“Marigolds” Questions
1. Describe the “town of (the narrator’s) youth. Explain what this description reveals about the setting of her childhood and the type of childhood she had.
2. Describe that which symbolized life and hope in the narrator’s childhood. Explain how she feels about when she remembers these objects and why.
3. Examine the line: “I suppose that futile waiting was the sorrowful background music of our impoverished little community when I was young.” Underline words from this quote that reveal something about the narrator’s feelings during this time in her life.
4. Determine the setting of the story. Identify words and phrases that reveal the time and place.
5. Prove the hopeless feelings of “the black workers of rural Maryland” with quotes/discussion from the text.
6. How old is the narrator when the story occurs? Describe her home life/ family life.
7. Discuss how the narrator spent her days during the summer depicted in the story.
8. Explain why Joey suggests “go(ing) over to Miss Lottie’s” when they can find nothing else to do.
9. Describe Miss Lottie’s house and explain what it reveals about her. Discuss with whom she shares the house, and explain why this is sad.
10. Describe Miss Lottie and explain how the children perceive her.
11. Explain the irony of Miss Lottie’s marigolds. Explain what they symbolize to Miss Lottie. Explain what they symbolize to the narrator Lizabeth.
12. Explain why Lizabeth “was ashamed”.
13. Discuss the nature of the conversation that Lizabeth hears between her mother and father. Explain how it makes her feel and why.
14. Discuss what Lizabeth does to Miss Lottie’s marigolds and explain why. Find the quote that proves that Lizabeth feels immediate regret.
15. Discuss how Miss Lottie reacts to Lizabeth’s fit. Explain why Lizabeth describes her fit as her “last act of childhood”.
16. Find the quote that expresses what the “loss of innocence” means to Lizabeth. Now, internalize that and explain what that means to you. Explain how this has changed Lizabeth.
17. Explain what Lizabeth means at the end of the story when she says, “And I too have planted marigolds”.