In the following essay, Madden studies Porter's use of "charged images" and their thematic content to portray the state of mind of the heroine of the story.

In Writers at Work, Second Series, The interviewer asked Katherine Anne Porter whether "Flowering Judas" began as a visual impression that grew into a narrative. "All my senses were very keen," Miss Porter replied. "Things came to me through my eyes, through all my pores. Everything hit me at once . . ." Without words or images, her stories began to form. Then she starts thinking "directly in words. Abstractly. Then the words transform themselves into images." On several occasions Miss Porter has testified to the potency of the real-life image that generated "Flowering Judas."

She chose this story for inclusion in an anthology called This Is My Best (1942). Commenting on the story at that time, she said: "All the characters and episodes...