The Flowers Essay Questions

Describe the character of Myop. What do you know about her by the end of the story?

Myop is a ten-year-old African-American girl whose family are sharecroppers. She enjoys tapping her stick on the fence and exploring the land around her family's house. She is curious about many things, and she seems to like gathering flowers. Her tether to her home makes her feel safe in her innocence—but, by the end of the story, that innocence has been challenged by her encounter with a presumably lynched corpse.

How does the narrator describe the dead man? What do we know about him by the end of the story?

The narrator describes the dead man as tall with broken teeth (suggesting that he endured some kind of violence). Through the details of his green buckles and rotted clothes, the narrator suggests that he has been dead for a very long time. Though the reader is never told for sure how the man died, the noose and bit of rope that Myop finds suggest that he was lynched.

What is the setting of the story?

The exact location of the story is never explicated, but it is likely somewhere in the American South during the early or mid-twentieth century; the reader can infer this by the description of Myop's family as sharecroppers. Certainly, the setting of the story is a rural area, as described by Myop's explorations through the woods.

Many critics have described this as a coming-of-age story. Is this an accurate characterization of the story? Why or why not?

This characterization is accurate. Myop, a ten-year-old girl, is completely changed by the end of the story. She has grown up and become more solemn. This happens because she has discovered the body of someone who is likely a murder victim, and it has caused her to realize the dangers that the world contains. Walker seems to imply that, like many African-American children, Myop has grown up by realizing the violence of the world around her—specifically, the violence that prejudiced people of the world have shown towards people like her.

At the end of the story, the narrator says "the summer was over." What does this mean in the broader context of the story?

This is not a comment on the weather, but rather a description of the fact that Myop's innocence is lost after her discovery of the dead man and the noose nearby. Myop's carefree enjoyment of the "summer" that is her childhood is over forever: she is now awake, at least in some regard, to the harsh realities of the world.