"Marigolds" is a short story written by American author Eugenia Collier that was first published in 1969. It tells the story of Lizabeth, a young girl that lives in rural Maryland during the Great Depression. The main themes of the story are maturity and how this affects the relationship between compassion and innocence.
Lizabeth is a 14 year old girl, at a pivotal moment in a girl's life when she starts to realize that she is growing into a woman. These "chaotic emotions of adolescence" play a key role in motivating Lizabeth to taunt Miss Lottie, as she is now old enough to feel the anger and pain of living in her circumstances, but not old enough to learn to control these emotions in a healthy way.
