Marigolds

“Marigolds” takes place in rural Maryland during the Great Depression (1929-1939). Eugenia Collier was born in 1928 and grew up during this time. The period and rural setting are crucial to the understanding of the story. The Great Depression involved widespread unemployment and poverty, which caused massive social upheaval that disproportionately impacted Black communities.

These circumstances are reflected in the protagonist’s, Lizabeth’s, family. Early in the story, Lizabeth mentions that she and her brother are the only children at home anymore because her older siblings have left for early marriages or to find work in the city. Her younger siblings have gone to live with relatives because her parents cannot afford to keep them. Such circumstances would not have been abnormal at the time because there was a mass migration as people moved from rural areas to cities in search of stable work.

The Great Depression’s negative impacts were felt more acutely by the Black community: “By 1932, approximately half of African Americans were out of work. In some Northern cities, whites called for African Americans to be fired from any jobs as long as there were whites out of work” (“Race Relations in the 1930s and 1940s,” The Library of Congress).

The lack of work and widespread poverty creates a hopelessness in Lizabeth’s African American community that is reflected in the actions of the children that she plays with and in Lizabeth herself. Her Coming of Age involves her beginning to grapple with the many ways that poverty and racism impact her life and the lives of the people around her that she cares for.