Flowers and Freckle Cream by Elizabeth Ellis takes place in her childhood. Elizabeth had a cousin named Janet who was much more good-looking than her. In fact, Elizabeth even had freckles. She hadn’t even noticed until her mother made a comment about her face. Due to her “ugliness”, Elizabeth was treated differently by her family. One day, she decided she had enough and tried to get rid of her freckles all on her own. She saw a freckle-cream advertiser in Janet’s notebook and saved up her money to buy some. As it turned out, the advertisement hadn’t mentioned that it would backfire if exposed to sun. It would give the user more and darker freckles if in the sun. Elizabeth was heartbroken and everyone in her family started laughing at her even harder. Her grandfather decided to cheer her up by reminding her that there are many flowers but they are all beautiful, but Elizabeth said she hadn’t seen a flower with freckles. The next morning, her grandfather put a tiger lily by Elizabeth’s bedside, a flower with freckles, yet still gorgeous.
Humans love beauty as part of their nature and have a tendency to judge others based on looks and appearance. People may find it difficult to accept being in the same community or society as someone who they believe are not good looking. Beauty is subjective and cannot be relied on as a standard for evaluating people. In the story, Elizabeth was perceived as ugly by her family, while her cousin, Janet, was the exact opposite, with everyone admiring and adoring her. When Elizabeth tried the freckle cream and it made things worse, her family just made fun of her when they saw her, making remarks such as: “I’ve never seen you with that many freckles before.” Because Elizabeth was not as good-looking as the others, she was treated like a stranger in the family. Elizabeth’s family seemed to care deeply about beauty, so much so to the point where they valued their own daughter less than her cousin, Janet, just because of her looks. They are one of those people who judge others based on appearance and not true, proper talent. A care for appearance and beauty is rooted deep in human nature and can cause some to treat themselves or others horribly.
When people encounter differences, they sometimes bully it or treat it with a less extreme but still negative attitude. Some people are suspicious or hateful towards newcomers and/or those who they perceive as “different”. Others make fun of them for who they are and their appearance. Elizabeth was the only one in her family to have freckles and everybody treated her as if she didn’t have emotions. In fact, her parents loved her distant cousin, Janet, over their own daughter simply because she was the only one in the family to be “ugly”. When Elizabeth applied the freckle cream and it backfired, her family made hurtful remarks and poked fun at the fact that she had more freckles than ever. Elizabeth was naturally “ugly” according to herself and her family. Her family members judged her based on something that she could not control(her appearance and beauty), even putting their own daughter below her cousin simply because she was perceived as not beautiful. Only Elizabeth’s grandfather seemed to care about her feelings. People may negatively treat whom they believe to be “outsiders” or “different”.
We should all admire our natural beauty and talent and not try to alter it by artificial means, as it could make things worse. Even if we are dissatisfied with ourselves, it is still best to simply accept who we are and move on with life. It is pointless to complain about something that is predetermined and cannot be controlled or changed by us. Elizabeth tried removing her freckles by saving up her money and buying freckle cream without anybody noticing. However, the cream exacerbated her situation and rather than removing freckles, it added them. If she had not tried it, perhaps she wouldn’t have been ridiculed by her family as hard. Later, her Grandpa put a tiger lily on her bedside. Although it had freckles as well, it was still beautiful, and it was a gift from nature. The reason Elizabeth failed to improve her looks is because she did not admire the gift that nature gave her. Of course, it's hard to accept yourself when people are laughing at you, but we should all be grateful as there is always a possibility that our situation could be much worse. Although nature may not have given us the best conditions to live in, we should still be grateful for what we have.
Flowers and Freckle Cream by Elizabeth Ellis takes place in her childhood, when her family judged her based on her looks. Elizabeth’s cousin, Janet, was “more good-looking” than her. Elizabeth also had freckles which impacted her family’s opinion of her negatively. She tried to get rid of them by saving her money and ordering some freckle cream. She made sure to check the mailbox every day before anyone else so that they don’t take the freckle cream before her and bust her plan. Unfortunately, she didn’t know that the freckle cream would have the opposite effect of what was intended when exposed to sunlight. Coincidentally, she had to work in the fields and hoe tobacco with her brothers without putting on sunscreen. This story teaches us 3 important themes regarding human nature and natural beauty. First, some people have a tendency to judge based on appearance as humans prefer beauty over ugliness. Second, some are suspicious of or outright hateful and discriminatory to those who they view as different. Third and finally, we should admire what nature granted us at birth and not try to alter our natural beauty via artificial means. Here, Elizabeth reveals that we cannot simply expect others to treat us kindly while also telling a story about her childhood.
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