More handpicked essays just for you.
Why are characters in a story important
Importance of symbolism in literature
Symbolism in the literary criticism
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the story “Marigolds” the author, Eugenia W. Collier uses symbolism and conflict to explain why Lizabeth destroyed Miss Lottie’s marigolds. The story “Marigolds” is a short story about a young girl named Lizabeth living during The Great Depression in Maryland. Lizabeth is a very dynamic character and has many qualities in herself that develop throughout the story. Lizabeth describes her hometown as a dusty brown, arid environment but with a splash of yellow marigolds. “-a brilliant splash of sunny yellow against the dust-Miss Lottie’s marigolds” (1). The marigolds were the only colors in their depression-era town, and it was planted in the yard of Miss Lottie’s house. Lizabeth also thought the marigolds didn’t fit in with the environment since they were the only colors present and that they were too …show more content…
Since Lizabeth is living during The Great Depression, she knew many people in poverty but she was only vaguely aware of her own family’s poverty. “We children, of course, were only vaguely aware of the extent of our poverty” (1). With poverty going on, Lizabeth’s dad looks for work but is unsuccessful, and her mom has a domestic job. Lizabeth has always depended on her father to make things right and has always looked up to him as the leader of the family. Things changed as one night Lizabeth overheard a conversation of her parents talking intensely. “Maybelle, twenty two years,” he was saying, and I got nothing for you, nothing, nothing” (4). With everything going on, this shows how there is no hope for Lizabeth’s family because of poverty. After accepting what has happened, Lizabeth is upset because she thought the bright marigolds would bring hope but instead it brought nothing but sadness and false hope. With everything falling apart, especially the tears of her father, she needed a reason to destroy. “And these feelings combined in one great impulse toward destruction”
He meets Natalia who is a middle aged epileptic who expresses to him a story of anguish that starts in her childhood, when she was hurt by a poisonous tick, and then takes its descending turn after a wicked gypsy woman traps and possibly even kills her husband. Natalia exclaims that it is her epilepsy that is causing her to poor. Her children are no longer with her and were taken from her, or have possibly died, and or have been deserted. Natalia has trouble realizing what her illness is and is not capable to effectively clarify her illness to others. The meaning of poor as well as in other situations in life is because of the absence of guidance. Individuals should be able to recognize their own surroundings, and be capable to change their lifestyle on what will make them happy. Some people consider themselves rich even though they do not have much, and other poor when they have everything. People for the most part live life beyond their needs. It is unfortunate how people will get depressed for the smallest reasons, and others who are more financially restricted wish they could have their problems instead of their
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.
Lizabeth suddenly felt out of place, hopeless, and alone. Fear, bewilderment, and solitude led her to the marigolds of Miss Lottie once more. That time, she completely destroyed the flowers, ripping and trampling them until there was nothing left. It was not until she noticed Miss Lottie standing over her that all of her innocence faded. In that very moment, she learned compassion. Lizabeth was able to “look beyond herself into the depths of another person” for the first time.
Previously, the narrator has intimated, “She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves. They had never taken the form of struggles. They belonged to her and were her own.” Her thoughts and emotions engulf her, but she does not “struggle” with them. They “belonged to her and were her own.” She does not have to share them with anyone; conversely, she must share her life and her money with her husband and children and with the many social organizations and functions her role demands.
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
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,
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
Don’t define the world in black and white; there is much more hiding among the grey. Mother’s perpetually repeat “One day you will understand,” to their children. This day comes for the young main character, Myop, in the short-story “The Flowers” by Alice Walker. Myop stumbles across a part of the world that before did not exist to her, and in an instance as stated in the last line of the work, “summer was over.”
Poverty can change your life and make you miserable depending on how you introduce it into your life will you live unthankful and wanting more or thankful and enjoying the wonderful little things in life. Two stories, the gift of the magi and “The Necklace”. These stories each face a twist and a different type of end. “The gift of the magi” and The necklace are about two women that are both involved in facing poverty in different ways
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...
