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Great depression and literature essay
The great depression impact on literature
Great depression and literature essay
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Marigolds In this short story Marigolds by author Eugenia Collier the narrator, Lizabeth, has chosen to retell a story as an adult reflecting on a significant incident from her childhood. In this story the main character Lizabeth lives during the great depression and describes her experiences like when she says “the brilliant splash of sunny yellow against the dust” (paragraph 1). This describes the marigolds and there beauty against the brown, dry, and ugly ground that they had during this time. I also think they added this because they wanted to really make shore that the reader could really understand how much the marigolds stand out. During this time of age with Lizabeth her father was the leader in the home and I could tell that because
“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. It helps describe the way people lived during the time period. However, both the setting and time are important because it is the reasoning to the problem in the story. Throughout the book you see changes in Elizabeth. She is fourteen going on fifteen. She has older siblings who married young. Now she and her younger brother, Joey, are the only ones left.
It was times throughout the book the reader would be unsure if the children would even make it. For example, “Lori was lurching around the living room, her eyebrows and bangs all singed off…she had blisters the length of her thighs”(178).Both Lori and Jeannette caught fire trying to do what a parent is supposed to do for their child. Jeannette caught fire at the age of three trying to make hotdogs because her mother did not cook for her leaving Jeannette to spend weeks hospitalized. She was burnt so bad she had to get a skin graft, the doctors even said she was lucky to be alive. The children never had a stable home. They were very nomadic and a child should be brought up to have one stable home. No child should remember their childhood constantly moving. This even led to Maureen not knowing where she come from because all she can remember is her moving. The children had to explain to her why she looked so different is because where she was born. They told Maureen “she was blond because she’d been born in a state where so much gold have been mined, and she had blue eyes the color of the
All in all, the story was rather sad but eye-opening. I believe Porter’s approach to writing this story allowed readers to reflect back on their own lives and examine both the good and not-so-good times. It shows people not to just live life through the motions, but rather, to look at it as beautiful journey as no one wants to end up like Granny Weatherall and realize that with she never really lived.
Living in Maryland, the narrator and her little brother Joey lived a very simple life. There mother had job that required many hours, and her father was unemployed and still in the process of trying to find a job. They lived in a very run down house in a very small poor community. One summer day, the narrator , Joey, and a group of kids from the community were bored and wanted to do something different. So,the narrator and the kids went down to one of the elders home, Miss Lottie. Miss Lottie was the old woman that everyone made stories about and for the kids they knew her as the witch. In the summer time Miss Lottie would always be in her front yard planting marigolds, which were an easy target to destroy. The kids all took part in throwing rock at Miss Lottie's marigolds, and the narrator was the coordinator. After they sprinted back to the oak tree, the narrator started to feel guilt for what she
As he slouches in bed, a description of the bare trees and an old woman gathering coal are given to convey to the reader an idea of the times and the author's situation. "All groves are bare," and "unmarried women (are) sorting slate from arthracite." This image operates to tell the reader that it is a time of poverty, or a "yellow-bearded winter of depression." No one in the town has much to live for during this time. "Cold trees" along with deadness, through the image of "graves," help illustrate the author's impression of winter. Wright seems to be hibernating from this hard time of winter, "dreaming of green butterflies searching for diamonds in coal seams." This conveys a more colorful and happy image showing what he wishes was happening; however he knows that diamonds are not in coal seams and is brought back to the reality of winter. He talks of "hills of fresh graves" while dreaming, relating back to the reality of what is "beyond the streaked trees of (his) window," a dreary, povern-strucken, and cold winter.
In “The Gilded Six-Bits,” Zora Neale Hurston uses several techniques to characterize Joe and Missy May, the main couple throughout the story. Hurston uses her own life experiences to characterize Joe and Missy May and their marriage. She also shows their character development through her writing styles and techniques, which show reactions and responses between Joe and Missy May to strengthen the development of their relationship. Hurston supports her character development through her writing style, her characters dialect, and includes experiences from her own life to portray a sense of reality to her character’s personalities.
In the short story "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen, the reader is introduced to a mother living in the midst of the Great Depression dealing with angst and anxiety towards her daughter Emily. Because this story looks back during the Great Depression when Emily was born the mother's trauma is coming between the both of them. The mother wants her daughter to live a beautiful life, however, poverty, depression and dislocation has built a wall between the two women.
The short story “Marigolds” by E. Collier is a story about a girl who becomes a woman after she destroys Mrs. Lottie’s Marigolds. She is still ignorant about her situation in life until she hears her father crying because of the Great Depression. She and her family lives in a minuscule town in rural Maryland in 1930. She is still a girl that likes to play with the children in the town and all of the children despise Mrs. Lottie’s Marigolds because of its perfect beauty in the shanty town.
“The Minefield” by Diane Thiel is a poem about a man who grew up during a war and the impact that this man’s experience had on his behavior and on his family. He lost his friend in a tragic accident in a minefield when they were fleeing during the war, and holds onto that memory throughout his life. This memory causes him to be angry and have unpredictable behavior. Because he is impacted by this memory in the ways that he is, his experience affects his children nearly as much as it affects him. Thiel uses structure and characterization in the poem to show the readers how one experience influenced not only one man’s entire life, but also the lives of his family.
The narrator, Twyla, begins by recalling the time she spent with her friend, Roberta, at the St. Bonaventure orphanage. From the beginning of the story, the only fact that is confirmed by the author is that Twyla and Roberta are of a different race, saying, “they looked like salt and pepper” (Morrison, 2254). They were eight-years old. In the beginning of the story, Twyla says, “My mother danced all night and Roberta’s was sick.” This line sets the tone of the story from the start. This quote begins to separate the two girls i...
She refers her experiences to her family and how it impacts her as a whole throughout her childhood and the decisions she makes within her family’s life. A key part to pay attention to was the way she goes into detail about her experiences and how she related to them with her everyday life circumstances whether it related to her dad, her mom or her two little sisters. There are many things that are vital to our own happiness which comes from those around you and the impacts that build your wellbeing upon what you experience throughout your lifetime. She wants to impact her children’s life in a way were there able to experience the natural beauty of life and the nature that surrounds
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
poor people suffered at the hands of 19th century society and the writer uses different techniques to pass this across.
This story just shows of how woman had to do all these things back then. And the guys would be more free had more things they can do have jobs go to school. And the females just could not they had to stay home clean and cook. She had to do work and things she never really wanted. While the man just did really anything and go out.
The choice of words of the author also contributes to the development of the theme. For example, the use of words like "drafty," "half-heartedly," and "half-imagined" give the reader the idea of how faintly the dilemma was perceived and understood by the children, thus adding to the idea that the children cannot understand the burden the speaker has upon herself. In addition, referring to a Rembrandt as just a "picture" and to the woman as "old age," we can see that these two symbols, which are very important to the speaker and to the poem, are considered trivial by the children, thus contributing to the concept that the children cannot feel what the speaker is feeling.