1.

Incongruency means inconsistency or

lack of harmony or agreement.
2. Amorphous means vague or shapeless.
3. Chary means not generous.
4. Inexplicable means unexplainable or
incomprehensible.
5. Ostensibly means apparently.
6. Retribution means revenge.
7. Stoicism means calm indifference to
pleasure or pain.
8. Impotent means powerless or helpless.
9. Pallet means small bed or cot.
10. Contrition means deep feelings of guilt
and repentance.
11. Bravado means false show of bravery.
12. Squalor means filthy or shabby
condition as from poverty.
Questions about Eugenia
Collier
■What is the author’s lifestyle like?
■Were there any major events that may
have greatly influenced this author?
■Does the author have anything to gain
or to lose?
Reading the Background….
■What’s the unfortunate event that
greatly affected America and its
people?
■How did the unfortunate event
influence the life of the narrator and
her family?
Reading of the
Text
Time Starts:
After Reading
of the Text
Determining the
story theme
■Because the authors usually do not
directly state a story’s theme, and
develop it gradually over the course
of the text, you will need to look for
clues such as setting, plot events,
and the main character’s responses
to challenges.
■A story’s theme sometimes does not
become truly clear to readers until
the main character’s conflict has
been resolved.
■In your reading, take note of the
following: Who, What, When, Where,
Why and How.
■Reread Lines 1-12 and identify details
that help you the time and place of the
story.
■What do these details suggest about
what might be important to the
theme?
“the home town of my youth”; “dust of
late summer”; “lush green lawns and
paved streets under leafy shade trees
somewhere in town”; “dry September of
the dirt roads and grassless yards of the
shanty-town where I lived”

The theme may relate to poverty.

■Writers rarely state a story’s
theme.
■Details about plot events and
characters, as well as what the
narrator says throughout a story,
provide clues about its theme.
■Reread Lines 15–26 and identify
details that may relate to the author’s
lesson or message.
■What do the details suggest about the
theme?
“the memory of those marigolds . . .
remains long after the picture has faded”;
“devastating moment when I was suddenly
more woman than child, years ago in Miss
Lottie’s yard”; “think of those marigolds at
the strangest times.”

The theme has to do with growing up. It is

related to an event connected to the
marigolds in Miss Lottie’s yard.
Analyzing Language
What is Metaphor?
■is a comparison of two things that are
basically unlike but have some
qualities in common.
■It does not contain the words like or
as.
■Reread Lines 27–29 and identify the
comparison.
■How does this comparison affect the
tone or feeling in the story?
■“Futile waiting” is compared to
“sorrowful background music.”
■It suggests a feeling of desperation
and ongoing sadness.
Analyzing Stories:
Characters’
Motivation
■A character’s motivations are the
reasons for his or her actions.
■An author may state a character’s
motivation directly, or readers
may need to use details to figure
it out.
■Reread Lines 78-88 and identify how
Joey and his friends feel at this point.
■How might their feelings move the
story forward?
■“Joey and a bunch of kids were bored
now”
■They want to “go somewhere” to find
a new activity or some adventure.
Making Inferences
What is an Inference?
■refers to a logical guess that is made
based on facts and one’s own
knowledge.
■Reread the sentence in Lines 104–105.
■What can you guess about the children
and Miss Lottie?
■The narrator says that “annoying Miss
Lottie was always fun,” which suggests
that it is something the children do
often.
Analyzing Stories:
Characters’
Motivation
■Details in a text can help them
understand what is motivating
characters to do what they do.
■Reread the sentence on Line 141.
■What is motivating the children to
annoy Miss Lottie?
■They find Miss Lottie to be some sort
of challenge. She is a poor, elderly
woman, yet they are a little afraid of
her, which is probably exciting to
them.
■In Lines 128-140, the word “retribution”
appears wherein it’s used to describe
the children’s practice of goading Ms.
Lottie’s son into a violent reaction.
■Based on their actions, do these children
deserve retribution? Why?
Determining the
Theme
■In addition to being the title of the
story, were the marigolds a key
memory for the narrator?
■Reread Lines 158–174 and identify the
narrator’s description of, and reaction
to, seeing the marigolds.
■How might this aspect of the setting
contribute to the story’s theme?
■“them crazy flowers”; “strangest part of
the picture”; “did not fit in with the
crumbling decay”; “dazzling strip of bright
blossoms, clumped together in enormous
mounds, warm and passionate and sun-
golden”; “interfered with the perfect
ugliness of the place; they were too
beautiful”; “they did not make sense”

