“Marigolds” by Eugenia W. Collier
When I think of the hometown of my youth, all that I
seem to remember is dust—the brown, crumbly dust
of late summer—arid, sterile dust that gets into the
eyes and makes them water, gets into the throat and
between the toes of bare brown feet. I don’t know
why I should remember only the dust. Surely there
must have been lush green lawns and paved streets
under leafy shade trees somewhere in town; but
memory is an abstract painting—it does not present
things as they are, but rather as they feel. And so,
when I think of that time and that place, I remember
only the dry September of the dirt roads and grassless
yards of the shantytown where I lived. And one other
thing I remember, another incongruency of
memory—a brilliant splash of sunny yellow against
the dust—Miss Lottie’s marigolds.
Whenever the memory of those marigolds flashes
across my mind, a strange nostalgia comes with it
and remains long after the picture has faded. I feel
again the chaotic emotions of adolescence, illusive as
smoke, yet as real as the potted geranium before me
now. 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. I
think of those marigolds at the strangest times; I
remember them vividly now as I desperately pass
away the time. I suppose that futile waiting was the
sorrowful background music of our impoverished
little community when I was young. The depression
that gripped the nation was no new thing to us, for
the black workers of rural Maryland had always been
depressed. I don’t know what it was that we were
waiting for; certainly not for the prosperity that was
“just around the corner,” for those were white folks’
words, which we never believed. Nor did we wait for
hard work and thrift to pay off in shining success, as
the American Dream promised, for we knew better
than that, too. 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, or to
wander about in the September dust offering one’s
sweat in return for some meager share of bread. But
God was chary with miracles in those days, and so
we waited—and waited.
We children, of course, were only vaguely aware of
the extent of our poverty. Having no radios, few
newspapers, and no magazines, we were somewhat
unaware of the world outside our community.
Nowadays we would be called culturally deprived
and people would write books and hold conferences
about us. In those days everybody we knew was just
as hungry and ill clad as we were. Poverty was the
cage in which we all were trapped, and our hatred of
it was still the vague, undirected restlessness of the
zoo-bred flamingo who knows that nature created
him to fly free.
SUBSEARCH PS: Annotate this passage to better
understand what it is about. Focus on the basic
ideas in the passage and questions you have
about vocabulary or confusing sections.
1.Is the narrator speaking about events in the
past or present?
2. What is the setting of this story?
3. How does the speaker feel about her
childhood and growing up poor after reading
the whole passage?
4. What was the importance of the marigolds?
Why might they be seen as a symbol?
5. How do we know the speaker is African
American based on the text?
“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
Rainsford's bewilderment showed in his face.
The general filled both glasses, and said, "God makes
some men poets. Some He makes kings, some
beggars. Me He made a hunter. My hand was made
for the trigger, my father said. I have hunted every
kind of game in every land. It would be impossible
for me to tell you how many animals I have killed."
"I wanted the ideal animal to hunt," explained the
general. "So I said, `What are the attributes of an
ideal quarry?' And the answer was, of course, `It must
have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able
to reason."'
"But no animal can reason," objected Rainsford.
"I started for the Amazon to hunt jaguars, for I had
heard they were unusually cunning. They weren't."
The Cossack sighed. "They were no match at all for a
hunter with his wits about him, and a high-powered
rifle. I was bitterly disappointed. I was lying in my
tent with a splitting headache one night when a
terrible thought pushed its way into my mind.
Hunting was beginning to bore me! And hunting,
remember, had been my life. So, I asked myself why
the hunt no longer fascinated me. You are much
younger than I am, Mr. Rainsford, and have not
hunted as much, but you perhaps can guess the
answer."
"What was it?"
"Simply this: hunting had ceased to be what you call
`a sporting proposition.' It had become too easy. I
always got my quarry. Always. There is no greater
bore than perfection. No animal had a chance with
me anymore. That is no boast; it is a mathematical
certainty. The animal had nothing but his legs and his
instinct. Instinct is no match for reason. When I
thought of this it was a tragic moment for me, I can
tell you. It came to me as an inspiration what I must
do," the general went on.”
"And that was?"
The general smiled the quiet smile of one who has
faced an obstacle and surmounted it with success. "I
had to invent a new animal to hunt," he said.
"A new animal? You're joking." "Not at all," said the
general. "I never joke about hunting. I needed a new
animal. I found one. So I bought this island built this
house, and here I do my hunting. The island is perfect
for my purposes--there are jungles with a maze of
traits in them, hills, swamps--"
"But the animal, General Zaroff?"
"Oh," said the general, "it supplies me with the most
exciting hunting in the world. No other hunting
compares with it for an instant. Every day I hunt, and
I never grow bored now, for I have a quarry with
which I can match my wits."
SUBSEARCH PS: Annotate this passage to better
understand what it is about. Focus on the basic
ideas in the passage and questions you have
about vocabulary or confusing sections.
1. Who are the protagonist and antagonist of
the story? How do you know this?
2. What internal conflict is the general having?
How has he resolved this conflict?
3. What can be inferred about the general’s
hunting abilities based on this passage? Support
with one quote.
4. What animal is able to reason, in your
opinion? Explain why with one example you
create.
“Teenage Wasteland” by Anne Tyler
In April, the principal called to tell her that Donny
had been expelled. There had been a locker check,
and in Donny's locker they found five cans of beer
and half a pack of cigarettes. With Donny's
previous record, this offense meant expulsion.
On the fifteenth of April, they entered Donny in a
public school, and they stopped his tutoring
sessions. Donny fought both decisions bitterly.
Cal, surprisingly enough, did not object. He
admitted he'd made no headway with Donny and
said it was because Donny was emotionally
disturbed. Donny went to his new school every
morning, plodding off alone with his head down.
He did his assignments, and he earned average
grades, but he gathered no friends, joined no clubs.
There was something exhausted and defeated
about him.
The first week in June, during final exams, Donny
vanished. He simply didn't come home one
afternoon, and no one at school remembered
seeing him. The police were reassuring, and for the
first few days, they worked hard. They combed
Donny's sad, messy room for clues; they visited
Miriam and Cal. But then they started talking
about the number of kids who ran away every year.
Hundreds, just in this city. "He'll show up, if he
wants to," they said. "If he doesn't, he won't."
Evidently, Donny didn't want to.
SUBSEARCH PS: Annotate this passage to better
understand what it is about. Focus on the basic
ideas in the passage and questions you have
about vocabulary or confusing sections.
1. What is the cause of Donny’s expulsion?
2. Why did Donny do this, in your opinion?
3. How does Cal make the situation worse for
Donny?
4. What sentence shows the end of the police
looking intensely for Donny?
5. What can be inferred from end of this
passage about Donny?
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe
The Thousand Injuries of Fortunato I had borne as
I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I
vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature
of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave
utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged;
this was a point definitely, settled—but the very
definitiveness with which it was resolved
precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish
but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed
when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is
equally unredressed when the avenger fails to
make himself felt as such to him who has done the
wrong.
It must be understood that neither by word nor
deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my
good will. I continued, as was my wont to smile in
his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now
was at the thought of his immolation.
SUBSEARCH PS: Annotate this passage to better
understand what it is about. Focus on the basic
ideas in the passage and questions you have
about vocabulary or confusing sections.
1. Who are the protagonist and antagonist of
this story? Which one is narrating?
2. What has the antagonist done to cause the
protagonist to vow revenge?
3. How will the revenge be carried out by the
protagonist? Use at least two quoted sentences
from the story to support your answer.