“The Flower of Innocence”
Don’t define the world in black and white; there is much more hiding among the grey. Mother’s perpetually repeat “One day you will understand,” to their children. This day comes for the young main character, Myop, in the short-story “The Flowers” by Alice Walker. Myop stumbles across a part of the world that before did not exist to her, and in an instance as stated in the last line of the work, “summer was over.”
Fore mostly, the author’s use of diction creates an atmosphere of exuberant childhood innocence. Myop “… skips lightly…” through days that “…had never been as beautiful as these…”. “The air held a keenness that made her nose twitch” as she “worked out the beat of a song on the fence….” “Nothing existed for her but her song,” meaning that Myop was entrapped in her won world, unaware of
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anything outside of it.
This is symbolized through Myop’s name itself. “Myop” being a play on the word “myopia”, reiterates the young girl’s near-sightedness and her not looking beyond that of her previous knowledge. On her voyage through the woods, Myop is “…vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes…” The snakes denote the evil in which Myop not necessarily turns a blind eye to, rather than being vaguely aware of the cruelty of the world aside her own. Paragraph three is the turning point of the “The Flowers.” Myop turns “…her back on the rusty boards of her family’s sharecropper cabin…” and the imagery “Myop watched the tiny bubbles disrupt the thin black scale of soil and the water that silently rose and slid away”, relate to the reference made to “often, in late autumn, her mother took her to gather nuts among the fallen leaves” telling the reader this is a season of
change in Myop’s life, hence the allusion to “autumn” meaning change. As the child ventures along we find foreshadowing in paragraph five. At this moment Myop’s arms are “…laden with her findings…”which are the flowers she picked. The flowers symbolize Myop’s innocence. “She had often been as far before, but the strangeness of the land made it not as pleasant as her usual haunt.” This description leads one to believe she may in fact lose that innocence. Indeed, “Myop began to circle back to the house =, back to the peacefulness of the morning,” or the serenity of her pure idea of the world. “It is then she stepped smack into his eyes…” and met evil. As Myop examines where the late man lay, she noticed “a wild rose” that embodies the beauty and purity that still exists in the tainted world she has come to meet. “Myop laid down her flowers…,” her innocence. “And the summer was over, her childhood and notion that the world only consisted of joy were gone. Myop is a ten year old girl who sees the world with no imperfection. She only is aware of what exists to her, her song, until she comes in contact with the impurities of the universe. Summer is a season of freedom and life, happiness. In this story, summer is a time of realization for Myop. By laying down the flowers, the young girl lays down her innocence and by doing this the summer ended. The true meaning of the last line is Myop’s innocence being lost and her eyes opened to the world. It signifies the end of her though of an uncorrupted world.
In The Lilies of the Field, by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria share the similar character traits of stubbornness, hard-working, and kind-hearted. Homer and Mother Maria are both very hard-working. Homer is treated with inferiority and told he cannot possibly be dedicated enough to build the chapel for Mother Maria and the nuns. However, he stubbornly insists to construct the church in spite of the prejudice against him. Prior to meeting Homer, Mother Maria was adamant about building the chapel with just herself and the nuns. Though most of the town believes her to be an impractical nun with overly optimistic goals, this merely bolsters her commitment to establishing the church. When Homer leaves town, Mother Maria is steadfast
Sister Flowers and A View From the Bridge are two short stories with strong correspondence and likeness. In the story, Sister Flowers by Maya Angelou our narrator Marguerite, a young African American female gives the reader introspect of her life and how a scholarly educated and aristocratic woman named Mrs.Bertha Flowers has made an impact on the narrator's life. While in the story A View From the Bridge by Cherokee Paul Mcdonald a man talks about his encounter with a boy he met on a bridge. Both short stories from the choice of character comparisons with both Marguerite and the boy on the bridge , The author's theme,syntax and symbols to overall effectiveness of both narratives proves that these two stories are more the same as a sense to their overall message they are trying to communicate to the reader.
'Marigolds' is a story written by the author Eugenia Collier. It is considered a 'coming of age story.' A coming of age story is a story where the protagonist becomes an adult through experiences, knowledge, or an adventure. Throughout the story the main character, Lizabeth, goes through experiences that upset her. These experiences teach her to have compassion and not to be afraid of hope and beauty.
One of the significant aspects of “changing self” covered in Harwood’s poems is the process in which, a child’s innocent mind, like a blank page, is inked and tainted by some experience. Their hopes, dreams, beliefs, founded on their naive perspective of life, and the way the young restyle themselves consciously or subconsciously as they make new discoveries are all explored.
