The Flowers By Alice Walker

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The Flowers By Alice Walker Written in the 1970's The Flowers is set in the deep south of America and is about Myop, a small 10-year old African American girl who explores the grounds in which she lives. Walker explores how Myop reacts in different situations. She writes from a third person perspective of Myop's exploration. In the first two paragraph Walker clearly emphasises Myop's purity and young innocence. "She skipped lightly from hen house to pigpen". This shows how happy Myop is in this setting, we know she feels safe here, "She felt light and good in the warm sun" Her innocence produces an excitement to the reader as it gives the character and the text somewhere to go. We learn that Myop is ten and is African American, however Walker does not present the reader with clear facts but instead reveals it to us. " The stick clutched in her dark brown hand", from the information given she allows the reader to form a visual image of Myop. Walker also highlights the setting around Myop, playing on the character's senses. "The harvesting of the corn and cotton, peanuts and squash made each day and golden surprise". By doing this Walker reveals more about Myop's background. We can see from the crops used "cotton and squash" that her family are obviously farmers. We can also see how Myop's senses are important to her and her reactions to the crops around her show off her child-like qualities. "A golden surprise that caused excited little tremors run up her jaws". The smells in the air triggered Myop's other senses and we can see that she is quite aware of these familiar surroundings. Walker then begins reveals more about Myop's ... ... middle of paper ... ...ck men and women had to contain to overcome the abuse they had to take in the 1950s and 60s. The final paragraph contains only one line, this makes it stand out and is obviously important. "And the summer was over", this symbolises how Myop's childhood is over and that she has lost her innocence. Walker stresses "was" as it give the idea a clear ending, putting the events in the past. Walker produces many different ideas and themes in 'The Flowers'. She mainly focuses on the lives and treatment of black men and women at the time. I would agree with a post-colonial critic, as I feel that Walker uses the text to air her views on the treatment of black and the divide between whites and blacks. Although this could be seen as a Marxists perspective it think that it is limited and cannot be applied to the whole text.

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