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Metaphors
Definition of Mood
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect of a piece of writing... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes... read full definition
Mood
Explanation and Analysis:
The mood of “Marigolds” is primarily heavy and bleak, with some moments of lightness. The heaviness of the story centers on the impoverished conditions in which Lizabeth and her Black working-class family and community live during the Great Depression.
While Lizabeth starts out a young and easygoing child, over the course of the story she wakes up to the reality of her family’s poverty—and resulting unhappiness—and a series of painful actions result. She decides to take her rage about her family's circumstances out on her neighbor Miss Lottie’s prized marigolds and then reckons with the emotional pain she has caused the older woman by destroying the one source of beauty she had in her life. The following passage captures the emotionally weighty and turbulent mood as Lizabeth faces what she has done:
That violent, crazy act was the last act of childhood. For as I gazed at the immobile face with the weary eyes, I gazed upon a kind of reality which is hidden to childhood. The witch was no longer a witch but only a broken old woman who had dared to create beauty in the midst of ugliness and sterility. […] Whatever verve there was left in her, whatever there was of love and beauty and joy that had not been squeezed out by life, had been there in the marigolds she had so lovingly tended.
The heavy mood of this passage comes across in phrases like “that violent, crazy act,” “immobile face,” “weary eyes,” “broken old woman,” and “love and beauty and joy […] squeezed out by life.” This moment is a significant one in which Lizabeth matures from a child into an adult as she faces the fact that she ruined the one source of “beauty in the midst of the ugliness and sterility” in Miss Lottie’s life (as well as in their community), and the heavy mood captures both the pain and importance of such a moment.
Related Themes:
