payment page
Lizabeth
The story’s narrator who recalls a pivotal day when she was fourteen years old. When her father loses his work and dignity during the Depression, Lizabeth realizes that he is not the “rock” of the family as she assumed. This realization cracks the protective innocence of her childhood, and in her confusion and fear, she destroys a neighbor’s vibrant marigolds whose sunny colors are so out of place in the impoverished community that Lizabeth cannot bear to see them. As an adult, Lizabeth understands the challenges of maturity, which she has now faced, too. She sees that only after childish naivete ends can people see each other with compassion.
Read an in-depth analysis of Lizabeth.
Miss Lottie Burke
An elderly neighbor who keeps to herself in her dilapidated old house. Miss Lottie cares for her son John, a man with intellectual disabilities, but her great joy in life is tending her marigolds, which grow to beautiful abundance under her care until Lizabeth destroys them.
Read an in-depth analysis of Miss Lottie Burke.
John Burke
Miss Lottie’s intellectually disabled son, whom the neighborhood children taunt.
Joey
Lizabeth’s younger brother. Joey is lively, loud, and mischievous. He leads the little gang of neighborhood children and is a near-constant companion of his sister, who can find him annoying but does not push him away. Joey is unaware of his parents’ economic struggles.
Lizabeth’s parents
Maybelle and Lizabeth’s unnamed father, hard-working and loving but economically distressed. Maybelle works long hours cooking and cleaning for a white family and is gone till late each workday. Her husband is, like so many men during the Depression, unemployed and deeply discouraged.
