The Flowers
Compare and Contrast two key themes in Alice Walker’s ‘The Flower’
‘The Flower’, written by Alice Walker is a short story about a young 10 years old girl called Myop who has loses her innocence because of what she had found in the forest. This short story was written during the first half of the 1900’s where there were civil rights in America. Alice Walker, who is an American-African writer, wrote this story to let the reader be aware of what is happening and how the African-American people are affected because of slavery and racism. Walker is able to do this by describing Myop who tries to hold on to her innocence but she loses it after stepping on a black man who was hung because he’s black. At the beginning, Myop is shown as a happy, naïve and carefree girl. After she stepped on the corpse she realized the real world, and had matured and lost her innocence. Walker is able to do this by using imagery and symbolism to describe to the reader Myop’s strong will of trying to be a child and not being aware of the ‘adult’s world’. In this essay, I will be writing about what the author uses and how does it affects the theme innocence and loss of innocence.
At the beginning of the story Walker is able to let the reader knows that Myop is a young, innocent, carefree girl right away. This is because in the introduction of the story she mentions ‘It seem to Myop as she skipped lightly from hen house to pig pen to smoke house’. This shows the reader that Myop is a young girl who takes everything lightly. Walker uses the sentence ‘from hen house to pig pen to smoke house’ because it gives the first impression of Myop to the reader as a girl who just enjoy little things in life. Walker is also able to express Myop’s innocence to the reader by using simple sentence. The sentences gives us an idea of Myop’s personality i.e. ‘she struck out at random chickens’, ‘she felt light and good in the warm sun’ and ‘nothing existed for her but her songs’. These sentences show us
‘The Flower’, written by Alice Walker is a short story about a young 10 years old girl called Myop who has loses her innocence because of what she had found in the forest. This short story was written during the first half of the 1900’s where there were civil rights in America. Alice Walker, who is an American-African writer, wrote this story to let the reader be aware of what is happening and how the African-American people are affected because of slavery and racism. Walker is able to do this by describing Myop who tries to hold on to her innocence but she loses it after stepping on a black man who was hung because he’s black. At the beginning, Myop is shown as a happy, naïve and carefree girl. After she stepped on the corpse she realized the real world, and had matured and lost her innocence. Walker is able to do this by using imagery and symbolism to describe to the reader Myop’s strong will of trying to be a child and not being aware of the ‘adult’s world’. In this essay, I will be writing about what the author uses and how does it affects the theme innocence and loss of innocence.
At the beginning of the story Walker is able to let the reader knows that Myop is a young, innocent, carefree girl right away. This is because in the introduction of the story she mentions ‘It seem to Myop as she skipped lightly from hen house to pig pen to smoke house’. This shows the reader that Myop is a young girl who takes everything lightly. Walker uses the sentence ‘from hen house to pig pen to smoke house’ because it gives the first impression of Myop to the reader as a girl who just enjoy little things in life. Walker is also able to express Myop’s innocence to the reader by using simple sentence. The sentences gives us an idea of Myop’s personality i.e. ‘she struck out at random chickens’, ‘she felt light and good in the warm sun’ and ‘nothing existed for her but her songs’. These sentences show us