flowers

Question 1

miss laing

Answer 1

characterised to show the glamour of the war
“flying with exhilarating swiftness and power” “miss laing was exhilarated” - she is completely taken in by the planes. she is blindly patriotic and clearly treasures these airmen as she describes them as “the true flowers of our country”.

Question 2

the snake

Answer 2

the snake symbolises evil, temptation and the war (through the nazi german propaganda) . “green with gold and black ziz zag markings” is the same colours as the swastika. the snake represents the war through the fact that it was minding its business clearly showing no incentive to harm her but she attacks it because miss laing said to her that it was dangerous. this is similar to the way german propaganda was shared to the british public during the war. the snake also holds biblical allusions because just as adam and eve were tempted by the serpent in the garden of eden, so too was margaret tempted to go against the wishes of miss laing. she is rebellious, being described as “red eyed dissenter”

Question 3

anti war

Answer 3

when margaret refers to the hair of the airmen as “fair” this highlights the youth of the airmen and their innocence. highlights the loss of their innocence since they were killed, and represents the brutality of the war.

Question 4

simile

Answer 4

“bell heather streaming like fire” - the simile highlights how it moves smoothly and flowing, engulfing everything around it like her anger.

Question 5

what are the key themes of this short story

Answer 5

• war
• anti war
• loss of innocence
• isolation

Question 6

what is the time and setting of this short story

Answer 6

world war 2 in the highlands of scotland

Question 7

who is margaret

Answer 7

evacuee, uprooted from her home in the city to a remote area in the highlands

Question 8

what are the quotes used to characterise margaret as isolated

Answer 8

"they chorused, except one."
"she watched the others"
"gabbled to one another in gaelic"
"mysterious and hateful to her lowland ears"
"detestable alien country"

Question 9

how does margaret feel

Answer 9

isolated, unhappy, rebellious

Question 10

what does “she watched the others” reveal about margarets character

Answer 10

she is on the edge of the group, an outsider. she has been uprooted, just as a flower can be, and planted on what she regards as alien soil. she is an outsider too because she cannot speak the language that the other children speak

Question 11

what are quotes that show margaret has an attitude

Answer 11

“huffishly” “red eyed dissenter” “sneered”

Question 12

what does describing margaret as homesick manifest in the reader

Answer 12

a degree of sympathy for margaret

Question 13

analyse the use of “aversion”

Answer 13

the word choice effectively conveys margarets dislike even of something as beautiful as heather. she also regards the school as odd, with its “queer high roof”. all of these things add powerfully to our impression of margaret as very much isolated and unhappy in these surroundings

Question 14

what quotes are used to show how the snake clearly posed no threat to margaret

Answer 14

“small adder” “neatly” “little head” “sunning itself” “gently waving fronds of bracken”

Question 15

analyse “detestable alien country”

Answer 15

the snake is a symbol of this “alien country” which she hates so much; she is from glasgow and will probably never have seen a snake before so it represents all she hates about the highlands. furthermore had she not disobeyed miss laings instructions she wouldnt have seen the adder and so it reminds her “of her own wickedness in disobeying”

Question 16

why does she attack the snake

Answer 16

it is as if she wants to destroy the evidence of her disobedience, whcih the snake represents, and wants to vent her anger at the fact she has been evacuated and sent away from all that is familiar to her

Question 17

what does “she hadnt thought a snake would have red blood in it” convey

Answer 17

the reality of destruction. she is surprised by this reality; she is perhaps also surprised by her own power to destroy.

Question 18

how does jenkins convey the idea of the loneliness of the flower moves margaret, since she is lonely as well, uprooted from all that she knows

Answer 18

margaret was still full of anger when she saw the “yellow flower at her feet”, but something about the fragility of the flower calmed her, and she is moved by the flower’s “beauty, harmlessess and its loneliness”

Question 19

how does jenkins create an ominous atmosphere when margaret wants to paddle at the shore

Answer 19

he describes the dangers she thinks might be lurking there; “unexploded bombs or ferocious crabs or stinging jelly fish”

Question 20

analyse “unexploded bombs or ferocious crabs or stinging jelly fish”

Answer 20

it creates an ominous atmosphere. it is an anticlimactic sentence that is very clever because it reminds the reader that margaret is just a child. she lists the huge danger of the bombs alongside the more minor dangers of crabs and jellyfish

Question 21

how does jenkins hint at the vulnerability of the airmen

Answer 21

when he gives us some details about the airmen and their boots, though one man only seems to have one boot on. this is a touching human detail that hints at vulnerability

Question 22

analyse “the red-beaked birds screamed again”

Answer 22

this is a harsh warning image - jenkins deliberately delays the shocking revelation till the end of the story. instead we are given margarets reaction to what she sees: heer “scalp tingled”; her body was “frozen”; and the “yellow flower was crushed into a green and black mess”. clearly she has seem something awful but the readers dont know what yet. we DO know the flower was precious to her so we wonder what has led her to destroy it

Question 23

analyse “no face at all…”

Answer 23

the very human details which jenkins gives us are extremely powerful, adding to the horror and poignancy of their deaths. people who had once been living, breathing human beings with lives and hopes and fears have now been reduced to “gleaming bones”

Question 24

analyse “weeping and yelling, she rubbed it madly on the grass”

Answer 24

she is weeping because unknowlingly she has destroyed a beautiful, precious thing; but she is also weeping for the young airme, unrecognizable as human

Question 25

what is the symbolism of margaret and her flower

Answer 25

jenkins wants us to see margaret as a flower - young, innocent, uprooted from where she belongs, trying to survive in a world which is “alien” to her. that is why the flower she picks is so important to her: subconsciously she identifies with it in its “loneliness”. in a way, the flower whcih margaret holds in her hand has come to symbolize for her perfection, beauty, all that is good in the world - and by the end of the story it has been reduced to a “green and black mess” just as war destroys the beauty of human life

Question 26

how is the ending of the short story effective

Answer 26

it is very powerful. the sense of foreboding which has been present in the story returns. the violent incident with the adder seemed to be a sort of climax, as the anger and aggression in margaret found its outlet in the destruction of an innocent creature. we dislike margaret for attacking the snake without reason. but then the tone of the story changes; margaret becomes calmer, she shows tenderness, she seems to see the world around her with fresher eyes. and then she sees the dead airmen.

Question 27

what does jenkins want to achieve through this short story

Answer 27

he wants us to see that margaret has been sent to the highlands to escape the consequences of war - but there is no escape. death touches everyone, and even comes to this quiet lovely spot and even touches this innocent little girl. jenkins is concerned to show us the destructive nature of war as well as the destructive nature of isolation