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Loss Of Innocence In The Flowers By Alice Walker

866 Words4 Pages

The Flowers' loss of innocence is more complex and vivident for Myop as a young black girl by showing racism in America in the 1800-1900s. This is done by her showing a young innocent girl finding a person that was hung. In the story it is shown that the character Myop is a young girl that lives on a farm where they have a sharecropper cabin. Sharecropping began after the civil war when slaves were allowed to get jobs. It is when a landlord/planter allows tenants to use their land to grow crops in return they get some of the profits. This story The Flowers mainly focuses on racism and how they treated African Americans in the 1800s and early 1900s. This is shown throughout the story but mainly at the end of the story. Near the end of the …show more content…

The way the author (Alice Walker) laid this story out was very well done to show us how they used to treat African Americans back which this story is able to give a deeper meaning of racism without having to discuss just racism. Because of this we are able to determine what hse ment in this story which was the deeper meaning of racism. Which is evident throughout the entire story but mainly evident in “ large white teeth, all of them cracked or broken, long fingers” this is able to help us get a better understanding of what it was like back then. This story helps us understand racism back then because it helps us understand how they were treated back then. For example they would be hung if they didn't do as they were instructed by their owner. This was to show discipline to the other slaves at that time. “. The punishments took many forms, including whippings, torture, mutilation, imprisonment, and being sold away from the plantation. Slaves were even sometimes murdered” they did this because they wanted to show the other slaves what would happen if they didn't obey them. The purpose of this text was to show people what it was like back then and to show how African Americans were treated. This story helps us understand this by showing how they were treated. As this story progresses we are able to see how Myop changes how she acts as she started off as a happy young girl then went on to be a girl that

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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.

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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.

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