The Secret Life of Sunflowers

Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the novel’s portrayal of mental illness, death by suicide, and sexual assault.

Young and ambitious, Emsley Wilson is the novel’s protagonist. She is kind and caring, as evidenced by her relationship with her elderly grandmother—indeed, Emsley respects and honors her grandmother for her uniqueness and is grateful for Violet’s guidance and love. For this reason, Emsley desires to repay her grandmother for this love and support by caring for her and maintaining a close bond until the end of her grandmother’s life. Emsley respects the strength and determination her grandmother has shown in the face of challenges: namely, the challenges of being a strong-willed woman in the early-20th-century art world. The way her grandmother defied convention resonates with Emsley, and she shrugs off her mother’s insistence that she should use her sexuality to obtain wealth and happiness.

That Emsley has started her own company is evidence of her tenacity and drive. When the company shows signs of faltering, she is unwilling to allow the business to fail because she values perseverance and refuses to give up—attributes Emsley learned from Violet. She sets about rationally and cautiously, devising a plan to save her business and buy the shares of her partner and ex-boyfriend, Trey.