Loss Of Innocence In Alice Walker's The Flowers

In her short story, “The Flowers,” Alice Walker utilizes Myop, a young African American female, to exemplify the loss of innocence that is involved when youthful individuals wish to grow up too swiftly. In the opening line of the story, Walker strategically characterizes this young girl as she explains that Myop, “Skipped lightly from hen house to pigpen,” (Paragraph 1, Sentence 1). While using jovial verbs such as “skipped,” Walker implies that Myop is a cheerful and carefree individual who holds an optimistic outlook on life due to the fact that her innocence shields her from witnessing the dangers that are present in the world. However, Myop’s standpoint on life as well as her overall character dynamic completely morph after she decides to trek miles away from …show more content…
And with each step that Myop takes further away from her home, the closer she comes to both the forest and an age of complete maturity. Walker describes that, “The strangeness of this land made it not as pleasant as her usual haunts. It seemed gloomy,” (Paragraph 5, Sentences 2 - 3). By describing the forest as “strange” and “gloomy,” Walker makes it blatantly obvious that in actuality, independence and the loss of innocence is uncomfortable and isolating due to the fact that growing up requires reflection and self-discovery. In addition to this, while in the forest Myop discovers a deceased man. While still holding on to a small strand of ignorance due to her innocence, Myop is not practically fazed by this discovery. But, after further inspection, Myop discovers that the man’s head is decapitated, all of his teeth are broken and he has long, dirty fingernails. Finally, it is when she discovers the noose that lay beside this man of color when she detaches from all the innocence that she had

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Loss Of Innocence In Alice Walker's The Flowers