Poem Analysis: The Flowers By Alice Walker

Words: 510
Pages: 3

The short story “The Flowers” by Alice Walker talks about a curious and adventurous ten-year-old African American girl named Myop. She was born during the post-slavery era which she knew little about. Myop grows up on her family’s cabin many times in search of discovering beautiful flowers and new ground. While on one of her adventures, Myop discovers something in the woods that changes her life and childhood forever. Myop’s adventure starts everyday on her family’s farm. As a child “nothing exists for her, but her song, the stick clutched in her dark brown hand, and the tat-de-ta-ta-ta of accompaniment.” She carries a short knobby stick that she swings around while skipping on her adventure which represents her innocence and childhood. She uses that short stick to generate a beat on the fence around the pigpen for her song that sets the mood that she is carefree, happy and at peace. As the warmth of the sun touches her skin, she gains energy and excitement to explore her environment. By noon she is about a mile or two from home deep in the woods behind her house keeping an eye out for the evil lurking creatures like snakes. She finds an armful of strange blue flowers as she is bouncing around on her own path. All of a sudden that happy and cheerful tone becomes strange, dark and uncomfortable. The appearance …show more content…
Her actions show that she has matured and gained knowledge from her journey. Myop also realized that cruelty and evil existed in the world. The quote “And the summer was over” displays that she can no longer ignore her reality. She is forced to end her summer, she lost her innocence that summer because she cannot un-see the truth and realities of the world around her. The awareness of racism and how the corpse is left will forever be pondering on young Myop’s