining her family, but the whole town as well. Although Lizabeth and her family were already pretty poor, the Depression doubled their losses and made finding a job extremely
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In the town that they lived in, which was mostly populated by African Americans, the lives of the citizens weren’t much better before the Depression. Even though their were many anti-racism laws passed before that time, there was still racism almost everywhere in the United States. The people of the town didn’t fully understand that after the Depression ends it will be almost the same as before. “The Depression that gripped the nation was no new thing to us, for the black workers of rural Maryland have always been depressed. I don’t know what it was that we were waiting for; certainly not the prosperity that was ‘just around the corner,’ for those were white folks’ words, which we never believed” (Collier 2). These civilians had no hope for anything good to happen. Because of this, they just decided to wait for a very unrealistic miracle or for them to die of old age. After Lizabeth starts to realize the situation the town is in, she decides to mature and become someone who doesn’t wait around, but finds a way to better her chances in getting a good life. Therefore, Lizabeth decided to “come of age” because of racism.
The poor town that Lizabeth lived in forced her to grow up early and be the tip of the spear in the fight against poverty and racism. When something is wrong in one’s life, it is very distressing to sit and wait for the problem to be fixed. Because there were many problems in Lizabeth’s life, she
As people live to this day’s constant demands, they often mention how their lives are ‘horrible’, but no life can be more horrific than just one day in the groove of Wanda Bridgeforth’s life growing up during the 1930’s. Wanda Bridgeforth was a survivor of The Great Depression, and she has quite a story to tell. Surely, she can relate to someone like Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, although her skin is a different shade. Wanda would had never known what it was like to grow up as an African American if she didn’t primarily reside in what was known as the ‘Black Metropolis’, if she didn’t have major money shortages in her family, if she didn’t live in a constantly cramped housing space, or if she wasn’t transported away to live with a whole different group of people.
Much of life results from choices we make. How we meet every circumstance, and also how we allow those circumstances to affect us dictates our life. In Marian Minus’s short story, “Girl, Colored," we are given a chance to take a look inside two characters not unlike ourselves. As we are given insight into these two people, their character and environment unfolds, presenting us with people we can relate to and sympathize with. Even if we fail to grasp the fullness of a feeling or circumstance, we are still touched on our own level, evidencing the brilliance of Minus’s writing.
Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, written in 1984, and Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers, published in 1925, are both aimed at adolescent and adult audiences that deal with deep disturbing themes about serious social conditions and their effects on children as adults. Both books are told in the first person; both narrators are young girls living in destitute neighborhoods; and both young girls witness the harsh realities of life for those who are poor, abused, and hopeless. Although the narrators face these overwhelming obstacles, they manage to survive their tough environments with their wits and strength remaining intact.
The award-winning book of poems, Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson, is an eye-opening story. Told in first person with memories from the author’s own life, it depicts the differences between South Carolina and New York City in the 1960s as understood by a child. The book begins in Ohio, but soon progresses to South Carolina where the author spends a considerable amount of her childhood. She and her older siblings, Hope and Odella (Dell), spend much of their pupilage with their grandparents and absorb the southern way of life before their mother (and new baby brother) whisk them away to New York, where there were more opportunities for people of color in the ‘60s. The conflict here is really more of an internal one, where Jacqueline struggles with the fact that it’s dangerous to be a part of the change, but she can’t subdue the fact that she wants to. She also wrestles with the issue of where she belongs, “The city is settling around me….(but) my eyes fill up with the missing of everything and everyone I’ve ever known” (Woodson 184). The conflict is never explicitly resolved, but the author makes it clear towards the end
Toni Cade Bambara’s "The Lesson" revolves around a young black girl’s struggle to come to terms with the role that economic injustice, and the larger social injustice that it constitutes, plays in her life. Sylvia, the story’s protagonist, initially is reluctant to acknowledge that she is a victim of poverty. Far from being oblivious of the disparity between the rich and the poor, however, one might say that on some subconscious level, she is in fact aware of the inequity that permeates society and which contributes to her inexorably disadvantaged economic situation. That she relates poverty to shame—"But I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be shamed about? Got as much right to go in as anybody" (Bambara 604)—offers an indication as to why she is so hard-pressed to concede her substandard socioeconomic standing in the larger scheme of things. Sylvia is forced to finally address the true state of her place in society, however, when she observes firsthand the stark contrast between the rich and the poor at a fancy toy store in Manhattan. Initially furious about the blinding disparity, her emotionally charged reaction ultimately culminates in her acceptance of the real state of things, and this acceptance in turn cultivates her resolve to take action against the socioeconomic inequality that verily afflicts her, ensuring that "ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin" (606). "The Lesson" posits that far from being insurmountable, economic and social injustice can be risen above, but it is necessary that we first acknowledge the role that it plays in our lives, and then determine to take action against it; indifference, and the inaction that it breeds, can only serve to perpetuate such injustices.
