The Flowers By Alice Walker

When Alice Walker was eight years old, her brother accidentally shot her with a BB gun in her right eye. She lost the use of that eye and was left with scar tissue that was noticeable. Other kids would ridicule and laugh at her. This caused her to become very withdrawn. She became more of an observer and she started composing poetry in her head. She was afraid to put them on paper because she thought that her siblings would find her writings and tear them up.

The societal expectations for beauty are an ingrained concept amongst the minds of almost every individual, who in turn project these standards on each other and their own children. Throughout her adolescence, Walker seeks for validation of her beauty through others. “When I rise to give my speech I do so on a great wave of love and pride and expectation.” (Walker 2). Walker was seeking a reaction from her audience as she read her Easter speech to her church; a reaction of approval and admiration, which then confirmed her “cuteness”. The emotional toil brought upon by the accident caused Walker to go into a dark place of unacceptance of herself. She did poorly in school, was bullied in school, and kept her head down for several years of her life because of the shame she felt from the appearance of her eye. “I tell it I hate and despise it. I do not pray for sight. I pray for beauty.” (Walker 5). At twelve years-old, Walker talks about the eye that has gone blind and development of her self-unacceptance can be seen here. The lack of concern she had about the function of her eye, but rather the aesthetics, shows how dependent Walker was on in achieving societal standards.

Alice Walker “The Flowers” is a literary piece in which violence is not presented but suggested , and not experienced, but witnessed. Alice Walker is a contemporary African-American writer who is mainly concerned with racism. She has worked to address problems of poverty and inequality. Originally written in 1970, it is set in the south of America and is about Myop a small 10- year old African-American girl who explores the place where she lives with her black family. Alice Walker succeeded in employing symbolism to highlight childhood innocence and the loss of it.

Walker discovered her personal identity when she got into an accident that left a scar not only in her physical but into her life, she was insisted on a fight, and she even lost her self confidence and same as Cofer’s she faced discrimination and was disrespected. It was stressed in Walker’s, “after months, of torture at the school, my parents decide to send me back to our old community, to my old school.”(444) and also when she said that she beat a child at her old school who continually calls her ”one-eyed bitch” (445). On the other hand, Walker’s discovery differs from Staples’ because she was not feared nor misjudged. The epiphanies the three writers experienced, led them into their discovery of their personal knowledge and identity.

Walker's shallow perception of beauty changed following a tragic accident when she was eight. Her brother shot her

In the beginning of the essay, Walker shares childhood event that help shape her character. She describes how when she was two, she got chosen to go to the fair by her father because of her beauty, “Take me, Daddy, I’m the prettiest” She reveals that she thought people admired and glorified her because “she is the cutest thing”. She felt that everyone “seem to hold their breath” in her presence. “I can tell they admire my dress, but it is my spirt, bordering my sassiness (womanishness), they secretly applaud.” She illistartes that she was also adored because of her personality, which was confident and self-assured until it all changed. “it was great fun being cute. But then, one day, it ended.” After her accident the doctor said “ Eyes are sympathetic, If one is blind, the other will likely become blind too” which “terrified’ her. Although this was a professional opinion, but it never became true physically but symbolically it showed that she was blind that she didn’t see the positive and beauty in life, which she felt people didn’t see that In herself.

She shows herself as cowardly when she was reeling after the accident, “For six years I do not stare at anyone, because I do not raise my head.”(444), she says, portraying her disgust for herself. Walker utilizes the tone of her writing to manipulate the progression of her attitude shift. For instance, in the stages soon after the accident she uses a very morbid and pessimistic tone to describe the events that are transpiring at that juncture of her life. Stating, “I do not pray for sight. I pray for beauty.”(445), proving that even though this accident has occurred she has still remained very resistant to a change in attitude. She also couples detail to multiply the effect that these strategies have on the reader because when she describes these events, the details she uses reflects the tone, so it visibly transmits the idea of her attitude at that phase, which would be much harder to achieve without these rhetorical techniques used appropriately. The dialogue also plays into this idea as well as it also reflects the current mood of the stage. For example, when she was still very young she used very flattering words as dialogue to complement the tone where she thought beauty was everything and being most beautiful was most important. “That girl’s a little mess.”(442), “And got so much sense!”(442), people bombard

Alice’s story about her’s and her family’s struggle reaches to me because the disease takes away someone you love slowly. This book shows Alice losing parts of herself gradually until she is unrecognizable. However, Alice is still a person and should still be treated as one. The message this book sends across to its audience that, although taken by Alzheimer’s, Alice has emotions too and that part is not taken away from her.

When Alice begins to grow forgetful at first she discards it, but when she gets lost in her own neighborhood, she realizes that something is terribly wrong. She didn't want to become someone people avoided and feared. She wanted to live to hold her daughter, Anna’s, baby and know she was holding her grandchild. She wanted to watch her youngest daughter, Lydia act in something she was proud of. She wanted to see her son, Tom, fall in love. She wanted to be able to read every book she could before she could no longer read. Alice once placed her worth and identity in her academic life, now she must examine her relationship with her husband, her expectations of her daughters and son and her plans for herself. “Losing her yesterdays, her short-term memory hanging on by a couple of frayed threads, she

In Alice Walker's “Everyday Use” she uses a tactic to set a mood for the reader by bringing in the character Maggie. Walker's use of language when describing Maggie creates a picture of a physically scarred and unintelligent girl. Maggie's physical scarring is pointed out

1. Walker put the word “accident” in quotations throughout her essay because her getting shot in the eye by her brother’s BB gun was not much of an accident. The story that was told to her parents suggested that a wire was responsible for her eye injury. I truly believe that Walker has come to peace with the “accident” and its consequences after her daughter had noticed her scar on her eye. She expressed her fear of the day her daughter would be old enough to notice her mother’s face was different than everyone else’s. Once her daughter had finally observed her physical flaw, she realized that it would not change how her daughter felt about her.

A form of adversity is in Alice Walker’s essay, “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self”, it shows how a person’s perception of everything is always greatly influenced by their past experiences. Walker uses various elements throughout her writing to show her outlook towards her appearance. Walker uses the incident that happened in her childhood to show that a persons mindset can be changed by a experience and how her attitudes changes from a sassy, conceited kid to a matured and powerful women who finally sees beauty in her life. Alice Walker’s essay is a great example of a person whose fear of adversity allowed themselves to be worn down by it. She begins the story with a cocky outlook on life where she knows she is beautiful. “I’m the prettiest!” (Alice Walker), as a young child she would use her

The emotional focus of Alice Walker's story is rage, red-hot and isolating.  As I read this piece, I became livid, not only at the thought of her devastating

was how Alice Walker grew up. She has written stories about her life, and stories that have had

When reading through the essay, the reader notices how the overall structure of this piece of literature changes from personal to political. This is executed through Walkers explanation of her personal encounter with Blue, later leading to her political explanation of animal and human discrimination. She begins her essay by observing Blue’s life and how he finds love but later loses it, ultimately going into a complete state of sorrow and anger. She goes to illuminate this fact by mentioning “I dreaded looking into his eyes-because I had of course noticed that Brown, his partner, had gone-but I did look. If I had been born into slavery, and my partner had been sold or killed, my eyes would have looked like that.” (p.866). This quote helps to show the emotional comparison she draws between humans and animals, specifically, how animals can feel sorrow, anger, and loss of hope. Walker transitions the structure of the essay from Blue’s loss, to humanities