Roses are present in the garden, as they are “the only flowers that impress people” (Mansfield 2581). Mrs. Sheridan orders so many lilies that Laura think it must be a mistake, saying “nobody ever ordered so many” (Mansfield 2584). Satterfield says, “the flower imagery throughout the story serves to keep the reader reminded of the delicacy of Laura’s world. The flowers are splendid, beautiful, and-what is not stated- short-lived.” He goes on to say that Laura “can see only the beauty and not the dying of the flower, and she cannot see that, in many ways, she is very much like a flower herself.” The delicate life of the Sheridan’s is one that must come to an end. It is beautiful like the flowers, but also like the flowers, it will eventually die. As Darrohn puts it, “the Sheridans operate under the illusion that their easy life is natural… rather than produced through others’ labor.” This idea too can be illustrated by the flowers in the story. The roses that fill the gardens are the work of the gardeners who have “been up since dawn” (Mansfield 2581). It seems to Laura that “hundreds, yes, literally hundreds [of roses] had come out in a single night… as though visited by archangels” (Mansfield 2581). The reader can see through the flowers that the Sheridans have a rose-colored view of how their lifestyle
In the story the narrator mention how the rich children “were forbidden to set foot there because of the revolting language and of what they might catch” as if their home environment is much more sophisticated and uncontaminated. Not only were the cottages described as “disgusting and sordid,” but the smoke that rose from their chimneys are “rags and shreds of smoke” that did not compare to the “great silvery plumes that uncurled” from the rich home of the Sheridan 's. The imagery described here paints the upper class part of the community in a cheerful way, compared to the grimy picture being displayed for the lower class. After all the narrator states that the cottages are “the greatest possible eyesore, and they had no right to be in that neighbourhood at all.” In the very beginning of The Garden Party, the garden of the Sheridan’s is described as having “hundreds, yes, literally hundreds” of the most impressive flower at garden parties, in the eyes of Mrs. Sheridan. The gardens that the poor people have contained “nothing but cabbage stalks, sick hens and tomato cans,” when comparing the gardens we can see that the rich Sheridan family had showcase gardens where the poor had gardens for a food supply. Not only does the narrator view the property differently, but it is even the work that the lower class people do that the narrator sees as different:
Laura, the main character of The Garden Party, acts as the narrator and provides a link between the two contrasting forces of the story: the Sheridan’s world, filled with privilege and gaiety, and the Scott’s, one of hardship, death, and sorrow (Fullbrook 120). At the end of the story, Laura faces a dilemma as she has to cross the barrier between the two worlds, and face the death, mourning, and loss that her own class hides. The Garden Party represents Laura’s gradual progression in many ways: the search for her own identity, maturity, and passage into her ultimate journey down to Saunders Lane. Her advancement can be viewed in terms of her behavior before, during, and after the party. The opening paragraph of The Garden Party sets the tone for the rest of the story by "[suggesting] the unnaturalness of what is to occur in a ‘natural’ setting" (Magalaner 98). Mansfield’s imagery and diction reflect not only the Sheridan family’s wealth and elitism, but their attitude that they can "summon ...
Laura is a young girl, and wealth is all she has ever known. In Laura’s story, her family throws an extravagant garden party. Her environment is so grand that “hundreds [of roses] [coming] out in a single night” (Mansfield, 328) seems almost standard to Laura and shows her familiarity to fine things. The respect of Laura’s community towards her class is portrayed through the grieving widow’s sister. Upon learning of the death that occurred in the lower class cottages, Laura brings a basket of food to the widow. She is politely greeted by the Widow’s sister and is welcomed into their home. The widow is heartbroken and unable to make conversation with Laura. Although this is appropriate behavior due to the widow’s circumstances the sister asks Laura to “excuse her” (Mansfield, 337). The sister knows to respect the upper class and behave accordingly in any situation; she shows this by graciously apologizing for her sister’s demeanor even during their time of
The death of Mr. Scott from his less fortunate neighborhood not only teaches Laura how to offer compassion towards others in a time of need, but it also allows society to portray the differences between the wealthy families and the impoverished families. For example, in the first paragraph of the garden party, Mansfield implies, “Roses are the only flowers that impress people at garden-parties; the only flowers that everybody is certain of knowing.” The statement illustrates how roses often symbolize the wealthy class because Mansfield describes that everyone recognizes roses, just like any individual living in the time period of the 1920’s would be able to differentiate a wealthy person from a beggar by the way they dress or appeal to others. Wealthy guests were the only ones allowed at the garden party, which means that the Sheridans were able to identify the guests they invited to their party simply by their appearance. After the death of the man from the poverty-stricken neighborhood, Laura observed that her family members only contribute an effort to help the less fortunate when the time presents itself to be convenient for them. The instance when Laura’s mother offers some of the leftovers to the grieving family and says, “What a point to have it all ready prepared,” exemplifies that Laura’s mother will only willingly help out the grieving, needy family when the time presents itself as convenient for