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An Analysis of The Flowers by Alice Walker

Decent Essays
Sharon Ji
Professor Cato
English 1102
29 April 2013
Myop in “The Flowers” by Alice Walker Short stories are known to have two very distinct characteristics which are interrelated: they are compressed and concentrated. By compressed, they mean that the writer squeezes as much information as possible so that it is still considered a short story. When it comes to the story being concentrated, they typically mean taking out anything that is not essential to the conflict and how the protagonist deals with that conflict. In the plot of short stories there is usually an exposition, an inciting incident (otherwise known as the introduction of conflict), rising action, a climax, a falling action, a dénouement, and a resolution. Depending on
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Myop is also very curious and extremely naïve for when she is exploring the woods behind her house, she is creating her own path without any caution and “vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes.” Nevertheless, Myop “felt light and good” as she explores the land while picking flowers along the way. At this point she is very stable in that nothing is threatened; however, all of this changes once the clock hits twelve. The tension rises at twelve o’clock as Myop finds herself surrounded by “the strangeness of the land” which makes her want to turn back to the “peacefulness of the morning.” At this time, Myop senses that something is not right and desires to go back to the world that she knows. As she is returning back home, it is there that she meets him. Because she grew up in a sharecropper’s family it is not her first time seeing death. In fact, she probably witnessed death just about every day. When her foot got caught in his face, “she reached down, unafraid, to free herself.” Even when she apprehended that it was a man, she only “gave a little yelp of surprise.” It is not until she realizes that this man died from a violent act that she changes from an innocent naïve child to a girl who is more aware of the world around her. As Myop is going through this change of loss of innocence in her life, Walker utilizes the setting to facilitate that change. The setting could be anything from the season to even the time of day. The beginning of the story takes place in
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