...English essay ”The Flowers” By Alice Walker The afro-american writer Alice Walker has written a short story named the flowers from 1988. The main character in the story is a little girl named Myop. Myop is a 10-year old black girl growing up in poverty, because she is a child of a sharecropper-family, (which was not unusual at that time). She is a really curious girl that loves to explore new things. She likes to play by herself in the woods and look after findings and flowers to pick. One day in the late summer, Myop is taking a walk in the woods. She walks a bit from where she lives to explore a new area where she has never been. The landscape is a bit different from what she is used to, there is a different atmosphere, there is more silent and there are different flowers growing. Suddenly when she is starting to retire home, she steps on a dead black man that had been hung and then laying on the ground. The meeting with the dead man is overwhelming and surprising for Myop. An important theme in the text is racism, because the story takes place in a time where segregation was extremely active and there was a lot of discrimination of black people. The story takes place in a child’s thoughts, so all the events are written from a child’s view. It’s 3rd person omniscient, the narrator has access to Myops mind, so the reader knows about her feelings, and thoughts, as seen in the following quotes: “She felt light and good in the warm sun” “…and she reached down quickly...
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...In the short story “The Flowers,” by Alice Walker, she strengthens her audience for a gruesome ending using diction to help semblance a visual aspect and her use of symbols encourage foreshadowing. Walker delivers many different symbols in the story, which guides the plot twist, which happens later in the story. The diction aids in setting the tone and mood for the whole story. The author equips the audience with knowledge for a dramatic ending providing clear diction. Myop, the main character talks about how she and her mother would go into the woods to scavenge for nuts that rested upon the fallen leaves. Later on, Myop finds herself in a cavern about a mile from her home; she describes this cove as strange. If she had never seen this cavern...
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...of the characters. Author like Alice Walker in “The Flowers” clearly uses symbolism as a way to connect the character to the reader on different levels. Through a series of several symbols, Walker creates a vivid illustration of Myop's transition from innocence of childhood to the realities of life and all of its cruelties. Walker uses this whole situation of the corpse, flowers and summer to clearly illustrate the precise moment in which a child looses that treasured innocence. The danger is first introduced by Myop entering the woods. It is in these woods that Myop encounters the single event that will lead to her loss of innocence: finding the corpse of a lynched man. Myop steps, by accident, into the face of this corpse and although frightened continues to remain joyful. Myop clears the remains from the man's face to find all of his white teeth cracked and broken. The description of the body is given in great detailed, “Myop saw that he had large white teeth, all of them cracked or broken, long fingers, and very big bones. All his clothes had rotted away except some threads of blue denim from his overalls” (Walker 405). The detailed description of the body indicates his probable ethnicity which is African-American, like Myop. In addition, the corpse suggest that something that was once white and pure has been broken by the cruel and harsh reality of the world. Another symbol of innocence is the flowers that Myop happily picks. Flowers are a symbol of innocence because...
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...“Loss of Innocence” Innocence is like a tiny flower that fills the eye with their beauty and uniqueness, but in turn, can be destroyed with a simple gust of wind. Strong social problems like racism and rape are among the causes of the destruction of the absence of evil, innocence. Myop is a girl who plays the protagonist role in the story The Flowers. This story was written by Alice Walker. This story is a vivid example of the consequences of racism and how it can affect the life of an innocent girl. In addition to racism, rape is another compelling reason that destroys innocence and leaves marked the history of any person subject to this abuse (White). The story "The Answer Is No" by Naguib Mahfouz tells how a rape victim can be marked forever. Children are the first victims when we speak of racism and rape because they lack the means to defend themselves. They are easy prey for people without a soul with any clear sense of decency and humanity (Crosson-Tower). Racism has become the flagship of empires and nations, to justify their anger against those who are different. The changes we have recently experienced worldwide, this new era of globalization has meant that entire towns revive feelings of nationalism, unfortunately the wrong way. Because of its ambitious leaders with power, these feelings of nationalism have been driven by anger, hatred, intolerance and violence (Dain). The Flowers story is about a girl who is a victim of racism indirectly. Myop is a happy girl, who...
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...A World Alone Society can either be superb or atrocious influence to people. Humankind is breaking apart because people are becoming shallow thinkers. Four stories that describe that problems cause the general public to break apart are: Desiree’s Baby, The Flowers, The Lottery, and The Sniper. People being critical and judgmental are a few problems that causes to tear the humanity apart. Do not let others influence your relationship by reason of being different. In the short story, “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, it is about a lady who made a family with a handsome man, but when they had a baby, he started to regret having a family and kicked them out. Chopin writes, “Young Aubigny’s rule was a strict one too and under it his negroes had...
