"The Flowers" is a study in control and brevity. Through an account of one child's loss of innocence, Walker manages to evoke the ways in which the history of racist violence in America is temporarily hidden and how that history continues to blight the American landscape. Just as Myop must uncover the man's body and learn the secrets of his murder, so Walker's epigraph suggests that people must strive to uncover this hidden past as a whole. Furthermore they must acknowledge their responsibility to acknowledge these past crimes. In seeing the past accurately people make strides to put to rest its legacy.

1. What do you think the flowers symbolize in this story?

2. Explain the value in the story's shortness and also explore what is thus left unsaid? Offer some explanations for why Walker chooses not to write about other parts that might have been included in...