Have you ever read the Marigolds? If not I’m going to tell you about it. It’s written by Eugenia Collier, She wrote it as a adult but it was about her childhood. She grow up through the Great Depression. There is something good even when it’s a bad situation The main thing she talk about is how dusty &dry it was. On the first page she say the main thing she remember is how it was real dusty and dry. It was the late summer time. We have it lucky because we go home and have a meal to eat & know there is food to eat. When she was young she didn’t know if there was gone be a meal to eat at night or if there lights still work or if there was food to eat when she got hungry. The other theme is how they annoy Miss
No Promises In the Wind, authored by Irene Hunt, gives an excellent description of growing up in the center of the Great Depression. Chapter One begins with the alerting sound of an alarm clock going off at 4am. Josh, a fifteen year old boy, leaves his bed, and departs from his family’s home to deliver newspapers. Notwithstanding, the paper route brought very little money, but the money earned was needed. Directly after finishing his route, Josh returns home to prepare for school, where he anticipated the day’s end, knowing that Miss Crowne’s music room belonged to them after school hours.
Child of Dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji is a novel that brings to light an event in time that is often forgotten by the masses. This novel, through its protagonist Sabine, tells the story of racial tensions in Uganda in the summer of 1972 and Sabine’s journey of self-discovery and growth can be compared to Anne Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank. Sabine is forced to abandon everything she knows and through this experience learns so much about herself, the world around her and explores the themes of race, class, loyalty, identity and fate.
In the novel “Windflower” by Gabrielle Roy, we are introduced to Elsa Kumachuck, a young First Nations girl living in a small town characterized by its bare, inhospitable environment and a community divided between the Inuit people and the Caucasians. As the plot unveils we are given a graphic scene where our protagonist is raped by an American man. The pregnancy, which is the result of the sexual assault, produces a child who becomes the focal point of the novel as well a source of marvel for many of the inhabitants of the town. As Elsa tries to raise the child alone she finds it difficult to resist the influence of the community they are stuck in: from the boy’s ethnicity, to her own heritage but most significantly her setting. Whenever Elsa
A women lived here as well, for the house was decorated with flower wallpaper and decorative cloths adorned the shelves. In the yard remains of scattered toys and a sandbox made from an old tractor tire, gives evidence that a child once lived there. The family was not a rich family. They supplemented their food supply with homemade food items. The winters were
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
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]
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
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.
Which only adds an extra weight to the struggles she’s having being a wife and mother. The fact that she has to wash her daughter’s diapers, she was in the back yard with the field mice, indicates that they don’t have much money. “But she saw diapers steaming on the line” (2-3). This line suggests, not only did they not have a washer and dryer but they still had to use clothes lines. There are not too many families that still use clothes lines or don’t have washer and dryers. Having to hand wash everything is a job by alone. “And just what was mother doing out back with the field mice” (15-17)? The woman being outside with the field mice makes me think maybe they didn’t live close to the city. Auditory imagery is expressed in these lines. “Sometimes there were things to watch the pinched armor of a vanished cricket, a floating leaf” (8-10). It’s easy to feel the feelings the woman is feeling during this
Have you heard that millions of children were homeless during the Great Depression! Tons of parents left their children during the Great Depression. The childrens' parents decided to leave and ride the rails. During the Great Depression children cherished their belongings from their parents more than we do now days. In the book Bud, Not Buddy Bud had a suitcase that had all of his stuff in it. He cherished these items very much. Bud the protagonist of the story was a homeless boy in search of his father. Bud, Not Buddy would be a different book if bud was not homeless because he wouldn't have been in the home, he would have known his grandfather sooner, and he wouldn't have had a suitcase.
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.
As she looked out the window she saw that the ash had started to fall. Eventually, the ash reached about one and a half feet. When she went outside she had to wear a mask because the air was toxic. It didn’t even look like earth. She felt like she was walking on the moon. Nothing looked familiar with the black ash covering everything. Home no longer looked like home. She felt lost in her own yard, the mountains behind her were covered in ash. Everything she knew was different.
In the first paragraph the author describes the old woman and the setting of her environment. The setting is described as a cold early morning in the month of December and the location is in the country,
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.
The poem “good times” by Lucille Clifton mainly focuses on poverty. Even though my life experience is very similar to that of the narrator, I lived better life than the narrator because my family was in a decent financial situation. My life before I came to the US resembles the life of the person in “good times”. I can completely relate to the lifestyle described by Clifton because my father fulfilled all my needs such as food, room and education and my mother took care of all the family as a very diligent house wife and as a good mother. As we had extended family, my grandfather and grandmother were always there to entertain us and take of us incase our parents were around. All these factors have contributed in me having good times during my childhood. However I was aware of the fact that I could not be depended on my parents forever because they were getting older and I knew I had the obligation to support them when I grow older. In addition, I wanted my children, when I would have them in near future, to live the good times that I lived and to offer them the happiness that I received from my family.