What do lemons represent in the memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful?

Throughout her memoir, Smith utilizes lemons as a symbol for trauma and pain. She tells the reader that she did not ask for the proverbial lemons but chose to make lemonade. While Smith wanted to stay married and repair the distance in her partnership, she did not have the agency to do so. During her divorce she continued to write and later turned this creative work into a novel, that allowed her to save her home. Smith suggests that the individual does not choose trauma and suffering but can choose what to do with these negative experiences.