The setting of Alice Walkers short story” The Flowers” is important for us, the readers to obtain a perspective of how life was like growing up for a 10 year old African American girl by the name of Myop. The title of the story is “The Flowers.” When you think about flowers, you instantly compare them to being beautiful, pure, and innocent. The title of the “The Flowers” is a symbolism that correlates to Myop who is the protagonist of the story. Myop is just like a flower in the beginning of the story. She’s a pure and innocent child but that pure innocence changes when she discovers something that’ll change her life forever.
The Flowers By Alice Walker Written in the 1970's The Flowers is set in the deep south of America and is about Myop, a small 10-year old African American girl who explores the grounds in which she lives. Walker explores how Myop
Added to this, the writer’s use of symbolism strengthens this idea of attractiveness and inexperience, Myop’s name being the main symbol. Myop is short for Myopia. The name given to short-sightedness. This is used as a metaphor as Myop’s naivety, then as the story goes on Myop opens her eyes to see what the real world is like and the author mentions her name less. Another symbol used in paragraph 2 is the “warm sun”. This symbolises the light and life of the world. It is a time when people are supposed to be awake and no body should be sleeping but this is later contrasted further on in the story. All the setting and scenery described gives an image of the Garden of Eden- paradise – a place everyone wants to be, where nothing bad can happen up until one critical moment when Eve eats the apple and everything forever changes. This gives the reader an insight in to the rest of the story but still leaves them wondering what could happen next.
What Becomes of a Flower After It Is Picked? In “The Flowers,” Alice Walker uses imagery and symbolism to illustrate the innocence and later the loss of innocence of a young girl named Myop, which is short for Myopia. Myopia is defined as the inability to see things closely, or the inability to grasp the deeper meaning of something, which contributes to her innocence in the story. The story starts off with Myop enjoying a summer morning by gathering flowers when she suddenly stumbles across the decaying body of a man who seems to have been lynched. Myop then realizes that she can no longer be protected from the harsh realities of racial violence. This traumatic event shapes her life in a major way and she feels as if her childhood, like
Walker continues to use negative imagery and ideas to reveal her hesitation towards the arrangement. The author uses these literary devices because she wants to illustrate Roselily’s reasons for marrying the man. Roselily does this because it is what's best for her and her children. In a way, Roselily is being forced because she does not have a better alternative to her current life. By marrying the man, Roselily will have a renewed lifestyle and reputation. Roselily imagines the flowers in her hand as kids. When she does this, her head fills with murderous thoughts. “A squeeze around the flowers in her hands chokes off three and four and five years of breath” (Walker 4). As guilty as Roselily feels, this shows how Roselily wishes she never had given birth to any of her kids. When she tightens her grip on the bouquet of flowers, she thinks of her children. Roselily dreams she did not give birth to these kids. Roselily’s ideas of murder could possibly be associated with her obsession with the idea of her personal spirit being robbed from her. Weddings usually give off positive connotations, however in Roselily’s mind she disturbs the happy wedding with dark thoughts such as the idea of murder. Deviating from the topic of “personal spirit”, Brent studies the ferocious thoughts swarming Roselily’s mind. “Roselily’s rebellious thoughts during the wedding ceremony go so far as to enter the realms of murder and blasphemy. She expresses a wish that she could be free of her three
Anybody can find inspiration from anything. For Alice Walker, the author of “The Flowers” and “Everyday Use”, her inspiration was in her upbringing. Both short stories have unique storylines, but one thing they have in common is the incorporation of Alice Walker’s underprivileged life growing up. For example, “The Flowers” is about a little innocent girl, who makes her fun running through the woods behind her family’s sharecropper cabin, who stumbles upon a horrible sight. This little girl, Myop, suddenly ‘loses her innocence’ when she sees a dead man in the woods. As well as in the story “Everyday Use” there is an underprivileged family with a mother and two daughters, where the lifestyle just isn't enough for the older daughter, Dee. Overall, the unique inspiration Alice Walker’s childhood had on her helps craft the particular storylines and themes of “The Flowers” and “Everyday Use”.