The power of limitations that African American Women faced during the time of slavery hindered their ability to gain freedom, as freedom for slaves was the ultimate American Dream. James McBride exemplifies this in the novel Song Yet Sung as the first characters that we meet is Liz whom happens to be African American Women. When McBride first introduced Liz to the audience, she is running away from her master as she is chasing the American dream know as freedom. Liz is unable to have the privilege of freedom due limitation, that she is one a female and second African American not to mention that she was in fact a slave because of these same limitations. African Americans during the time of slavery would never have the privilege of freedom unless they took dramatic matters such as running away to the north, the unknown in the hope of gaining freedom where the
This single short quote from the first section of Lillian Smith’s Killers of the Dream is a perfect summation of the changing world many Southerners were facing as they approached the 20th Century. Gone were the days of plantation homes, housewives overseeing 50 black slaves, and many of the ideals that this lifestyle carried with it. As the Civil War ended and Reconstruction worked its way through the South, much was uprooted. This change was hard for this “landed aristocracy.” However, it was equally hard on the children.
In the short story “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier, the narrator Lizabeth realizes that she is no longer a child but a grown up woman who renounces her innocence and begins her adulthood by developing a sense of compassion. She learns that the world is more than just the dusty shantytown and a squad of kids she plays with; there are also the complex realities of depression, indifference and poverty. The reason behind this realization is that Lizabeth, at an age of 14, overhears her parents’ conversation about the harsh economic situation that their family is facing. She is filled with anger and detests the unfairness that is given to her family. All these feelings encourage her towards an explosive, malicious act of destruction. She is especially
Although there were numerous efforts to attain full equality between blacks and whites during the Civil Rights Movement, many of them were in vain because of racial distinctions, white oppression, and prejudice. Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi recounts her experiences as a child growing up in Centreville, Mississippi. She describes how growing up in Mississippi in a poor black family changed her views of race and equality, and the events that took place that changed her life forever. She begins her story at the tender age of 4, and describes how her home life changed drastically with the divorce of her parents, the loss of her home, and the constant shuffle from shack to shack as her mother tried to keep food on the table with the meager pay she earned from the numerous, mostly domestic, jobs she took. On most days, life was hard for Anne, and as she got older she struggled to understand why they were living in such poverty when the white people her mother worked for had so many nice things, and could eat more than bread and beans for dinner. It was because of this excessive poverty that Anne had to go into the workforce at such an early age, and learn what it meant to have and hold a job in order to provide her family. Anne learned very young that survival was all about working hard, though she didn’t understand the imbalance between the work she was doing and the compensation she received in return.
To the modern white women who grew up in comfort and did not have to work until she graduated from high school, the life of Anne Moody reads as shocking, and almost too bad to be true. Indeed, white women of the modern age have grown accustomed to a certain standard of living that lies lightyears away from the experience of growing up black in the rural south. Anne Moody mystifies the reader in her gripping and beautifully written memoir, Coming of Age in Mississippi, while paralleling her own life to the evolution of the Civil Rights movement. This is done throughout major turning points in the author’s life, and a detailed explanation of what had to be endured in the name of equality.
