Marigolds By Eugenia Collier Summary

The picture I have chosen to analyze and compare with Marigolds by Eugenia W. Collier is an image of what looks like a mother with a blank stare and two small children crying her shoulders. I think this image is a fantastic comparison to Marigolds because in Collier's short story the mother has two children still living with her just like in this picture there are two children. The mother in the short story did her very best to provide for the two kids despite her husband being out of work and struggling to provide anything like we can see in this quote: "It ain’t right. Ain’t no man ought to eat his woman’s food year in and year out, and see his children running wild. Ain’t nothing right about that.” (Collier.4). The mother in Marigolds does her very best to make ends meet which must get awfully tiring which is exactly what I feel the women in (Image.1) is
Unfortunately for the children in the image I doubt they are able to run freely in the bigger cities unlike the Elizabeth and her younger brother Joey who have are able to roam freely around their community. In Marigolds Elizabeth's mother says “Look, we ain’t starving. . ." (Collier.4) ,however more than fifty percent of children in the United States were starving during the times of the great depression according to Freedman Russel "Scholars estimate that nearly 50% of children during the Great Depression did not have adequate food, shelter, or medical care. Many suffered rickets." (Russel.2005) Aside from not knowing if the children in (image.1) are malnourished or suffering from the other listed problems in Marigolds both of the children, Elizabeth and Joey, seemed to be in good health. Both were able to run, fish, throw rocks, and other childish activities. While both Marigolds and the image taken by Dorothea Lange in 1936 are both from the same time period there are some probable diferences while a lot of similarities not only with them but all across