The three pieces “Marigolds” By Eugenia W. Coller, “The Flowers” by Alice Walker and “The Problem We All Live With” by Norman Rockwell, all have have to do with defining moments because they all show 3 girls maturing, by having a specific moment in their lives that then defines who they are. For example in the story “Marigolds” by Eugenia W. Coller shows a girl named Elizabeth turning from an immature girl, to a responsible women. As it states in the story “The years have taken me worlds away from that time and that place, from the dust and squalor of our lives, and from the bright thing that I destroyed in a blind, childish striking out at God knows what… For one does not have to be ignorant and poor to find that his life is as barren as the dusty yards of our town. And I too have planted marigolds.” This means that when the years past she realize that the act that she has done was very bad,
Most of the time there is a moment in life where one realizes they have lost all innocence and gained some compassion. “Marigolds” shows how one young girl transferred from a child to young adult through her life experiences. Throughout this story another young, but at the same time old in her prime, lady’s experiences are revealed: the author’s. In this short story, “Marigolds,” Eugenia Collier’s subconscious is unmasked through symbolism, diction, and Lizabeth’s actions.
Sandra's tale brought back much nostalgia for my younger days. Those days when everything was much more simple and happiness came with almost no effort. Cisneros reminds the reader of infantile glee by repeating words, just like a kid would do. She writes, "please, please, please," and "and there! And there!, And there!…" making almost an alliteration of words that realistically depicts the speech of a child ...
“Marigolds”, a short story written by Eugenia Collier, illustrates a very complex struggle,but one almost all of us can relate to. It was set in the Great Depression, yet it has relevance today. It is a struggle all of us must go through, though it may hidden unlike the struggle Collier describes. “Marigolds” conveys the struggle between an aimless and innocent adolescent, and a mature and compassionate adult. The clash of two minds and two consciences. Looking through eyes of a 14 year old girl named Lizabeth, Collier declares a very important and relevant message to the reader. One summer night, Lizabeth learns the same lesson Collier wishes to tell the reader. Her theme in “Marigolds” is living a ignorant life, like that of a child,
In “The Violets” I entwine the past and present, the reoccurring flower motif of ‘spring violets’ sprout in both memory and reality to reflect the persona’s age and perceptions “I kneel to pick frail melancholy flowers among ashes and loam”. The violets portray the persona as an adult, whose gained knowledge and lacking innocence has created a critical, melancholic view on her world. This is juxtaposed by the persona’s childhood perception; “spring violets in their loamy bed”. In childhood, beauty was simplistic and untainted by knowledge and human experience; blessed by innocence.
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews Have you ever imagined living locked up in an attic for 3 years and 5 months? Have you ever imagined not growing up with your mother's care and love at the time you were 5? Flowers in the Attic is one of the more original series written by V.C. Andrews of the Dollanganger series. It is one of the best books I've read because it's depressing and dark yet heart-touching. In this book report, the setting, plot and the characters of the book will be included. Flowers in the Attic is one tragic yet a hopeful story of four children.
Many popular novels are often converted into television movies. The brilliant fiction novel, Flowers for Algernon written by Daniel Keyes, was developed into a dramatic television film. Flowers for Algernon is about a mentally retarded man who is given the opportunity to become intelligent through the advancements of medical science. This emotionally touching novel was adapted to television so it could appeal to a wider, more general audience. Although the novel and film are similar in terms of plot and theme, they are different in terms of characters.
Alice Walker's short fictional story, "Nineteen Fifty-five", revolves around the encounters among Gracie Mae Still, the narrator, and Traynor, the "Emperor of Rock and Roll." Traynor as a young prospective singer purchases a song from Mrs. Still, which becomes his "first hit record" and makes him rich and famous. Yet, he does not "even understand" the song and spends his entire life trying to figure out "what the song means." The song he sings seems as fictional as certain events in this story, but as historical as Traynor's based character, Elvis Presley.
In the short story “The Chrysanthemums” John Steinbeck uses symbolism to reflect the characteristics of his main character Elisa Allen. Elisa, a married woman uncovers her deeply smothered femininity in an inconspicuous sense. Her life in the valley had become limited to housewife duties and the only sustenance that seemed to exist could merely be found in her chrysanthemum garden. Not until she becomes encountered with a remote tinker-man out and about seeking for work, does she begin to reach many of the internal emotions that had long inhibited her femininity. The tinker subtlety engages an interest in Elisa’s chrysanthemum garden that encourages Elisa to react radically. When Elisa realizes that there are other ways to live she attempts to lift the lid off of the Salinas Valley, but unfortunately the tinker’s insincere actions resort Elisa back to her old self and leaves Elisa without any optimism for her hollow breakthrough. Steinbeck’s somber details of the setting, strong description of the chrysanthemums and meaningful illustration of the red flower-pot reveal the distant, natural, ambitions Elisa Allen desired to attain.
Although imagery and symbolism does little to help prepare an expected ending in “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, setting is the singular element that clearly reasons out an ending that correlates with the predominant theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing a grim realism from the cruel world. Despite the joyous atmosphere of an apparently beautiful world of abundant corn and cotton, death and hatred lies on in the woods just beyond the sharecropper cabin. Myop’s flowers are laid down as she blooms into maturity in the face of her fallen kinsman, and the life of summer dies along with her innocence. Grim realism has never been so cruel to the innocent children.
"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.