Although, African Americans are considered minorities in the United States, not all of them live in poverty. Many African Americans live in a middle class society along with the dominant culture. However, many African Americans do not live in a middle class society, but rather live in poverty and have to suffer along with this poverty. For instance, Donald Goines’s Black Girl Lost and Tina McElroy Ansa’s Baby of the Family, two narrative novels, that illustrate the difference in two young African American girls lives and the society in which they inhabit. Not only do these young African American girls represent the two sides of poverty, they also represent how children can also qualify in the minority category. For example, Sandra lives in a run down apartment with a drunk mother who could care less about her daughter. In addition, Sandra remains all on her own and has to find ways in which to survive each day. But on the other hand, Lena lives in a nice size home with her two parents, her two brothers, and her grandmother, all who love her very much. Moreover, Lena has many family members who look after her and take extra special care for her because she is the baby of the family. Although, both Sandra and Lena lead very different lives, both are faced with challenges as a minority and as a child which questions their view on life.
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.
Certain classes felt the strife more strongly as well as certain races, sexes and areas of the country. During the worst of the depression, Chicago suffered through a 40 percent unemployment average in some areas. A glaring example of the struggle in that area comes from Wanda Bridgeforth in an article published by National Public Radio. Wanda recounts the majesty that was Bronzeville, the “Black Metropolis” of Chicago; where jazz artists thrived and African American neighborhoods were relatively affluent before the struggle. "In the Depression, the men could not get jobs, and especially the black men," Bridgeforth noted. "Here was my father with a degree in chemistry, and he could not get a job." Shes goes on to recount how humiliated he was and how that lead to a debilitating breakdown of sorts, leaving her mother in a sort of “live-in domestic worker” and forcing her parents to send her to live with her relatives. When her relatives could no longer provide for themselves she was then sent to the homes of charitable strangers. (cite 2)
A picture of a woman with her two children shows that not every family is the stereotypical family with two parents and responsibilities are spilt with gender roles. The tired eyes, wrinkled skin, and aging face illustrates the struggles that a woman has to face, physically and emotionally, for her family. It shows the individual worth of being a woman, as she is not only the caretaker for her children but also the provider for their needs, which is a generally a man’s responsibility that she is executing, even though many men couldn’t provide for their families as they lost everything they had. A woman during this era is expected to stay with the children and make their home a haven, and she was stripped of the ability to do that by the necessity to become a migrant. The image cues for emotional responses with economy, as there were a few families during the Depression that hadn’t been severely affected and at least had a solid roof over their heads, food to eat and clothing to keep them covered. This image portrays a clear distinction of social class issues in the United States during the time, and “Migrant Mother” shows people what the life if a migrant worker from a poor family is really like during times of crisis. It proves that the Depression was a systematic failure in the political, economic, and social spheres, and the poor pea pickers are suffering an outcome for something they hadn’t caused. Their living government in the image show that there has been no political or economic help extended to them by a failing government. The pea crop had frozen; there was no work. There was no opportunity for prosperity and success, no possibility for an upward social mobility for the children, there was no land in which life was better and richer for everyone. This wasn’t the American Dream that everyone grows up thinking because this was about a crisis that left the entire
The narrator of the story is a young, black girl name Sylvia and the story is also told from her perspective. The setting is not clear. Perhaps it started in Harlem and then to downtown Manhattan on Fifth Avenue and the time of the story took place is also unclear. Bambara uses a great deal of characterization to describe the characters in the story. For example, Bambara describes Miss Moore as “black as hell” (Bambara 330), “cept her feet, which were fish-white and spooky” (Bambara 330), and “looked like she was going to church” (Bambara 330). She later tells us that she’s been to college and her state of mind is she believes it’s her responsibility for the children’s education. The plot started when Miss Moore rounded up all of the children by the mailbox. Then she gets the kids in a cab and took them to Fifth Avenue to a big toy store where the rich people would shop. The story then continues with the children and Miss Moore in the toy store and the kids looking around and noticing they can’t afford anything. Which will soon end the plot with a lesson that society is not fair, “that this is not much of a democracy if you ask me. Equal chance to purse happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don’t it?”(Bambara 330). Hence, the lesson Miss Moore is trying to teach these