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Symbolism in alice walker's everyday use
What do flowers symbolise in the text: the flowers by alice walker
"the flowers" essay
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In the past, authors have used different kinds of diction and imagery in order to express their thoughts and experiences on the thought of growing up. In the vignette “The Monkey Garden” from The House On Mango Street Esperanza deals with the pain of her friend growing up before she does. Her lack of maturity in social situations causes her confusion and pain. At the beginning of the vignette Sandra Cisneros uses positive diction and peaceful, playful imagery in order to show the beauty and innocence of childhood. Cisneros then shifts the tone and uses negative diction and Sorrowful imagery in order to express that growing up can be a painful, revealing process.
Visual imagery aids the reader in understanding the loss of innocence of a boy amid such despair and the transformation that follows. Through these literary features, the author
Writers and poets often spread deep meaning in ordinary things: bowl can represent our parents’ heritage, food can represent our relationships with people and chocolate bar can be a symbol of childhood or green tea can be a symbol of love. Those simple things can be really meaningful, but mostly all authors understood the meaning of those objects and the value of the moments that they had lived only after several years. To take things for granted is a human nature, isn’t it? Children usually don’t listen to the voice of their parents, but when they grow up they understand how precious those lessons were.
First of all, one of the many things that reveal Dee to the audience, is the characterization of her. Dee is disobedient. “She’s dead.” Wangero said. “I couldn’t bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me.”
And the Summer was Over Summer is a universal symbol with as positive connotation filled with happiness and warm, long nights. When the temperature drops and jackets get pulled from the back of your closet, winter is approaching. Winter can be a time of snow mans and hot chocolate or a period of sadness, mystery, guilt, and regret. Alice Walker’s last sentence of her beautiful story, “The Flowers,” states, “And the summer was over,” which is a symbolic explanation that after every happy moment of euphoria comes a time of sadness and sorrow.
Alice Walker the author of the Flowers”, was inspired to write this story because of the tragedy that has happened to multiple black Americans and how it has affected their human rights. This story describes scenery that may have happened around South America starting off with a girl named Myop, a ten-year old girl who explores the world around her, unaware of the secrets the world beyond holds. In the first paragraph, Alice Walker clearly emphasises Myops purity and young innocence with the quote “She skipped lightly from hen house to pigpen.” This demonstrates how happy Myop is in this setting, we can identify she feels safe here, “ She felt light and good in the warm sun.”
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).
In her short story “Marigolds”, Eugenia Collier, tells the story of a young woman named Lizabeth growing up in rural Maryland during the Depression. Lizabeth is on the verge of becoming an adult, but one moment suddenly makes her feel more woman than child and has an impact on the rest of her life. Through her use of diction, point of view, and symbolism, Eugenia Collier develops the theme that people can create beauty in their lives even in the poorest of situations. Through her use of the stylistic device diction, Eugenia Collier is able to describe to the reader the beauty of the marigolds compared to the drab and dusty town the story is set in.
Alice Walker creates her character’s actions relatable to their physical characteristics, which are symbolic in correspondence to their heritage. Dee’s male “friend,” decides to change his name to a Muslim name and like the Muslim culture, he refuses to eat pork. Hence, he refused to take part in the African American cultured dinner Mrs. Johnson and Maggie had prepared. Mrs. Johnson was described as “a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands” and can “kill a hog as mercilessly as a man” (Walker 486). She was a woman who did many chores and had a good work ethic, but indicates that she had a tough life.
The vivid imagery contrasts considerably with the speaker’s identity, highlighting the discrepancy between her imagined and true personas. The speaker undergoes a symbolic transformation into a boy, but in order to do so, she must cast away her defining features as a woman. One way she does this is by repositioning
In the short story “The Flowers”, Alice Walker sufficiently prepares the reader for the texts surprise ending while also displaying the gradual loss of Myop’s innocence. The author uses literary devices like imagery, setting, and diction to convey her overall theme of coming of age because of the awareness of society's behavior. At the beguining of the story the author makes use of proper and necessary diction to create a euphoric and blissful aura. The character Myop “skipped lightly” while walker describes the harvests and how is causes “excited little tremors to run up her jaws.”. This is an introduction of the childlike innocence present in the main character.
Alice Walker uses imagery and diction throughout her short story to tell the reader the meaning of “The Flowers”. The meaning of innocence lost and people growing up being changed by the harshness of reality. The author is able to use the imagery to show the difference between innocence and the loss of it. The setting is also used to show this as well.
In the short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker shows the conflicts and struggles with people of the African-American culture in America. The author focuses on the members of the Johnson family, who are the main characters. In the family there are 2 daughters and a mother. The first daughter is named Maggie, who had been injured in a house fire has been living with her mom. Her older sister is Dee, who grew up with natural beauty wanted to have a better life than her mother and sister.
Alice Walker, the author of an essay “In Search of Our Mother’s Garden”, is a famous American writer and activist. She speaks for the rights of people and helps the offended while supporting revolutionists and leaders whom she considers to be bringing change to the world and seek for its transformation. Her essay, “In Search of Our Mother’s Garden”, dedicated to the struggle of African American women, is based on the feminist insights of the author. Based on her own experience, the experience of others, and the historical events, the author reveals the topic of the suppressed talent of African American women, of their lost artistic skills resulting from slavery and the imposed on them role. However, Walker point out that somehow the dark past has not completely damaged the creative power of the mothers and grandmothers since it has manifested itself in the small things they did for the people they loved.
A sense of life symbols is created in, “Where the family got drinking water” (…). Myop’s jocund jaunt through the forest is described using flowery imagery and symbolism, “an armful of strange blue flowers with velvety ridges and a sweet suds bush full of brown, fragrant buds”. The strange blue flowers hold symbolic meaning as it represents Myop’s innocence, and ultimately the loss of innocence. Such an exploration of the confronting nature of discoveries seeks to evoke a sense of empathy and reflection in the audience (this can be a link to the next paragraph) An individual’s perception of the world can be shattered by unexpected provocative discoveries.
