“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 first sentence of the story establishes the location as rural and characterizes Myop. As Myop is skipping “lightly,” the reader learns she is a child. Her mood is portrayed as happy and optimistic because she anticipates another lovely day. However, the incorporation of “it seemed” foreshadows darker events yet to come. From this, Walker creates dramatic irony, in which the reader can infer that the day will not end as beautifully as it starts.

“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.”

The word “harvesting” establishes a late summer or autumn setting, while the crops indicate a rural southern locale. That the child expects “a golden surprise” attaches a further degree of youthful happiness to the girl’s mood, as she expects something good to happen. The search for that surprise may be her purpose in venturing forth. What causes “little tremors to run up her jaws” is the fact that she is smiling.

“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.”

Walker uses visual and auditory imagery to characterize Myop. The sensorial description demonstrates that Myop’s sight is limited to tangible, firsthand experiences. Her childhood youthfulness and bliss are underscored by the