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...TIQA Model Extended Paragraph When compared, the descriptive writing in Gary Paulsen’s “The Dogs Could Teach Me” is a clear winner against pieces “The Flowers” and “The Sniper”. Paulsen exemplifies mastery in descriptive writing. Paulsen’s powerful descriptive writing skills are first apparent early in the piece, during the exposition. The first paragraph sets the reader up by creating great visuals. When Paulsen describes the small canyon, the threatening drop, and how the dogs were “fairly smoking” as they came the edge, he sets the scene perfectly to start the action. Through his description of the setting in the exposition, he creates a scene as easy to picture as a movie scene, thus making it easy to get lost in the rest of the story....
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...”The Flowers” When you grow from child to adult, you realize that life is not as easy as you might have thought. What is underneath all the perfect flowers? How does growing from child to adult affect you? “The Flowers” is a short story by Alice Walker, in which you read about a little girl whose name is Myop. As she’s out picking flowers, she discovers something which will change her childhood and her view on life. By analyzing and interpreting this short story this essay will put focus on Myop’s development and her view on life after her discovery. “The Flowers” is a story of childhood innocent. Myop is a 10 years old girl. She only sees the beauty of life. She likes the nature, and flowers. The story is described as a beautiful summer day. The story takes place in the woods behind Myop’s house. Myop’s mood develops from a good to a bad mood. I can see that in the beginning “she felt light and good in the warm sun”. When you feel light and good warm sun, its symbols of something good. First Myop is picking flowers in the wood, she is happy. When she later gets further in to the woods “she finds it not as pleasant as her usual haunts”. But then she steps into a man’s face. She realizes that he is dead. She picks up a pink rose and put her bundle of flowers down. But after she had experienced with the innocent man, she had a bad mood and all the fun was over. The text ends with “the summer was over”, and it’s like Myop is growing up and could not have fun anymore....
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...Alice Walker and Maya Angelou are two contemporary African-American writers. Although almost a generation apart in age, both women display a remarkable similarity in their lives. Each has written about her experiences growing up in the rural South, Ms. Walker through her essays and Ms. Angelou in her autobiographies. Though they share similar backgrounds, each has a unique style which gives to us, the readers, the gift of their exquisite humanity, with all of its frailties and strengths, joys and sorrows. Tragedy struck both of these women at the age of eight. Ms. Walker lost her sight in one eye. Ms. Angelou was raped. Each described the incident as part of a larger work. Ms. Walker related her experience in the body of an essay published in her book, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. Ms. Angelou told her story as a chapter in her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Although both wrote about their traumatic experience, the way each depicted the incident was distinct and seemed to be told for very different purposes. Alice Walker reports the facts to the reader with short sentences written in the present tense. She chooses words which elicit a forceful emotional response from her audience. For example, in telling how her brothers were given BB guns and she was not, Ms. Walker writes, "Because I am a girl, I do not get a gun. Instantly, I am relegated to the position of Indian." The word "relegated" causes the reader to be irate and indignant....
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...The horrors of the real world are explored in the short story, The Flowers by Alice Walker. The story opens with a young girl named Myop enjoying a nice summer day and takes a very dark turn when Myop ventures into the nearby forest. In the forest, she discovers a dead man on the ground, who has been lynched. Myop's loss of childhood innocence is shown through cryptic symbolism, intriguing foreshadowing, and the author's drastic use tone. To begin with, the author uses symbolism in her writing to further convey the theme of Myop's loss of blissful unawareness to the real world. The text states, " "Myop laid down her flowers. And the summer was over." The summer symbolizes the happy child that Myop was and her inability to see the real world. Now, after going through such an unforgettable experience Myop has aged emotionally well-beyond her years. By comparing Myop's obliviousness to the summer the author demonstrates that becoming aware of the real world can be scary, but necessary....
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...2013 Alice Walker Section 1 Biography According to Michael Mayer, Alice Walker, one of the best-known and most highly respected writers in the United States, was born in Eatonton, Georgia. She was the eighth and last child of Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker. Her parents were sharecroppers, and money was not always available as needed. At the tender age of eight, Walker lost sight of one eye when one of her older brothers shot her with a BB gun by accident. This left her in somewhat a depression, and she secluded herself from the other children. Walker felt like she was no longer a little girl because of the traumatic experience she had undergone, and she was filled with shame because she thought she was unpleasant to look at. During this seclusion from other kids of her age, Walker began to write poems. Hence, her career as a writer began. Walker found the love of her life in 1967, a white activist civil rights lawyer named Mel Leventhal, and they married him in 1967. A year later she gave birth to their daughter, Rebecca. It was not until she began teaching that her writing career really took off. She began teaching at Jackson State, then Tougaloo, and finally at Wellesley College. Walker was involved in the Civil Rights Movement and spoke for the women’s movement, the anti-apartheid movement, for the anti-nuclear movement, and against female genital mutilation. She also started her own publishing company: “The Wild Trees Press”, in 1984. Walker refused...
