Lizabeth's Voice In Marigolds

Marigolds Essay I read a short passage from a book called Marigolds, this book focuses on a girl named Lizabeth who’s living in poverty with her family during the great depression. Throughout the book, the author uses diction, flashbacks, juxtaposition, and imagery to convey the narrator’s - Lizabeth’s - voice. Diction is used frequently in the passage. The narrator uses diction to create voice. For example, when the narrator says “‘Y’all children get the stones, I’ll show you how to use ‘em’” (Collier, 27) and “‘I’m going out. If you want to come, come on.’” (Collier, 48) she is trying to act tough and strong. In addition to the narrator using diction, so do other characters. Miss Lottie uses diction in the passage aswell, she says “‘Git’long! John Burke! John Burke, come help!’” (Collier, 33), this quote shows Miss Lottie is angry and panicked. You can tell a lot from a character’s diction, but it’s not the only way to show voice. Imagery is a literary tool used to

The whole passage focuses on a woman’s flashback to her childhood, and the story of her coming of age, for instance: “‘When I think back to the home town of my youth’” (Collier, 1) and “‘The years have taken me worlds away from that time and that place, from the dust and squalor of our lives,” (Collier, 63). Juxtaposition is used many times aswell. In the story the narrator compares the magnificent amount of dust to the idea of green and lush grass and trees that may have been there, “I don’t know why I should remember only the dust. Surely there must have been lush green lawns and paved streets under leafy shade trees somewhere in town; but memory is an abstract painting,” (Collier, 1). Another time the narrator used juxtaposition is when she compared the bright sunlit marigolds of Miss Lottie’s yard to the brown boring dust of her hometown, “a brilliant splash of sunny yellow against the