The Use Of Figurative Language In Eugenia Collier's Marigolds

Actions provoked by fear and desperation nurture perturbed emotions, particularly in adolescence. The impenetrable will of hopelessness is dissected and empathized in Eugenia Collier’s short fiction story, Marigolds. The study sync excerpt revolves around a young impoverished teen, Lizabeth, who seeks hope in a bundle of rage, sorrow, and uncertainty. She, a person of color during The Great Depression, sought entertainment/joy by meddling with an elderly woman in her neighborhood, Miss Lottie. However, the supposed “meddling” would lead Lizabeth into a (dire or empathetic) reality which The Great Depression proposed for all. Collier kindles empathy by structuring conflicts, figurative language, and symbols that provide the reader with a literary experience of her characters’ lives.
The author utilizes Lizabeth's shame and regret to evoke empathetic feelings within the reader. After destroying Miss Lottie’s marigolds Lizabeth is “ashamed”, “the child in [her] sulked and said it was all in fun”, but “the woman in [her]” reproached the human she had become (Collier 10). As a young black woman during a dusty Depression era, Lizabeth experiences conflict with life. Lizabeth’s rage, shame, chagrin, and fear originate from a joyful

Lizabeth and the children “hated those marigolds”, those peculiar organisms “interfered with the perfect ugliness of the place” their beauty “said too much”; it “did not make sense” nor did the necessity to uproot “weeds” (Collier 8). The children, or the weeds, felt intimidated by these beautiful and loved marigolds. They feared the imbalance. Revenge was sought. Lizabeth and the children would destroy the flowers. The feelings instigated by those marigolds combined in one vast impulse toward destruction. The author demonstrates how one’s actions are influenced by emotional fear. Fear is shared, blemishing, and