60 pages • 2-hour read
The Flower Sisters
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Symbols & Motifs
The Picayune
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death by suicide.
The local newspaper in Possum Flats is an important motif that takes on new layers of significance throughout the book. When Daisy Flowers secures an internship there, The Picayune allows her to discover the dance hall explosion and sets her on a retrospective journey that has repercussions for her own family and the rest of the town. By its very nature, the newspaper stands as a link to the past; its archives contain details of major events in the town’s history, even if its residents choose not to acknowledge key aspects of their past. Furthermore, because its archives contain decades of records, the newspaper connects the past and the present. Daisy’s retrospective series underscores this dynamic because she actively uses the newspaper’s archives to explore past events that no one wishes to address openly. The Picayune thus becomes a motif for The Enduring Impact of Past Tragedies as Daisy works to uncover stories that many residents would rather suppress and forget.
The newspaper’s role as a repository of memory also highlights The Traumatic Effects of Shame and Secrecy, and this dynamic becomes particularly prominent when Daisy faces blame and resistance due to her reporting efforts. Both Myra and Fence are reluctant to allow her to investigate this particular event, and multiple townspeople refuse to speak to her. Following Jimmy’s death, many people place the blame for this event at Daisy’s feet, alleging that her articles about the explosion caused Jimmy to take his own life. The negative reactions to Daisy’s articles in The Picayune stem from the shame still associated with the tragedy.
The Violet Birthmark
The violet birthmark at the base of Violet Flowers’s neck is an important symbol and plot device. Multiple times throughout the story, Violet reflects on the fact that this birthmark was the only way to tell her apart from Rose; otherwise, in appearance, the two sisters were entirely identical. This detail eventually leads to Daisy’s discovery of the truth about her grandmother’s identity; when she spots the birthmark on the base of her grandmother’s neck, she realizes that “Rose Flowers” is actually Violet.
In addition to serving as a plot device that facilitates this climactic reveal, the violet birthmark is also symbolic of Violet’s uniquely wild nature. Unlike the demure Rose, the young Violet dares to dance and dally with young men, and she also secretly becomes pregnant. All of these actions are severely frowned upon by the community during her youth. When Violet is believed to have perished in the explosion, the townsfolk whisper that she deserved her fate because of her moral character; masquerading as Rose, Violet lives with the shame of this public censure for decades, and the burden of these emotions is compounded by the guilt and secrecy of having stolen her sister’s identity. Thus, her birthmark, which once physically distinguished her from her sister, also symbolizes the difference in the two sisters’ reputations in town. Rose was “pure” and unmarked, while Violet carried a “stain” on her character. In this way, the birthmark points to the underlying conflicts of shame and misguided moralizing that dominate the collective consciousness of Possum Flats.
The Flowers Sisters’ Hair
The Flowers sisters’ hair is an important recurring symbol and plot device in the book. Its significance is marked in the very beginning, with the prologue remarking on one of the Flowers sisters’ freshly cut bob. Later in the book, it is revealed that Rose cut her hair at Violet’s urging so that she could take Violet’s place at the dance. Using hairstyles to mask appearance (and by extension, identity) becomes a recurring event in the book. Just as Rose cuts her hair short to take her sister’s place at the dance, Violet later wears her hair in a long braid for the rest of her life to conceal the birthmark that would reveal her true identity. The link between hair and hidden identities is reiterated when Mrs. Flowers hands Violet a braid of Rose’s shorn-off hair, believing Violet to be Rose. At that moment, Violet realizes that she must live as Rose for the rest of her life, and her hair plays an important role in allowing her to maintain her deception. Accordingly, it also works as a plot device to uncover Violet’s secret, for Daisy finally discovers Violet’s telltale birthmark when she untangles and cleans her grandmother’s braid.
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