Hope In Eugenia Collier's Marigolds

Hope is a part of human nature. Humans have always had it, even in the darkest situations. “Marigolds,” by Eugenia Collier , tells the story of a young girl in the midst of poverty and on the edge of growing up. She does not fully know of her situation, but when she catches a whiff of it, she destroys Miss Lottie’s marigolds. Collier uses the elements of character, setting, and symbol to illustrate the theme, Hope is necessary in the most dire of situations. Characters in “Marigolds” have a sort of acceptance when it comes to their lives, but they still yearn for a way out. Lizabeth is a young girl who has never really known that she was poor and for fun she torments Miss Lottie and her marigolds. Miss Lottie is an old woman who “had been …show more content…
When Lizabeth looks back upon it, all she “seem[s] to remember is dust-the brown, crumbly dust of late summer-arid, sterile dust that gets into the eyes and makes them water” (442). Lizabeth remembers only ugliness, except for “a brilliant splash of sunny yellow against the dust-Miss Lottie’s marigolds” (442). The only thing that was beautiful or rich were Miss Lottie’s marigolds. Surprisingly, all the children hate them, especially Lizabeth. Lizabeth may hate the marigolds because they remind her of a future without poverty, one she thinks she will never have. When she destroys them, she sets the town back to having poverty without restitution. Symbols in “Marigolds” assist the theme by creating hope. The marigolds Miss Lottie plants represent her hope at an escape from the life she has. Miss Lottie had put her “love and beauty and joy that had not been squeezed out by life, had been there in the marigolds she had so tenderly cared for” (451). When Lizabeth destroys Miss Lottie’s marigolds, she also destroyed her hope. Miss Lottie “never planted marigolds again” because she did not see the point (451). When Lizabeth plants marigolds in the future, she does so to retain her hope at an escape from her life, like Miss

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