Analysis of The Flowers by Alice Walker
Analysis of ’The Flowers’ by Alice Walker
How do we lose our childish way of seeing the world? How can we suddenly they see the world as it is, in all its evil? ‘The Flowers’ is a story about a young girl who goes through an experience that forces her into changing her way of seeing life, and it presents themes like growing up and loss of innocence.
The main character of the story is Myop, a 10-year-old girl without any major worries in life. The only thing we know about her physical appearance is that she is of African descent because it is mentioned that her hand is dark brown. It is unknown whether she lives in Africa or is a descendant of—or maybe even one of—the African slaves brought to America. Myop has a very childish and innocent way of thinking and is also fairly naïve. She is not afraid of anything because she has not seen the darker parts of life yet, and she does not care about anything outside of her tiny little world. An example of this from the text is on P.1 L.8-10: 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. We see here how limited the list of things Myop minds about is. She lives in the moment with no thoughts of how tomorrow may turn out.
It is unknown when the story takes place, but it says in the story that Myop’s family harvest different crops like cotton and corn, and plantations with African slave labor were common in The American South as early as the 18th century up until the end of the American Civil War in 1865. Also, the dead man, whose body Myop finds, was clearly hanged and among the slave owners of that time, hanging was a common punishment for slaves. Therefore the story could take place during the time of slavery in The American South as well as in modern time.
The problem with this theory is that Myop, at first, generally seemed like a very happy and carefree girl, and I do not suppose that the usual slave girl would have that
How do we lose our childish way of seeing the world? How can we suddenly they see the world as it is, in all its evil? ‘The Flowers’ is a story about a young girl who goes through an experience that forces her into changing her way of seeing life, and it presents themes like growing up and loss of innocence.
The main character of the story is Myop, a 10-year-old girl without any major worries in life. The only thing we know about her physical appearance is that she is of African descent because it is mentioned that her hand is dark brown. It is unknown whether she lives in Africa or is a descendant of—or maybe even one of—the African slaves brought to America. Myop has a very childish and innocent way of thinking and is also fairly naïve. She is not afraid of anything because she has not seen the darker parts of life yet, and she does not care about anything outside of her tiny little world. An example of this from the text is on P.1 L.8-10: 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. We see here how limited the list of things Myop minds about is. She lives in the moment with no thoughts of how tomorrow may turn out.
It is unknown when the story takes place, but it says in the story that Myop’s family harvest different crops like cotton and corn, and plantations with African slave labor were common in The American South as early as the 18th century up until the end of the American Civil War in 1865. Also, the dead man, whose body Myop finds, was clearly hanged and among the slave owners of that time, hanging was a common punishment for slaves. Therefore the story could take place during the time of slavery in The American South as well as in modern time.
The problem with this theory is that Myop, at first, generally seemed like a very happy and carefree girl, and I do not suppose that the usual slave girl would have that