A review by furtivesun
Marigolds by Eugenia Collier

3.0

A short and sad read. I think it speaks, more than anything, of the people whom even when trapped in struggling circumstances, still puts meaning and value to things in order to keep moving forward, and the people with the same circumstances that will undermine others' efforts and progress out of envy or spite. Thus, this enables the group's collective demise. Similar to the metaphor that refers to a pot of crabs, in which one tries to crawl out of it but is prevented from escaping by the other crabs, leaving them all stuck. This is described as "If I can't have what I want, then neither can you" kind of thinking, and is more prevalent in reality. The lost of innocence replaced by compassion is only a result of this realization — looking beyond oneself into the efforts of another struggling person to live day by day.