By using the context, we can determine that the meaning of the word "futile" in "Marigolds" is "fruitless" or "pointless".
- "Marigolds" is a short story by Eugenia W. Collier (born in 1928 in Baltimore). This is where the word "futile" appears in the story:
"I suppose that futile waiting was the sorrowful background music of our impoverished little community when I was young."
- What the narrator, Lizabeth, means is that is was pointless to wait for things to get better, for poverty to just disappear.
- The context and setting of the story is the Great Depression. Lizabeth and her family live in a very poor neighborhood, and things are only getting worse due to the awful economic situation of the country.
- Thus, waiting seemed futile, fruitless, pointless. Nothing was going to change.
Learn more about the story here:
https://brainly.com/question/13537189?referrer=searchResults
