Diction In The Flowers By Alice Walker

In the play “A Raisin In The Sun” Hansberry uses abstract diction and dialogue to support the argument of when life doesn’t seem to give you an answer, create one. The play is a very powerful play with many life lessons and truths about our state in the 1950’s, it also shows our growth from then to now, I will show you how this play supports the argument when life doesn’t seem to give you an answer, create one. The characters in the play start to give up around the middle, as it seems they have else they can do and no way for them to make more money to move to a better house, I think Hansberry is saying that despite all your setbacks and downfall that you must continue to reach for the stars. In the play, Hansberry uses abstract diction,

One of many literary devices that Walker uses is imagery. The use of similes and metaphors occur frequently to reveal the character of Roselily to readers. “Like cotton to be weighed”

“The Flowers” by Alice Walker is a very well written yet short and sweet story that paints a very vivid picture of main problem the times. It expresses the reality of the lynching of the African American community in a way that is very easy to understand. Alice Walker uses vibrant details to bring to light the severity of the problem and what people of that time period went through. The story also showcases a deeper meaning that does not necessarily revolve around lynchings but represents the loss of childhood innocence. “The Flowers” explains the reality of racism and lynchings of the time while also providing an inner lying message about one’s coming of age and loss of innocence.

Myop is shown as an innocent young girl as the story begins to unfold. “She was ten, and nothing existed for her but her song, the stick clutched in her dark brown hand, and the tat-de-ta-ta-ta of accompaniment.” (498). This passage allows the reader to see Myop as a young innocent girl, playing outside her

One of the most important techniques employed by walker to reflect childhood innocence and the loss of it is symbolism. Walker has enriched her piece with symbolism to highlight the innocent days then the sudden maturation of the protagonist. Even the title of the story is symbolic “The Flowers” stands for the childhood purity and its loss. Throughout the story, Walker uses flowers to depict both innocence and the loss of it. Moreover, she specifically has named the little girl Myop – short for Myopia. That is because Myopia stands for the inability to see things deeply so it shows her childhood innocence. The story beings showing the setting of it which is the harvesting of corn, cotton, peanuts and squash; therefore, it illustrates that she is on a farm. It is also post-civil war days because “sheer cropper cabin” are a new development during this time-her family are sheer croppers.

Added to this, the writer’s use of symbolism strengthens this idea of attractiveness and inexperience, Myop’s name being the main symbol. Myop is short for Myopia. The name given to short-sightedness. This is used as a metaphor as Myop’s naivety, then as the story goes on Myop opens her eyes to see what the real world is like and the author mentions her name less. Another symbol used in paragraph 2 is the “warm sun”. This symbolises the light and life of the world. It is a time when people are supposed to be awake and no body should be sleeping but this is later contrasted further on in the story. All the setting and scenery described gives an image of the Garden of Eden- paradise – a place everyone wants to be, where nothing bad can happen up until one critical moment when Eve eats the apple and everything forever changes. This gives the reader an insight in to the rest of the story but still leaves them wondering what could happen next.

Walker continues to use negative imagery and ideas to reveal her hesitation towards the arrangement. The author uses these literary devices because she wants to illustrate Roselily’s reasons for marrying the man. Roselily does this because it is what's best for her and her children. In a way, Roselily is being forced because she does not have a better alternative to her current life. By marrying the man, Roselily will have a renewed lifestyle and reputation. Roselily imagines the flowers in her hand as kids. When she does this, her head fills with murderous thoughts. “A squeeze around the flowers in her hands chokes off three and four and five years of breath” (Walker 4). As guilty as Roselily feels, this shows how Roselily wishes she never had given birth to any of her kids. When she tightens her grip on the bouquet of flowers, she thinks of her children. Roselily dreams she did not give birth to these kids. Roselily’s ideas of murder could possibly be associated with her obsession with the idea of her personal spirit being robbed from her. Weddings usually give off positive connotations, however in Roselily’s mind she disturbs the happy wedding with dark thoughts such as the idea of murder. Deviating from the topic of “personal spirit”, Brent studies the ferocious thoughts swarming Roselily’s mind. “Roselily’s rebellious thoughts during the wedding ceremony go so far as to enter the realms of murder and blasphemy. She expresses a wish that she could be free of her three

Anybody can find inspiration from anything. For Alice Walker, the author of “The Flowers” and “Everyday Use”, her inspiration was in her upbringing. Both short stories have unique storylines, but one thing they have in common is the incorporation of Alice Walker’s underprivileged life growing up. For example, “The Flowers” is about a little innocent girl, who makes her fun running through the woods behind her family’s sharecropper cabin, who stumbles upon a horrible sight. This little girl, Myop, suddenly ‘loses her innocence’ when she sees a dead man in the woods. As well as in the story “Everyday Use” there is an underprivileged family with a mother and two daughters, where the lifestyle just isn't enough for the older daughter, Dee. Overall, the unique inspiration Alice Walker’s childhood had on her helps craft the particular storylines and themes of “The Flowers” and “Everyday Use”.

In the passage from the award winning novel Secret Life of Bees, portrays Lily sneaking out of the house to be closer to her dead mother, which paints a picture of how much Lily wants to develop the bond with her late mother. To accomplish this task the author, Sue Monk Kidd, integrates numerous forms of figurative language such as symbolism , imagery, and comparisons using similes and metaphors to convey how much Lily desires to find a connection with her dead mother.

"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

Symbols are one of those most important things to a story. They share the meaning of themselves, as well as the meaning for something else. Symbols usually make the important ideas stick out as well as make the reader have different ideas of what is actually being said. One of the many symbols in “Paul’s Case” is flower’s. From violets to carnations, the flowers Paul talks about are ones of many meanings. The flowers represent a continual motif, expressing Paul’s character.

The literary devices that May uses throughout the poem represent the understanding of the human mind. May states,“I've grown in secret.” The plants that the speaker tends to are a metaphor to illustrate self identity. By growing in secret, the speaker mind and understanding grows like a plant, unnoticed by the world. In addition, this illustrates that one’s self identity is found through the growth of understanding about one’s self. A flower is a garderns goal to achieve, as in a goal for

In Willa Cather’s, “Paul’s Case”, several different references are made within the story in relation to flowers. In many cases, the flowers resemble life and the journeys that one goes through. On the other hand, flowers resemble death and how easily it can creep up on a person. Both these symbols can be recognized in the story of the young protagonist; However, the true reason the flowers are so prominent in the story is to resemble, and therefore predict, the life of Paul. Like the flowers, Paul will bloom and prosper and be beautiful, but if the flowers spend too much time trying to live in a non-compatible season, the flowers will wither away and die like Paul.

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.

In the story “The Chrysanthemums” the women Elisa Allen had this deep passion for the flowers call chrysanthemums. That even her husband Henry gave her much space when she was dealing with the chrysanthemums. The story opens when Elisa hears a “squeak of wheels and a plod of hoofs”, and a man drives up in and old spring wagon and does not have a name but simply called the man. Earning a meager living, he fixes pots and sharpens scissors and knives. He travels from San Diego to Seattle and back every year. The man chats and jokes with Elisa, but she admits that she that she has no work for him to do. When he presses for a small job and she becomes annoyed and tries to send him away. Suddenly, the man’s attention turns to the flowers and gives a brief description of the chrysanthemums while Elisa is attending the flowers. The man says kind of long stemmed flower, looks like a quick puff of smoke, and Elisa becomes delighted of the description.