Marigolds

“Whenever the memory of those marigolds flashes across my mind, a strange nostalgia comes with it and remains long after the picture has faded. I feel again the chaotic emotions of adolescence, elusive as smoke, yet as real as the potted geranium before me now. Joy and rage and wild animal gladness and shame become tangled together in the multicolored skein of 14-going-on-15, as I recall that devastating moment when I was suddenly more woman than child, years ago in Miss Lottie’s yard.”

This quote explores Lizabeth’s internal conflict between her burgeoning womanhood and her childhood. The climactic moment is foreshadowed through her preoccupation with the marigolds and her lingering guilt.

“Nor did we wait for hard work and thrift to pay off in shining success as the American Dream promised, for we knew better than that, too.”

This passage reflects the hypocrisy within the economic system that has beaten down the community where Lizabeth lives. While white people might expect the “American Dream” to pay off, the Black community deals with both economic hardship and racism and knows that there are innumerable barriers in place to keep them from reaching the promised “American Dream.” In this landscape, the Great Depression is an added insult to already difficult lives.

“Poverty was the cage in which we were all trapped, and our hatred of it was still the vague, undirected restlessness of the zoo-bred flamingo who knows instinctually that nature created it to be free.”

This passage reflects the theme of The Eroding Impact of Poverty, where the children are slowly becoming aware that their circumstances are bleak. This awakening to an unfair reality—in particular, the reality of being a poor Black child during the Great Depression—implies a slow loss of innocence.