Coming of Age Marigolds

Coming of Age is when teenagers go through a hard time because they are changing and are growing up, realizing how the actual world is like. Lizabeth is going through a time when she is changing from a girl to a woman. A lot of things happen during this phase in her life. In the story marigolds by Eugene Colliene characterization, conflict, and symbolism develop the theme “Coming of Age.”

Characterization develops in Marigolds because Lizabeth says many things and as a lot of feelings and emotions. Lizabeth feels very ignorant of Miss Lottie because she didn’t realize the real Miss Lottie. When she was young she thought was a witch, but now she sees that she is an old broken down woman who has a carless son named John Burke and cares a lot about those marigolds. One quote she says is “Y’all children get the stones. I’ll show you how to use ‘em.” One of her actions is that at the end she destroys Miss Lottie’s marigolds and regrets it after she had realized what she had done. She also looks like an African-American girl who has a southern accent.

Conflict also develops in Marigolds because Lizabeth versus herself. She is having different emotions in this change from girl to woman. Another conflict is person vs. society because she is living during the 1930’s which is the time of the Great Depression. The Great Depression is a time when the stock market crashed and many people were loosing their jobs, such as Lizabeth’s father. She hears her father cry one night because he does not have a job. Another conflict is person vs. person because Lizabeth has to face Miss Lottie after she destroys her marigolds.

Symbolism develops in Marigolds because the marigolds and the dust represent many things. For example, the marigolds represent beauty, accomplishment, and responsibility. They represent beauty because they are the only flowers that actually look good compared to the dirt roads and grassless yards. They also represent accomplishment because after she destroys the marigolds that were the last moment of childhood and Miss Lottie feels very accomplished when she takes care of those flowers, which brings this to my next point, responsibility. Miss Lottie is has to be very responsible to take care of the marigolds. The dust represents despair and barrenness. Dust represents despair it seems like everything is crashing down and the dust is the only thing that Lizabeth can remember. It also represents barrenness because the yards are empty and there is nothing there but dirt, except for Miss Lottie’s yard.

Marigolds by Eugene Colliene is about a girl living during the Great Depression and is going through hard times. Characterization develops in this story because Lizabeth says, feels, and does many things. Conflict then develops because there is a lot of conflict that encounters in this story. Symbolism also develops because the marigolds and the dust mean a lot in the story.