9h The Flowers Annotation and Analysis Exercise

Name: ______________________________ Period: _____ Date: __________________
The Flowers by Alice Walker
Analysis
Provide specific evidence from the text to support all answers.
I. It seemed to Myop as she skipped lightly from hen house to pigpen to smokehouse that the days had
never been as beautiful as these. The air held a keenness that made her nose twitch. The harvesting
of the corn and cotton, peanuts and squash, made each day a golden surprise that caused excited
little tremors to run up her jaws.
a. What is the implied (suggested) setting of story? How do you know?
b. Consider the diction and determine the mood/atmosphere Walker creates in this paragraph.
II. Myop carried a short, knobby stick. She struck out at random at chickens she liked, and worked out
the beat of a song on the fence around the pigpen. She felt light and good in the warm sun. She was
ten, and nothing existed for her but her song, the stick clutched in her dark brown hand, and the tat-
de-ta-ta-ta of accompaniment.
a. Characterization: Based on Walkers description, what do you KNOW about Myop
(explicitly stated)? What is suggested about her character (implied)? Continue to note the
diction.
Note: Writers imply and readers infer.
III. Turning her back on the rusty boards of her familys sharecropper cabin, Myop walked along the
fence till it ran into the stream made by the spring. Around the spring, where the family got drinking
water, silver ferns and wildflowers grew. Along the shallow banks pigs rooted. Myop watched the
tiny white bubbles disrupt the thin black scale of soil and the water that silently rose and slid away
down the stream.
a. Look at the paragraph again to gather more information about the setting. Identify possible
symbolism. Continue to note the diction.
IV. She had explored the woods behind the house many times. Often, in late autumn, her mother took
her to gather nuts among the fallen leaves. Today she made her own path, bouncing this way and
that way, vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes. She found, in addition to various common but
pretty ferns and leaves, an armful of strange blue flowers with velvety ridges and a sweet suds bush
full of the brown, fragrant buds.
a. Reread this paragraph and identify possible symbolism.
b. Note the imagery at the end of this paragraph. How does it compare or contrast the imagery
from the previous paragraphs? Continue to note the diction.
V. By twelve oclock, her arms laden with sprigs of her findings, she was a mile or more from home.
She had often been as far before, but the strangeness of the land made it not as pleasant as her usual
haunts. It seemed gloomy in the little cove in which she found herself. The air was damp, the
silence close and deep.
a. Examine the diction in this paragraph and determine how it compares or contrasts with the
diction from previous paragraphs. What is the effect?
VI. Myop began to circle back to the house, back to the peacefulness of the morning. It was then she
stepped smack into his eyes. Her heel became lodged in the broken ridge between brow and nose,
and she reached down quickly, unafraid, to free herself. It was only when she saw his naked grin
that she gave a little yelp of surprise.
a. An operative word in a sentence is the word upon which the meaning of that sentence hinges.
What is the operative word in the sentence: It was then Explain.
VII. He had been a tall man. From feet to neck covered a long space. His head lay beside him. When
she pushed back the leaves and layers of earth and debris Myop saw that hed had large white teeth,
all of them cracked or broken, long fingers, and very big bones. All his clothes had rotted away
except some threads of blue denim from his overalls. The buckles of the overall had turned green.
a. Consider Walkers imagery in this paragraph. What can we INFER about the tall man
based on the diction in this paragraph?
VIII. Myop gazed around the spot with interest. Very near where shed stepped into the head was a wild
pink rose. As she picked it to add to her bundle she noticed a raised mound, a ring, around the
roses root. It was the rotted remains of a noose, a bit of shredding plow line, now blending benignly
into the soil. Around an overhanging limb of a great spreading oak clung another piece. Frayed,
rotted, bleached, and frazzled-- barely therebut spinning restlessly in the breeze. Myop laid down
her flowers.
a. Look at the sentence that begins Frayed, rotted, Discuss the sentence structure here.
What is the effect of the list of adjectives? Moreover, what is the effect of the long dashes?
b. Myop literally lays down her flowers at the end of this paragraph. Discuss the figurative
meaning of the last sentence in this paragraph.
IX. And the summer was over.

a. Discuss the effect of Walkers choice in sentence structure. Determine the figurative
meaning of this sentence.
POST READING QUESTIONS:

1. Now that youve finished reading the story a second time, look up the word myopia. How
does our characters name enhance the storys meaning?
2. Reexamine the title of the piece. Consider Walkers choice in titling the story The Flowers.
What do the flowers in the story symbolize? To answer this question, you must trace all of the
references to flowers in the story.

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Name: ____________________________ Period: _ Date: ________________

The Flowers by Alice Walker

IX. And the summer was over.

POST READING QUESTIONS:

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