Marigolds

Lizabeth is the narrator of this first-person short story, narrating from her much older perspective and reflecting on a late summer day when she was 14. She explores the series of events that marked her Coming of Age as she realized her family’s dire circumstances during the Great Depression.

In the first few pages, Lizabeth spends the summer running wild with her younger brother and other children around their neighborhood and describes herself as having childish bravado and fearlessness. At the same time, this summer is different because the year stands out as having “a strange restlessness of body and of spirit, a feeling that something old and familiar was ending, and something unknown and therefore terrifying was beginning” (2). Lizabeth’s unease with her growing maturity reappears when she throws stones at Miss Lottie’s marigolds and then taunts the elderly woman until Miss Lottie’s son runs after her and the children. Despite her actions, she does not share in the other children’s merriment over the prank and feels remorse and shame for what she’s done. Her reaction illustrates the distance she feels between the children and herself. She no longer feels she belongs among them and their games, but she has not determined where she belongs.