The Marigolds- Lizabeth

Because of her going through depression and regretting mistakes she has done, Lizabeth’s maturity level has risen and so has her understanding of life– causing this to make up the person she is today. To begin with, Lizabeth’s depression interferes with her teenage experience. “When I think of the hometown of my youth, all that I seem to remember is dust– the brown, crumbly dust of late summer– arid, sterile dust that gets into the throat between the toes of bare brown feet. According to the story, Lizabeth sounds like a depressed person that would rather stay in the house all day alone than go outside and have fun with friends. She is letting the Great Depression ruin her one-in-a-lifetime experience that no child will ever forget. “And so, when I think of that time and that place, I remember only the dry September of the dirt roads and grassless yards of the shantytown where I lived. ” Lizabeth only thinks of her past and remembers it better than any other of her childhood memories.

The reason is because the depression has a huge effect on her and her family’s life because they are poor and they live in poverty. Also, it is difficult to make a living off of so little money back then, especially with only the mom working. It is also hard to support a family with only one person working. Not only does Lizabeth suffer from depression but she also has regrets. “I feel again the chaotic emotions of adolescence, illusive as smoke, yet as real as the potted geranium before me now. Lizabeth regrets what she does in the past and she cannot find any way to deserve forgiveness. Lizabeth is a confusing teenager that still believes she has no idea why these things have been happening to her. Furthermore, Lizabeth’s maturity level rises as she deals with her problems as an adult rather than be childish about things. “Joy and rage and wild animal gladness and shame become tangled together in multicolored skein of fourteen-going-on-fifteen as I recall that devastating moment when I was suddenly more woman than child, years ago in Miss Lottie’s yard. “We children, of course, were only vaguely aware of the extent of our poverty. Having no radios, few newspapers, and no magazines, we were somewhat unaware of the world outside of our community. ” Lizabeth knows that the Great Depression is going on but she isn’t worried because she has always been living in poverty; with no communications with the outside world she will never know how poor her lifestyle really is.

Last but not least, although Lizabeth is a confused teenager, she still knows her right from wrong and she is shameful of the disrespectful and rude remarks she makes at Miss Lottie. “Of course I could not express the things that I knew about Miss Lottie as I stood there awkward and ashamed. ” “For one does not have to be ignorant and poor to find that his life is as barren as the dusty yards of our town. And I have too planted marigolds. ” Lizabeth finally accepts who she is as a person and does the right thing by moving on and forgetting the past.