28 pages • 56-minute read
Marigolds
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Character Analysis
Lizabeth
Lizabeth is the narrator of this first-person short story, narrating from her much older perspective and reflecting on a late summer day when she was 14. She explores the series of events that marked her Coming of Age as she realized her family’s dire circumstances during the Great Depression.
In the first few pages, Lizabeth spends the summer running wild with her younger brother and other children around their neighborhood and describes herself as having childish bravado and fearlessness. At the same time, this summer is different because the year stands out as having “a strange restlessness of body and of spirit, a feeling that something old and familiar was ending, and something unknown and therefore terrifying was beginning” (2). Lizabeth’s unease with her growing maturity reappears when she throws stones at Miss Lottie’s marigolds and then taunts the elderly woman until Miss Lottie’s son runs after her and the children. Despite her actions, she does not share in the other children’s merriment over the prank and feels remorse and shame for what she’s done. Her reaction illustrates the distance she feels between the children and herself. She no longer feels she belongs among them and their games, but she has not determined where she belongs.
Yet, when Lizabeth overhears a conversation between her parents that reveals the true extent of The Eroding Impact of Poverty and the effect that her father’s unemployment has had on him, she reacts viciously and targets the only source of beauty available—Miss Lottie’s marigolds. After this attack, when she must grapple with the impact her actions have had on Miss Lottie, she finally reaches maturity by understanding the pain she has inflicted on another person and feeling true contrition.
Miss Lottie
Miss Lottie is a secondary character who is the catalyst for Lizabeth’s final journey into womanhood. Miss Lottie is an elderly woman living with her adult son, John Burke, who is described as “the mindless son of her passion” (12). She lives in a run-down shack and never seems to leave the house to visit anyone or receive visitors, except the visits from the children who come to pester her and her son.
Lizabeth and the other children view Miss Lottie and her son as easy targets for their mischief during their long summer days. They enjoy enraging John Burke so that he chases them, but their favorite target is Miss Lottie. Her reaction of rage at their attempts to injure her marigolds amuses the children. The children seem most annoyed that Miss Lottie is Creating Beauty in Ugliness. The children hate the marigolds because “they [interfere] with the perfect ugliness of the place” (6). Miss Lottie is shown as strong and fierce in her protection of the beauty she has cultivated so carefully in such inhospitable surroundings, and she represents a human desire to preserve dignity and joy in adverse circumstances.
Miss Lottie’s angry reaction to the small-scale attacks on her marigolds contrasts with her reaction after Lizabeth’s final attack, which is eerily blank. There is no anger anymore because, with the garden completely destroyed, “there [is] nothing any longer to be protected” (12). Her reaction underscores the reality that the marigolds were the only thing that Miss Lottie valued or that brought joy to her life. Eugenia Collier uses this moment of defeat to convey how socioeconomic and racial inequality wear down a person’s spirit and destroy even small and simple pleasures in life. After what she has done, Lizabeth is finally able to see Miss Lottie for who she is: “a broken old woman who had dared to create beauty in the midst of ugliness and sterility” (12). The destruction of her marigolds destroys Miss Lottie’s defiance and spirit, and she never plants marigolds again.
Joey
Joey is a secondary character who contrasts with Lizabeth’s growing maturity and awareness because he is portrayed as a child not yet grappling with maturity. He is shown as playful and brave but not quite brave enough to destroy Miss Lottie’s marigolds. The text says, “Nobody had the nerve to try it, not even Joey, who was usually fool enough to try anything” (7). Joey is primarily portrayed as an innocent child untroubled by the maturity that leads Lizabeth to a greater understanding of herself and her community’s dire circumstances. This contrast is illustrated in the scene in which Lizabeth awakens to overhear her parents’ conversation, while Joey literally and symbolically sleeps through this interaction. Because of this, he remains more innocent than Lizabeth and retains the childhood ignorance that Lizabeth used to have.
When Lizabeth instigates the nighttime adventure of leaving their room, Joey goes along with it but quickly becomes the voice of reason. When Lizabeth takes them to Miss Lottie’s house, Joey asks, “Lizabeth, you lost your mind?” (11). As Lizabeth begins pulling and trampling the marigolds, Joey tries to pull her away and implores her to stop, but he cannot get her to see reason. He is also the one who notices that Miss Lottie has come outside to see the destruction. Joey is primarily used as a foil with Lizabeth to contrast his childhood innocence with Lizabeth’s painful move into maturity and greater compassion.
Lizabeth’s Parents
Lizabeth’s parents are secondary characters and are absent for much of the narrative, their absence being an underlying conflict within the short story. However, the conversation Lizabeth overhears between her parents is the incident that propels the narrative to the climax.
Her mother has returned from a domestic job that has taken her from home in the early morning until the middle of the night, which implies grueling hours in service to a white family. She uses this job both for the pay and to advocate for her family. She has secured clothing for the family from castoffs offered by her employer. Lizabeth’s mother’s internal struggle is not explored like her husband’s, although it is implied what the circumstances have been like for her. While she is not given as much space in the narrative as Lizabeth’s father, she does illustrate Collier’s point that poor Black women are forced into ingenuity and determination because they face the intersecting oppressions of racism, sexism, classism, and poverty. The fact that the mother is given less space in the narrative than the father reflects the way poor Black women are pushed to the edges of society because of these forms of oppression.
Lizabeth’s father’s turmoil and pain are the primary focus of the conversation, as he struggles with his unemployment and pushes away his wife’s consoling words. She assures him that everyone is unemployed, but this is not a comfort to him. His emotions are violent, and after Lizabeth’s mother mentions that she has secured a coat for him from her employer, he says, “God damn Mr. Ellis’ coat! And God damn his money! You think I want white folks’ leavings?” (10). His anger shows the depth of the humiliation he feels at being forced to rely on his wife’s income and a white family’s “leavings” to feed and clothe his family.
In this short scene, Lizabeth’s father’s anger at his unemployment dissipates almost immediately and turns to grief. Lizabeth hears the sound of her father’s “despairing sobs” and is struck by the wrongness of it. She tries to reconcile how her father—“a strong man who could whisk a child upon his shoulders and go singing through the house” (10)—now sits crying at the table, being comforted by his wife as if he were “a frightened child” (10). The single scene in which Lizabeth’s parents interact shows the reader how much her family dynamic has been subverted by The Eroding Impact of Poverty.
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