The Cage Of Poverty In Marigolds By Eugenia Collier
The Cage of Poverty In the short story Marigolds , the author, Eugenia Collier, uses
several key events throughout the short story to represent the unseen cage that the
main character, Lizabeth, is trapped in, and ultimately breaks. The story is set in a
shanty town, likely taking place during the Great Depression. Throughout the
story, Lizabeth goes through a difficult stage in life, a stage in which she is in
conflict about whether she wants to be a carefree, innocent child, or an educated,
compassionate adult. The climax of the story, when Lizabeth tears and rips up
Miss Lottie s marigolds, is such an emotional moment for Lizabeth that she finally
completes her transition to adulthood, understands her endless cycle of poverty,
and breaks the final bar of the cage. The author uses a seemingly endless cycle of
poverty to emphasize the cage in which the characters are trapped. As Lizabeth
muses over her childhood, she recalls the daily cycle of how each morning our
mother and father trudged wearily down the dirt road and around the bend, she to
her domestic job, he to his daily unsuccessful quest for work. (1). Every morning
began the same way, passed the same way, and ended the same way. Lizabeth feels
trapped, forced to go through the same series of events for what seems to be the
rest of her life, with the same people, in the same place. When the author pairs this
with the dusty setting of the town and the time placement of the Great Depression,
it creates an effect of hopelessness for the first part of the story. This is only
furthered by Lizabeth continually returning to the idea that Poverty was the cage in
which we were all trapped. (1). Lizabeth opens the story by first giving a
description of her hometown as dusty , remembering the poverty and hopelessness.
She then continues by referring to the cage of not having enough money, and the
cycle that it put them through, and ends by alluding to her future being limited to
her poverty. As the story progresses, so does Lizabeth. Having entered a difficult
stage of her identity, Lizabeth is unsure of whether to be an innocent, carefree child,
or to be a knowledgeable, aware adult. She begins to sense a change in the coming,
and a feeling of end