■The narrator may learn something from

the beauty of the flowers.
■In Line 146, the word “stoicism” is
mentioned to describe Ms. Lottie’s
face.
■Why might Ms. Lottie’s face show
“stern stoicism”?
■It seems that she has had a difficult
life. She may not want the children to
know how much their taunting bothers
her.
■In Line 171, the word “perverse” is
used to describe the children’s reaction
towards Ms. Lottie’s flowers.
■Why do you think that the narrator’s
use of the word “perverse”
appropriate?
■The flowers are one of the few pretty
things in the neighborhood. A natural
response would be to like them, but
the children have the opposite
reaction.
Analyzing Language
■Reread Lines 197–201 and explain
what the phrase “the bars of our cage”
refers to.
■How does the comparison add to
readers’ understanding of the
characters?
■The poverty of children’s lives is like a
cage from which they cannot escape.
■It emphasizes how little control they
have over their lives; they have little
chance of escaping the poverty in
which they live.
■In Line 195, the narrator used the word
“Bravado”.
■Why might Elizabeth make a “gesture
of phony bravado”?
■She wants the younger children to
think she is tough and brave.
Making Inferences
■What do you do when you make
inferences?
■Where do you get these?
■Reread Lines 237–248 and identify the
conflicting feelings Lizabeth is
experiencing.
■Why does she have “a particularly
bitter argument” with Joey?
■“The child in me sulked and said it was
all in fun, but the woman in me
flinched at the thought of the malicious
attack”
■She is taking her anger at herself out
on him.
■In Line 246, the word “exuberance” is
used.
■Why do you think Joey is exuberant so
long after the incident at Miss Lottie’s?
■Joey is young and probably still excited
and pleased about the attack.
Analyzing Language
■In Lines 264-265, look for the informal
negative sentences (Double
Negatives).
■Restate it.
■Ain’t nobody got nothing nowadays.
(No one has anything these days.)

■I ain’t talking about nobody else.

(I am not talking about anybody else.)
■Differentiate Simile from Metaphor.
■Are there words that differentiate them
when used?
■Reread Lines 287–293 and identify
comparisons.
■What is the impact of these
comparisons?
■“My father, who was the rock on which
the family had been built”; “sobbing
like the tiniest child”; “out of tune, like
a broken accordion”
■ They emphasize the narrator’s
confused state.
Analyzing Stories:
Characters’
Motivation
■A character’s reaction to story
events or a situation is often a
motivation for his or her
actions.
■Reread lines 287–300 and identify
details that help explain what
motivates Lizabeth to wake Joey.
■How might Lizabeth’s actions move
the story forward?
■“The world had lost its boundary lines”;
“Everything was suddenly out of tune”; “a
feeling of great bewilderment and fear”;
“wishing that I too could cry and be
comforted”; “the room was too crowded
with fear”; “the terrible aloneness of 4
a.m.”
■She seems to be at an emotional turning
point. Whatever she does next will help
bring about the story’s resolution.
■Reread Lines 324–338 and identify the
different feelings that are causing
Lizabeth to return to Miss Lottie’s.
■Why do these feelings provoke her
actions at Miss Lottie’s?)
■the “need for my mother who was never there”;
“hopelessness of our poverty and degradation”;
“bewilderment of being neither child nor
woman”; ”fear unleashed by my father’s tears”
■Her feelings “combined in one great impulse
toward destruction,” leading her to ruin the
marigold garden.
Determining the
Theme
■A symbol is a person, place, or thing
that stands for something beyond
itself.
■Thinking about what symbols stand for
can help readers understand the
theme of the story.
■Reread Lines 351–361.
■What do Miss Lottie and her marigolds
symbolize to the narrator?
■What does Lizabeth’s reaction to
seeing Miss Lottie reveal about her?
■Miss Lottie symbolizes the ugliness and
failure of the narrator’s life. The
marigolds symbolize the beauty that Miss
Lottie had tried to create, which was
ultimately destroyed. Miss Lottie’s effort
to create beauty in the midst of her ugly
surroundings was seemingly futile.
■She feels she is no longer a child.
Through Miss Lottie, she has begun to
see the world through an adult’s eyes.
■In Line 359, the word “Squalor” is used
to describe the way Miss Lottie lived.
■Why might the marigolds have been so
important to a woman who lived in
squalor?
■They served as an antidote to the
wretched conditions in which she lived.
■A theme is the message or
lesson about life that an author
wants to share.
■Reread Lines 365–386.
■What is a theme of this story?
■What text details support the theme?
■There is beauty for those willing to see
it.
■“One does not have to be ignorant and
poor to find that one’s life is barren as
the dusty yards of one’s town. And I
too have planted marigolds.”
■Write a short essay in which you
analyze how Lizabeth changes over
the course of “Marigolds”.
■Be sure to support your ideas with
sufficient evidence from the text.
Guide Questions before you
write:
■How aware is Lizabeth of her own
surroundings and the wider world?
■What does Lizabeth’s reflection at the
end of the story suggest about her
feelings toward the move into
adulthood?
■Please secure a copy of pages 226 and
227 for tomorrow’s activity.
■NO COPY, NO ENTRY.