Eugenia Collier's “Worries” is the memoir of a young girl of color living in the Great Depression. The story does not focus on the problems that society presents to the narrator (Elizabeth), but rather on the conflict within her. Collier uses the worries to show that the changes between childhood and adulthood cause fear in Elizabeth, which is the enemy of compassion and hope. “Marigolds” is about change. Collier chose a "fourteen and fifteen" (1) year old girl because the transition from childhood to adulthood adds layers of conflict to the story. The initially obvious conflict is that of the woman and child inside Elizabeth. She represents the child when she tears away the marigolds: “The fresh smell of early morning and dew-soaked marigolds spurred me on as I went to tear and mutilate and sob” (5). She (as a child) internally struggles with being a woman. At the end of her rampage, she is “more woman than child” (1), and the child in her loses the battle. As a woman, she gains “a kind of reality hidden until childhood” (5). The second conflict is also symbolic. Elizabeth represents fear. She feels that "something old and familiar [is] ending and something unknown and therefore terrifying [is] beginning" (1). Worries represent hope. The reason for his “great impulse toward destruction” (4) was a combination of fear for the future and bitterness toward the past. In this conflict, fear wins because Miss Lottie “never [plants] worries again” (5). The third conflict is the most important. This takes place inside Elizabeth and is also between fear and hope. At the end of the story, fear may win symbolically, but hope wins inside Elizabeth: "In this humiliating moment, I looked beyond myself and into the depths of another person. This was the beginning of compassion” (5). Not only does Collier use age to create depth of conflict, but she also uses Elizabeth's attitude. The first conflict (the transition from childhood to adulthood) could be sufficient in itself. If Collier had created an optimistic character, it would not have allowed Elizabeth to struggle between fear and hope. By creating a pessimistic character, Collier shows that she is bitter and fearful. This is evident in his statement that his "hatred of [poverty] was still the vague, undirected agitation of a zoo-raised flamingo who knows that nature created him to fly freely." ».” (1).