Marigolds

Make the Connection

Quickwrite
This story is about the passage from childhood to adulthood, a journey that is often
marked by conflict. In fact, negotiating this passage can demand as much courage as a
struggle with an outside enemy. Before you read this story, write down your response to
the following question: What fears and conflicts do most young people deal with as they
move into adult life? Keep your notes for use later on.

Literary Focus
Conflict: Battles Within and Without
Conflict, or struggle, is the heart of a story. When characters struggle against something
outside themselves, their conflicts are external. Characters with internal conflicts
struggle to resolve contradictory desires or to battle personal problems, such as fear or
anger. The most intense conflicts occur when characters face both kinds of battles.

“Marigolds” includes a violent external confrontation, but important internal conflicts

also take place in Lizabeth.

Reading Skills
Making Inferences About Motivation
When you think about why conflicts occur and why characters behave as they do, you are
trying to determine their motivation, the reasons for their actions. Often writers don’t
make direct statements about their characters. Instead, they expect you to make
inferences, or educated guesses, based on clues in the text, such as a character’s actions
and words. As you read “Marigolds,” think about the characters’ motivations. The
questions at the open-book signs will help you.

Background

In the 1930s, a terrible economic depression swept the world. The booming stock market
had collapsed in 1929, causing businesses to shut down all over America and factories to
close their doors. Banks failed. People lost their life savings. Life was hard for almost
every American during those years. As the narrator of this story says, however, the Great
Depression was nothing new to her family: For the black families of rural Maryland, all
times were hard times.
Vocabulary Development

arid adj.: lacking enough water for many types of plants to grow; dry.

futile adj.: useless; vain.

impoverished v. used as adj.: poor; poverty-stricken.

poignantly adv.: with a sharp sadness or pain; movingly.

clarity n.: clearness.

placidly adv.: calmly; quietly.

inciting v. used as n.: stirring up.

malicious adj.: showing a desire to harm another; spiteful.

contrition n.: deep feelings of guilt and repentance.

1. During the Great Depression, Looking for Work seemed ___________________.

2. The _________________ soil made it difficult to grow crops.

3. The contented old woman worked __________________ in her garden.

4. The girl’s behavior had been ____________________; she had stirred up trouble
by ___________________ the others.

5. Afterward, the child felt _______________________.

6. She saw her own actions with ______________________.

7. The girl looked _____________________ at the ___________________ old

woman, who never planted marigolds again.