Lizabeth's Marigolds

The central idea of the story, “Marigolds”, is about a girl going through the struggles of growing up. The story is set during the Great Depression, and the main character, Lizabeth, is going through the stages of becoming a young woman. An older woman named Miss Lottie planted marigolds in her yard, and Lizabeth and her friends end up destroying them just for entertainment and to make Miss Lottie angry. Lizabeth realizes that right after she destroys the marigolds, she feels guilty. The theme of “Marigolds”, which is maturation, is shown when Lizabeth taunts Miss Lottie, hears her father break down, and after she wreaks havoc on the marigolds.

One reason the theme of “Marigolds” is maturation is when Lizabeth taunts Miss Lottie. Lizabeth and her friends go to Miss Lottie’s house because they want to destroy her marigolds just for fun. According the the text, it states, “Actually, I think it was the flowers that we wanted to destroy, but nobody had the nerves to try it, not even Joey, who was usually fool enough to try anything.” At this point, Lizabeth wanted to show …show more content…
In the story it says, “I leaped furiously into mounds of marigolds and pulled madly, trampling and pulling and destroying the perfect yellow blooms.” Lizabeth got so angry with everything that was happening and ended up going back to the marigolds and destroying the rest of them. The text also says, “‘M-miss Lottie!’ I scrambled to my feet and just stood there and stared at her, and that was the moment when childhood faded and womanhood began. That violent, crazy act was the last act of childhood.” Lizabeth finally realized that she wasn’t a child anymore and that she had matured to become a young woman. This is also very relatable because it can be hard to grow up sometimes for everybody, and it can be a long