Answer:
When “Marigolds” begins, narrator and protagonist Lizabeth is reflecting on her youth. A child of the Great Depression, she remembers the era’s pervasive dust storms more clearly than anything else. She remarks that her memory of this time is mysteriously selective, representing things not “as they are, but rather as they feel.”Focusing in on the remembered image of bright yellow marigold flowers, Lizabeth recalls a particularly painful anecdote that, to her mind, marks the transition between her childhood and her womanhood. She, her brother, and the neighborhood children used to take pleasure in antagonizing Miss Lottie, an elderly neighbor. Miss Lottie, a stern woman who dislikes children, spends her free time tending the bed of marigolds in her garden.
To the kids, Miss Lottie’s marigolds are an aberration. She and the other children loathe the flowers because their beauty stands in contrast with the pervasive ugliness and decay that define the rest of the town. In such a context, the flowers are incomprehensible.
Explanation:
