Marigolds Essay

“Marigolds” Essay

During the Great Depression, many people faced living a hopeless life of poverty. An

African American girl, Elizabeth, the main character in the short story “Marigolds” by Eugenia

Collier, lives a life of desolation in her small town in Baltimore MD during the Great Depression.

She is fourteen going on fifteen and lives with her family which is very poor. Her parents

struggle with their finances and for that reason, their father lost his job. On the other hand,

Elizabeth’s neighbor, Miss Lottie is an old lady who they describe as “dark skinned” and has

somewhat of an “Indian-face.” The only glimmer of happiness in the town was on Miss Lottie’s

yard, her marigolds. Elizabeth’s angry tirade against Miss Lottie’s beautiful yellow marigolds is

caused by her poverty, the dynamics between her family, and her confusion about maturing

Elizabeth's poverty is one of the main reasons that her anger rises enough to destroy

Miss Lottie's Marigolds. Throughout her childhood, the only way of life Elizabeth knows is the

poverty in the small community where she lives. Every day as she goes on with her life, she sees

the “dirt roads and grassless yards of the shantytown where [she] lives” (236) which became

the only thing that she ever sees. However, when Miss Lottie plants the marigolds, which