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...Conflict Essay “Everyday Use”-Alice Walker Alice Walker authored the short story entitled “Everyday use”. In this story we get a set of characters, round (Mama) and flat (quilt) and several supporting characters, like Hakim-a-barber. Walkers “Everyday Use” is set somewhere between 1960’s America right around the time the civil rights movement was taking place. The setting takes place at Mama’s house primarily with the exception of a flashback to their old house that burned down. The plot of the story reveals the characters cultural pride and ignorance towards the changing times. The themes in “Everyday Use” are, the meaning of heritage and the power of education. Additionally, the author creates different conflicts that arise throughout the story in which they are: man vs. man, man vs. society, and man vs. himself. Man vs. Man is first seen between Dee and Mama due to the fact that Mama doesn’t meet up to Dee’s standards. This coincides with the theme, power of education. Mama struggled to send Dee to a good school, which could have ended up doing more harm than good in regards to their relationship. Mama herself was denied an education and her youngest daughter Maggie lacks in that department. Therefor, giving Dee the advantage of being the only one educated which makes her arrogant and condescending. The education that Mama generously gave to Dee only created a bigger wedge between them and the family. Dee with her knowledge and way of the world becomes a...
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..."The Flowers" by Alice Walker It seemed to Myop as she skipped lightly from hen house to pigpen to smokehouse that the days had never been as beautiful as these. The air held a keenness that made her nose twitch. The harvesting of the corn and cotton, peanuts and squash, made each day a golden surprise that caused excited little tremors to run up her jaws. Describe the mood (atmosphere) that Walker creates in this paragraph. Underline or highlight words above that help you come up with the mood. What word does the name Myop remind you of? What could this possibly tell you about the character? | | | | Myop carried a short, knobby stick. She struck out at random at chickens she liked, and worked out the beat of a song on the fence around the pigpen. She felt light and good in the warm sun. 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. Based on Walker’s description, what do you KNOW about Myop? What can you INFER (make an educated guess about)? Explain. | ...
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...“Since we cannot change reality let us change the eyes which see reality.” If reality cannot change why don’t we change our societies view on reality. In the short story “The Flowers” there is an innocent playful 10 year old African American girls named Myop who is picking flowers in the woods near her house. As she was picking the flowers she walked off course and discovers a decaying lynched African American man next to her feet. According to the last statement of the story “And the summer was over” Alice Walker depicts that Myop loses her innocents when she finds an African American man dead making her find her true reality of how her people are treated. The story indicates the loss of innocence, making specific racial experiences that...
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...perfection and then on the other spectrum red here is representing death, blood, danger, and hatred. The village of course is supposed to be completely gold, however that is not the case at all. In the opening sequence of the movie two women are sweeping the porch and joking around when they notice a red flower growing near it. They take the flower and burry it then...
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...The Flowers By Alice Walker The story is about a girl named Myop. She is ten years old and lives in a sharecropper cabin with her family. They live in the country where maize is grown cotton, peanuts and squash. They have a lot of farm animals and a forest in their backyard. In autumn the mother usually takes her out and collects nuts. Myop lives a wonderful and carefree life. Myop have explored the woods many times before, but one day she turns her back to the rusty sharecropper to explore the forest on her way. She finds ferns, leaves and strange blue flowers and a sweet suds bush. She gets farther and farther away from home and she thinks it's a little creepy and uncomfortable in the cove she ended up in. She describes it as "the air was damp, the silence close and deep." Suddenly she steps on something. A corpse of a man. Beside him a pink rose lay on the ground. The rose has something around the roots it turns out to be rotten remains of a tattered plowline. A last Myop lie down the blossoms and the story ends with the words "and the summer was over.” It is an omniscient narrator in third person narrative. Because the narrator knows what the girl thinks and feels without direct expression in the text. We follow the girl and her achievements seen from outside when the viewpoint is an external perspective. It makes the story neutral and you keep getting the exterior of knowledge, but not the interior. Therefore it forces us to even think what Myop thinks. And why she...
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