The author of “Marigolds” uses diction, imagery, and flashbacks to create the narrator's voice throughout the story. Imagery is visually descriptive or figurative language. Words that put a picture in your mind so you know what it looks like. Eugenia uses imagery in the story when she explains flashbacks and foreshadowing. “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 eyes and makes them water, gets into the throat and between the toes of bare brown feet” (Collier 16). She also uses diction throughout the story. Diction is the choice and use of words and phrases. “There it stood and as far as I know is standing yet--a gray, rotting thing with no …show more content…
“Miss Lottie seemed to be at least a hundred years old. Her big frame still held traces of the tall, powerful woman she must have been in her youth, although it was now bent and drawn. Her smooth skin was dark reddish brown, and her face had Indian faces” (Collier 19). The explanation of Miss Lottie puts the image in your mind of a tall, dark skinned woman that is old. The imagery used here helps you understand a little more about what's going on, what she looks like, and what is happening. Collier also uses imagery when it comes to the Marigolds. “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 blossoms, clumped together in enormous mounds, warm and passionate and sun-golden” (Collier 19). The imagery used here shows us that there is a small, beat up house that doesn't have a nice front yard. But there are flowers, that make the house stand out. The imagery in this story is unreal and makes the story really
“Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier is a personal narrative of the challenges that adolescents face with coming of age. The author is able to accurately capture the voice of her younger self-using literary devices such as imagery, juxtaposition, and diction. The author uses these literary devices to give the reader a precise representation of the struggles she surpassed, which pushed her towards adulthood. The first literary device the author uses to communicate the endeavors of childhood is juxtaposition