Eugenia Collier's Marigolds

The short story Marigolds by Eugenia Collier illustrates the story of a teenager slowly maturing into an adult. In the story, Lizebeth slowly learns more about adulthood and matures into an adult near the end of the story. By the end of the short story, Lizebeth has learned everything and becomes an adult.

In the beginning, Lizbeth is behaving like a child, pranking Miss Lottie and destroying her flowers. This shows us how Lizebeth acted at the beginning. The text states that “I leaped furiously into the mounds of marigolds and pulled madly, trampling and pulling and destroying her perfect yellow blooms” (Collier 333). In other words, Lizebeth is still acting like a child, not thinking about what her actions can do. It does not come to her to think about what she did to the flowers and how it impacted Miss Lottie. These details matter because it shows the reader how Lizebeth acted.

She overhears her parents talking about the hardships that they have to deal with. According to the author, the text states, “The world had lost its boundary lines. My mother, who was small and soft, was now the strength of the family; my father, who was the rock on which the family had been built, was sobbing like the tiniest child. Everything was suddenly out of tune, like a broken accordion. Where did I fit into this crazy picture? I do not now remember my thoughts, only a feeling of great bewilderment and fear” (Collier lines 287”. This means that Lizabeth is confused about everything that's happening around her. When her father cries, she is shocked about it since he is a strong-looking man, and it causes her to think about why everything is changing around her. This quote is important since it explains how, in her mind, she doesn’t fit into what is