The Importance of Beauty Theme Analysis

When Lizabeth thinks about the shantytown where she grew up, what she remembers most is dust. She doesn’t recall any green lawns or leafy trees—just brown, crumbly dust. Miss Lottie’s sunny yellow marigolds provide the only splash of beauty and color in town, but Lizabeth and the other children hate those flowers. While the children don’t understand why they hate the marigolds, the story suggests a reason: they find the flowers too beautiful—the marigolds stand out against the ugliness of the rest of the town. The implication seems to be that poverty and ugliness aren’t so bad as long as it’s all the children know, but when something like the marigolds reminds them of their difficult circumstances, it enrages them.

While the children hate the flowers for symbolizing something they can’t access and don’t understand—namely, beauty and a better life—Miss Lottie has a different attitude. She is the most destitute of all the town’s residents, but the marigolds don’t enrage her by reminding her of her misfortune. Instead, she cherishes them, spending her time planting and nurturing those flowers year after year, all summer long. If poverty and misery are represented by the absence of color, then Miss Lottie’s colorful marigolds represent a resistance to misery. Though Miss Lottie lives in a ramshackle building and is ostracized by the town, she still has beauty and meaning in her life as long as she has her marigolds.

Lizabeth destroys the marigolds out of misguided rage, but she realizes their value immediately afterwards, regretting her childish behavior. Life can be as barren as a dusty road, and sometimes it takes courage and effort to find the beauty in it.