The Marigold

            Have you ever looked back and compared who you were then with whom you are now? In “The Marigold”, Lizabeth looks back at the memory that turned her into a woman.  Lizabeth, being an immature, creative leader, lead her to crush Miss Lottie’s marigolds – the only thing beautiful in their town. In the end, she learns a life lesson and plants marigolds.

          In the memory, Lizabeth is immature. When her brother, Joey, accused Lizabeth of being scared, she cursed and spat on the floor saying, “Y’all children get the stones, I’ll show you how to use ‘em”. It shows immaturity because she cares about what other people think of her. Seeing Miss Lottie in so much rage, went to Lizabeth’s head. She ran up to Miss Lottie and chanted: “Old witch, fell in a ditch, picked up a penny, and thought she was rich.” Her being immature, lead to her hurting Miss Lottie emotionally. Her immaturity caused her to be blinded and not see that what shat she was doing was wrong. After destroying Miss Lottie’s Marigold’s, she understood why she grew them in the first place. That was when Lizabeth “became a woman.”

          All the kids following Lizabeth makes her a leader. Lizabeth threw the first pebble at Miss Lottie’s marigolds. Shortly after Lizabeth started the chant: “Old witch, fell in a ditch, picked up a penny and thought she was rich”, everyone else “swarmed around Miss Lottie like Bees”. If Lizabeth wasn’t a leader, the other kids wouldn’t have been tagging along in the teasement of Miss Lottie. All the pranks make Lizabeth Creative. The older Lizabeth said “We children made a game of thinking of ways to disturb John Burke and then to elude his violent retribution.” They have nothing to do all day and make up games to have fun. A game the kids think is always fun, unfortunately, involves emotionally hurting Miss Lottie. If Lizabeth wasn’t creative, the kid’s games wouldn’t have been as harsh as it was.

Lizabeth is immature, creative, and a leader. Her personality lead to Miss Lottie’s marigolds to be forever destroyed. Learning her lesson, she planted Marigolds herself. She is no longer immature, but a “woman”.