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Marigolds takes place during the good Depression, which to be a time of intense strife throughout the nation. Lizabeth is a 14-year-old girl that sees her mommy work hard at home and her father fight with unemployment. She stays in a bad neighborhood and also deals with concerns like hunger and also lack of sources each day. She build resentment and anger as she discovers the strain she parents challenge each day. One day, she lashes out against Ms. Lottie"s marigolds. She destroys them and realizes the Ms. Lottie observed her execute it.
Poverty
The very first theme introduced in Marigolds is the of poverty. Lizabeth"s parents space overworked, continually worried around providing because that the family. She hears she father crying around his feel of inadequacy. He fears he can"t feeding the family. Lizabeth feel angry due to the fact that their lack at work-related is for this reason notable, and this is as soon as she lashes out on Ms. Lottie"s garden the beautiful marigolds.
Poverty is interwoven into the cloth of the story indigenous the beginning. Not only does Lizabeth live in poverty, but it likewise impacts her decisions. She feels intense anger because of the poverty she experiences, particularly after she sees she father"s experience with poverty.
Shame
Lizabeth exhibits dead throughout the story. For example, she discusses the shame she felt as soon as she stood end the marigolds once Ms. Lottie saw what she had done. Later on on, she grows to realize the Ms. Lottie was trying to flourish something beautiful in the midst of poverty. She was trying to fight ugliness v beauty, and Lizabeth realizes she stomped all over this.
Lizabeth is not the only character who exhibits this emotion. She father additionally expresses shame. Lizabeth overhears she father crying, i beg your pardon alarms her. She has actually never checked out or heard a guy cry before, and this upsets her terribly.
Maturity
Lizabeth matures transparent Marigolds. At the beginning of the story, Lizabeth feels together if she need to throw rocks at the marigolds through her brother because she does not want to be a coward. She go not have actually the toughness or maturity to stand as much as him and also say she does not desire to destroy the marigolds. Later on in she life, she deserve to look earlier at this time and also see the she to be immature. She acknowledges the event readjusted her.
Innocence and also Compassion
By the finish of the story, Lizabeth claims that just through losing innocence can one acquire compassion. It is through Lizabeth"s loss of innocence, her violent act, the she to learn to have compassion because that Ms. Lottie. When human being are innocent, they room unaware the the enduring of others. It was in the minute that Lizabeth establish what she"d done in a rage that she developed compassion. She realized the she was no the only human being with struggles.
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Hope
Ms. Lottie tree the marigolds together a method to hope for prosperity and also fortune. She flowers indicate what she hopes the future will look like. When Lizabeth destroys the flowers, she could additionally be stood for as damaging hope.