The short story "Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier revolves around the character Lizabeth and her search for her identity living in a poor Maryland society. Not only that, the plot also shows poverty and backward issues that was prevalent during the Great Depression that overtook the place.
The narrator Lizabeth uses the words "dust" and "gray" in describing the poverty of the scene/place she was from. The dust represents the sadness, the absence of life in that dilapidated village of hers, whereas the gray is more related to the description of the house of Miss Lottie. The house that Miss Lottie lived in was a 'sorry' house, almost as if it was just some cardboard put together by a small kid, to be easily blown down by the wind. The narrator also admits at the end of the story that <em>"the dust and squalor"</em> of the place she used to call home was just some place that she would not forget, and the "<em>marigolds</em>" of Miss Lottie that she had destroyed in a rage when she was a child.
I think this means that the dead wood (useless/burdensome people or things) are the same anywhere they are. So the useless are useless not only in one situation but useless all around.
Explanation:
Example: He cut the "deadwood" from the group. So he is getting rid of the useless people in the group.
