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Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
“Marigolds” is set in rural Maryland during the Great Depression, a period of global economic downturn that lasted from 1929 to 1939. During the Depression, Americans across races and classes experienced food scarcity, unemployment, and poverty. The following passage from the beginning of the story establishes that “Marigolds” is focused on the particular experience of working-class Black people in rural communities during the Depression:
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.
Here, Collier makes it clear that this story is centered on the specific experience of “black workers of rural Maryland” who “had always been depressed,” meaning that they were used to unemployment and poverty, given the racist discrimination they experienced in the workforce (and given how few jobs are available in rural areas to begin with). Collier intentionally includes several passages that communicate just how destitute the Black characters in the story are, including describing Miss Lottie’s house as “a monument of decay.”
Related Themes:
