Growing Up In “The Flowers” By Alice Walker

Alice Walker’s “The Flowers” portrays a sweet, innocent African American child whose sudden transition into adulthood is unexpected. Myop’s story starts off with a very rosy, happy illustration. However, it ends with the most gruesome and sobering incident that will change her life forever. Myop discovers a dead African-American who had been lynched, she realizes. Walker uses stunning imagery to show how the discovery of Myop’s body transforms her and forces an early adulthood.

Walker describes Myop’s character and the setting as peaceful and blissful in the first few paragraphs of the story. Walker introduces Myop and the scene as blissful and serene in the first few paragraphs. Myop, for example, is referring to the relationship between black and white people. Myop is unaware that her actions have a greater significance. She is enjoying the outdoors and picking flowers, which also symbolizes her innocence and purity.

Myop is transitioning to adulthood in the fifth sentence. Walker indicates the ‘beginning of her transition’ by stating a time. “By 12 o’clock…her arms laden…she was more than a kilometer away from her home” Walker uses this time to indicate a transition from morning to evening. Myop does not want to leave and circles back to her house. She returns to the tranquility of the early morning. It is only then that Myop steps into his face, showing the sudden shift in understanding.

This image comes to life at the end of the story when Myop picks up a red rose for her bouquet, and she notices that he was hanging from a noose. She then realizes that this brutal and grotesque death is a reflection of her own culture and, ‘outof respect’, she lays down the flowers. The flowers, which initially represented her innocence as a child, now represent her transition into adulthood. Myop’s decision to leave the flowers suggests that she realized, after a few moments of blissful flowery world, that it is not what it seems.

The Flowers, though brief and seemingly simple, portrays how events beyond the control of a child can change her forever. Myop, who knew lynching was a crime that targeted “people similar to her”, had to confront it immediately. People without racism would not have been able grow up as quickly. Walker’s story about growing up is more important and effective because it has a social and historical context.