Perseverance In Marigold's Poverty In America Is Mainstream

To Persevere

Poverty, famine, and hardship are all common struggles in today’s society, but along with this struggle comes a strong sense of perseverance and determination. This is constantly show throughout our daily lives and in many fictional and non fiction writings. From the fact based story of “Marigolds”, the insightful article “Poverty in America is Mainstream”, and the haunting speech “What is Poverty; To the streets of many present day communities. It is clear that poverty is not foreign in today’s society, but even then, it is rarely openly talked about. Perseverance is a common trait displayed and shared by Jo Goodwin Parker’s speech, Mrs. Lottie, and the article “Poverty in America is Mainstream.” These three writings are

This trait is especially show through Miss Lottie, an old women who plants marigold flowers because she is poor and has nothing else, “ Miss Lottie’s marigolds were perhaps the strangest part of the picture. Certainly they did not fit in with the crumbling decay of the rest of her yard” (Collier 3). This passage displays a strong yet understated sense of determination. The writer automaticly makes it clear that Miss Lottie’s flowers do not belong, but she planted them anyways. Miss Lottie refused to accept that she had nothing but an impoverished life, her marigolds represent a hidden metaphor that beauty can be found anywhere, even a place where it does not belong. The second quote to show Miss Lottie’s persistence is after Lizabeth destroyed her flower’s, “The witch was no longer a witch but only a broken old women who had dared to create beauty in the midst of ugliness and sterility. She had been born in squalor and lived in it all her life” (Collier 5). This sentence demonstrates the point where Lizabeth realized that Miss Lottie was impoverished as well. She is starting to recognise that Miss Lottie’s flowers represented the hope of better times to come. However, when Lizabeth demolished the flowers, she simultaneously destroyed a symbol of hope in Miss Lottie’s life. At the end of the story, Lizabeth releases the symbol of hope and determination the flowers portrayed. She now understands and relates to Miss Lottie at a deeper level. “Now at the end of her life she had nothing except a falling down hut, a wrecked body, and John Burke, the mindless son of her passion” (Collier 5). At this point in the story Miss Lottie is now reduced to a broken old women with nothing but an impoverished life and a disabled son. It may seem as though her dreams and perseverance were wasted but they were not. The message of