9th Grade Recommended Reading List: "Marigolds"

Marigolds are tropical American plants with showy yellow or orange flowers. But in Eugenia Collier's short story, they mean much more to the old woman who grows them, the young girl who destroys them, and the grown-up narrator who remembers them.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 9 Unit 1's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Speak, Marigolds, Always Running, 'Race' Politics, WMDs, Chuck Liddell, Address to America's Schoolchildren, An Early Start on College, Why College Isn't for Everyone, Actually, College Is Very Much Worth It
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. nostalgia
    a longing for something past
    Whenever the memory of those marigolds flashes across my mind, a strange nostalgia comes with it and remains long after the picture has faded.
  2. chaotic
    completely unordered and unpredictable and confusing
    I feel again the chaotic emotions of adolescence, illusive as smoke, yet as real as the potted geranium before me now.
  3. devastating
    wreaking or capable of wreaking complete destruction
    Joy and rage and wild animal gladness and shame become tangled together in the multicolored skein of fourteen-going-on-fifteen as I recall that devastating moment when I was suddenly more woman than child, years ago in Miss Lottie's yard.
  4. impoverished
    poor enough to need help from others
    I suppose that futile waiting was the sorrowful background music of our impoverished little community when I was young.
  5. amorphous
    having no definite form or distinct shape
    Perhaps we waited for a miracle, amorphous in concept but necessary if one were to have the grit to rise before dawn each day and labor in the white man's vineyard until after dark
  6. chary
    characterized by great caution
    But God was chary with miracles in those days, and so we waited--and waited.
  7. inexplicable
    incapable of being explained or accounted for
    One day returns to me with special clarity for some reason, perhaps because it was the beginning of the experience that in some inexplicable way marked the end of innocence.
  8. ostensibly
    from appearances alone
    When Miss Lottie's house came into view we stopped, ostensibly to plan our strategy, but actually to reinforce our courage.
  9. retribution
    the act of taking revenge
    We children made a game of thinking of ways to disturb John Burke and then to elude his violent retribution.
  10. cultivate
    adapt something wild to the environment
    The old black witch-woman worked on them all summer, every summer, down on her creaky knees, weeding and cultivating and arranging, while the house crumbled and John Burke rocked.
  11. perverse
    marked by a disposition to oppose and contradict
    For some perverse reason, we children hated those marigolds.
  12. interfere
    come between so as to be a hindrance or obstacle
    They interfered with the perfect ugliness of the place
  13. vigor
    forceful exertion
    There was something in the vigor with which the old woman destroyed the weeds that intimidated us.
  14. placidly
    in a quiet and tranquil manner
    She was working placidly, kneeling over the flowers, her dark hand plunged into the golden mound.
  15. flinch
    draw back, as with fear or pain
    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 that I had led.
  16. exuberance
    joyful enthusiasm
    Joey and I had a particularly bitter argument after supper; his exuberance got on my nerves.
  17. Fury
    (classical mythology) the hideous snake-haired monsters (usually three in number) who pursued unpunished criminals
    I was running as if the Furies were after me
  18. caricature
    a representation of a person exaggerated for comic effect
    The half-dawn light was more eerie than complete darkness, and in it the old house was like the ruin that my world had become--foul and crumbling, a grotesque caricature.
  19. smolder
    have strong suppressed feelings
    I had indeed lost my mind, for all the smoldering emotions of that summer swelled in me and burst
  20. impulse
    a sudden desire
    And these feelings combined in one great impulse toward destruction.
  21. mangle
    destroy or injure severely
    The fresh smell of early morning and of dew-soaked marigolds spurred me on as I went tearing and mangling and sobbing while Joey tugged my dress or my waist crying, "Lizabeth, stop, please stop!"
  22. weary
    physically and mentally fatigued
    For as I gazed at the immobile face with the sad, weary eyes, I gazed upon a kind of reality which is hidden to childhood.
  23. squalor
    sordid dirtiness
    She had been born in squalor and lived in it all her life.
  24. verve
    an energetic style
    Whatever verve there was left in her, whatever was of love and beauty and joy that had not been squeezed out by life, had been there in the marigolds she had so tenderly cared for.
  25. innocence
    the state of being unsullied by sin or moral wrong
    I know that that moment marked the end of innocence.
  26. ignorance
    the lack of knowledge or education
    Innocence involves an unseeing acceptance of things at face value, an ignorance of the area below the surface.
  27. compassion
    a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering
    This was the beginning of compassion, and one cannot have both compassion and innocence.
  28. contrition
    sorrow for sin arising from fear of damnation
    despite my wild contrition, she never planted marigolds again
  29. poignancy
    a quality that arouses emotions, especially pity or sorrow
    Yet, there are times when the image of those passionate yellow mounds returns with a painful poignancy.
  30. barren
    completely wanting or lacking
    For one does not have to be ignorant and poor to find that his life is as barren as the dusty yards of our town.
Created on Thu Sep 18 14:46:12 EDT 2014 (updated Fri Sep 19 15:25:52 EDT 2014)

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