Eugenia Collier's Marigolds: An Analysis

It’s almost the middle of May, and it seems like just yesterday that I walked into your class on the first day of school. At that point, I had band first period. I’ve been through three different first period classes this year -- band, study hall, and finally, Spanish. I’d heard a lot about you and your Honors English class before the first day of school. In fact, I checked with all of my older friends at Amity to find out about my classes and my teachers. A lot of people enter your class with preconceived notions of soon-to-come “failing grades” and lots of stress. I was actually looking forward to your class. Going into Honors English, I was hoping I’d get you as my teacher. It’s not very nice to say, but I let out a little sigh of relief when I saw your name on my schedule and not Ms. Wentworth’s. This is all about honesty, though. Right? Anyways, I was ecstatic to be in your class. I can tell you know that Honors English II second period has certainly lived up to my expectations. I remember the assignment you gave us at the beginning of the year about a certain Tony …show more content…
Throughout the story, Lizabeth and Miss Lottie, a very poor old woman, experience hope in similar ways. Lizabeth describes her neighbor, “Now at the end of that life [Miss Lottie] had nothing except a falling-down hut, a wrecked body, and John Burke, the mindless son of her passion. Whatever verve there was left in her, whatever was of love and beauty and joy that had not been squeezed out by life, had been there in the marigolds she had so tenderly cared for” (638). Miss Lottie believed in her Marigolds, which were a symbol of the hope John Burke and her poverty were unable to provide. When a person has a belief to give her hope for the future, it makes her present hardship easier to