Alice Walker’s story, ‘The Flowers’, tells the story about Myop, a 10-year-old girl who grows up in one day. Myop’s happiness and peace are the first things that Myop encounters in her story. Walker describes Myop happily walking through the forest to find her sharecropper family cabin. The symbol for poverty, subordination, as well as racism, is the sharecropper’s cabin. Myop does not seem to understand the extent and severity of her family’s suffering. The image symbolizes the suffering and racism Myop will soon experience as she leaves behind her innocence.
Her happiness can be further seen in her pursuit of wildflower picking, which she finds so fascinating that she is able to travel a’mile or longer’ from home. She ventures further away from home and the security she enjoys, to discover the harsh realities of the world. She ventured out into nature and found her own path. But then she came across the body and it changed her life forever. This story is about a young woman who loses her innocence. It is the central theme of the author’s short story. The author uses symbols throughout her story to communicate her messages. Myop is the root of “myopic”, which means nearsighted. This just shows her small world. She is limited to what she sees and can only be affected by the things that are near her. It has kept her ignorant of the reality outside her childhood. The woods also represent Myop’s world, which can be both beautiful and violent. Her whole world has been destroyed by the forest, and she has become oblivious of the harsh realities of life. Snakes are not her only concern. Myop chose to follow her heart and venture deeper into the forest on this day. Myop had been to the woods behind her house “many times”, but she was most often with her mother, who was always there. This is what made it feel like an exciting adventure. The day she leaves her mother, however, she discovers the shocking truth about her race when she is alone. His death symbolizes the many African-Americans who perished due to racism during this time period. Myop is shocked to discover that a man has died. She initially remains innocent and even attempts to pick a wildrose from the grave. She soon discovers that the man has been hanged through her innocent gesture of picking up a wild flower. Myop takes note of the noose that was used to hang him and places her flowers there. The author concludes the story by saying “And the summer ended.”
Myop was born in the summer season. She was young, innocent, and happy during spring and summer. This was due to her ignorance and inexperience. Myop is now a mature individual with an understanding of the world. As the summer ended, so is her childhood. Both her innocence and ignorance vanish now that she’s seen both death and racist cruelty. She lost her innocence.
This story makes it clear that everyone deserves freedom. Just like the man who laid his lifeless. It’s amazing how much we have come a long way since then. This era allows us to freely express our thoughts. This story was published in 1970, just a few decades after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King. The United States was hit by a massive outbreak of racial violence that occurred in 1973. She wrote this letter to bring awareness to the people of events from our nation’s past. Myop’s discovery of the dead man is symbolic of many things. However, it also demonstrates that African Americans were victims and slaves to violence, hatred, and other forms.
This wonderful story has a lot to do with our history and our current time. Myop, like many other young sharecroppers was able to mature at an early stage in life. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. She was a young girl when she started her childhood stage. However, the story ends and her childhood is over.
