Diction And Symbolism In Roselily By Alice Walker

Alice Walker’s story “Roselily” is about hardships and doing what is best for the ones you love. The story elegantly shows Roselily’s emotions and thoughts about her marriage through diction and symbolism. These literary devices portray an unsure mother about her decision to marry a religious man for the sake of her children and her future.

In the very beginning of the story Roselily describe herself as “dragging herself across the world” (A. Walker 266). This show us that Roselily emotions as she walks down the aisle that she feels unsure and possibly unwilling to continue her choice of husband. She continues on with “She dreams she does not have already have three children. A squeeze around the flowers in her hands choke three and four and five years of breath” (A. Walker 266). This show how Roselily want to be younger and to live without her children in order to live her own life.

“She looks for the first time at the preacher and forces humility

When she is rested, what will she do?” (A. Walker 268) Roselily is unsure on what her life is going to be like once she is married. What will she do but give him babies and does everything a housewife should do. Roselily is unsatisfied with how her life is going to be. “She wished she had asked him to explain more of what he meant” (A. Walker 268). This sentences tells the reader a lot on her relationship with. her fiancé. It tells us that she does not really know him that she does not know his expectations of his relationship with her. Altogether this makes Roselily scared and unsure about her decision and how she is going to deal with everything.

“She does not even know if she loves him” (A. Walker 268), Roselily marries her husband because she needs to take of her children and he has the means to do so. It not because she loves it is a marriage of convenience but she does love that he is not a drunk that he understands why she marrying him and how he does care for her unlike the man before