The symbol the author talked mainly about is the Glass Castle, it represented so much in this book and got them through many years especially for Jeanette it stand for hope and for the better though there father rex walls couldn't physically build the glass house. I really didn't think the kids really cared about the house the dad had in mind not only because they lost faith in the fact that the dad been saying that for far too long but because it always stand for something more family, love and represent what the family went through and pain they went through for the better life they have now living. This imaginary glass home was there all along they may not have seen it but it was right in front of them the whole time it was there family, as long as they were together there glass (huge, fancy, stone house) remained it was where ever they were together. The castle shows by using a physical object to represent an idea or emotion the power of family and love the strength of it can get you through any blocking or stopping things of life. We are like the glass huge, fancy, stone house we are delicate and breakable we break easily and time is very valuable/very dearly loved before we fall into pieces and slip but we fall together and together we are not alone we will pick up the pieces together and it won't matter how long it takes because we'll get through together because no one gets left behind.
The initial three passages are committed to setting the scene‐describing Myop ("...her dull darker hand...") and placing her in setting ("...her family's tenant farmer cabin...", "...the spring, where her family got drinking water..."). Compelling portrayal gives believability to the earth, and makes the later occasions all the additionally stunning: "Myop viewed the modest white air pockets disturb the thin dark size of soil and the dilute rose and slid away the stream."
Freudian Analysis of Marigolds Most of the time there is a moment in life where one realizes they have lost all innocence and gained some compassion. “Marigolds” shows how one young girl transferred from a child to young adult through her life experiences. Throughout this story another young, but
Alice Walker's In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens The essay “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” by contemporary American novelist Alice Walker is one that, like a flashbulb, burns an afterimage in my mind. It is an essay primarily written to inform the reader about the history of African American women in America and how their vibrant, creative spirit managed to survive in a dismal world filled with many oppressive hardships. This piece can be read, understood, and manage to conjure up many emotions within the hearts and minds of just about any audience that reads it. However, Walker targets African American women in today’s society in an effort to make them understand their heritage and appreciate what their mothers and
Symbolism is the practice or art of using an object or a word to represent an abstract idea. When an author wants to suggest a certain mood or emotion, they can use symbolism to hint at what they are trying to say rather than just saying it. There are many things that symbolize something, even in our everyday life. For example, a dove is a symbol of peace, a red rose or red color stands for love or romance, and the color black is a symbol of evil or death. This literary technique helps the reader understand a deeper meaning of the central message that the author is trying to portray. In this case, Eudora Welty uses symbolism like a powerful tool. A manifold of symbolic connotations can be made in “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty.
A symbol in literature is an object or idea that has a representation beyond the literal meaning of the object. Symbols add meaning and further a point the author is trying to make. In A Raisin in the Sun, Mama’s plant represents her dream. The play is written by Lorraine Hansberry, and it is a drama. It features an African American family from the Southside of Chicago. They live in an apartment with one window. Mama, the mother of the family has a dream of owning her own house. Throughout the entire play, Mama’s plant was mentioned. The plant continued to change as Mama’s dream was affected.
“The Flowers” by Alice Walker is a very well written yet short and sweet story that paints a very vivid picture of main problem the times. It expresses the reality of the lynching of the African American community in a way that is very easy to understand. Alice Walker uses
The novel The Language of Flowers, is one written by author Vanessa Diffenbaugh. The novel centers around a young girl named who goes by the name of Victoria Jones. As the reader begins, they are made aware of Victoria’s upbringing and all the difficult challenges she had endured during her time living within the foster care system. Diffenbaugh does an excellent job intertwining both the past and present to help readers understand her turmoil, as well as her joy. The author expresses this through the main character Victoria, who eventually develops a gift for flowers in which she uses to changer not only her life, but others’ lives as well. In fact, flowers are the only way that Victoria feels connected to the world around her because she
In “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens”, Alice Walker looks to educate us on the hardships that almost all black women face when trying to express themselves through things such as art. She delves into many sociological and psychological concepts that have affected black women throughout human history. These concepts