Beauty and Light In Darkness

Beauty and Light in Darkness
Eugenia W. Collier's short story Marigolds follows the journey of a young girl as she goes through an incident that transforms her from a kid to a lady. The conflict surround’s the young girl’s quest to discover who she is while growing up in a poor Maryland community during the Great Depression. Miss Lottie is an essential figure we will talk about because she helped the young girl transition. On the other hand, in their eyes were watching God, the story highlights Janie's mission for unrestricted, earnest, and satisfying affection. All through her life, she has encountered a few kinds of adoration. Janie procures her own autonomy and individual flexibility because of her quest for adoration, making her a genuine champion in the story. Both figures in the books try in the little way they could to create beauty and light in the midst of darkness. It is critical to recognize how much the notion of entrapment still applies to the unfortunate as they strive to sustain their lives.
Miss Lottie is the story's antagonist. Miss Lottie is an important character in the novel since she is the one who understands life despite languishing in poverty, and will help another character, Lizabeth grasp it as well. The author explains to us that Miss Lottie's home was one of the most run-down of all run-down houses in the neighborhood. Its frail structure had long since faded due to the heat and weather. In front of this run-down house, was a marigold garden that completely changed the picture of her home. Miss Lottie’s view of life was completely different from others. The author writes, “Miss Lottie’s marigolds were perhaps the strangest part of the picture. Certainly they did not fit in with the crumbling decay of the rest of her yard. Beyond the dusty brown yard, in front of the sorry gray house, rose suddenly and shockingly a dazzling strip of bright blossoms, clumped together in enormous mounds, warm and passionate and sun-golden”( Eugenia, 3). This act of Miss Lottie proves that she saw the beauty of life despite the poverty that had stricken almost everybody that surrounded her
In their eyes were watching God Janie gains autonomy through her quest for affection and the misfortunes she experiences. Janie's autonomy arises slowly all through the account. At the point when she gathers the guts to leave her cold marriage with Logan to take off with Joe Starks, she shows a flash of autonomy. All through her union with Joe, however, her autonomy fortifies. The author write, “Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, and things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches” (40). Janie procures internal strength as Joe sees her as a belonging as opposed to his significant other. Her mental fortitude develops, and at some point, before the patio sitters, she faces Joe and safeguards herself. Janie's most memorable outward sign of her inward strength is this demonstration. As Joe becomes more vulnerable, her power and freedom develop. Notwithstanding his removal from his room, Janie visits him.
Jeff is a true definition of when life throws you lemons, make a lemonade out of it. Jeff and I went to middle school together and even after we finished school we still remained friends. His parents were unable to afford his high school fees and so he had to hustle his way in life from a young age. Fortunately, life was fair enough for him and a business he had started was booming. He became huge in business such that he was solely able to support his parents and even pay his siblings school fees. However, a few years ago, he started ailing which began just as a simple headache that would last few minutes, then hours, until one day he could not bare it. Upon diagnosis, it turned out that he had diabetic retinopathy. Doctors told him that at the stage where the disease had reached, there were high chances of him losing his sight. A true to these words two years later Jeff became blind. The crazy part about this is that after he lost his sight, he began engaging in activities he hardly thought of when he had sight like football. He has embraced life so positively that he now travels around the world encouraging people who have lost sight in adulthood.
All the character in this essay had their own ways of creating light in darkness. Miss Lottie’s approach of life changed lives and particularly that of Lizabeth. Janie on the other hand, looked for love in all places and when she became disappointed, instead of quitting, she searches even more until she finally becomes independent. Consequently, Jeff is the completely opposite of what many would have done in his position. And through their bravery, all of them are rewarded in different ways. This shows that behind every struggle, joy prevails. People should never let entrapment define who they are.
Work Cited
Collier, Eugenia. "Marigolds." African American literature: Voices in a tradition (1992).
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their eyes were watching God. Prabhat Prakashan, 2020.