The Diction In 'The Flower' By Alice Walker

Alice Walker was born in Georgia in 1944. She is well known for being a novelist, poet, and political activist (Meyer, 81). In the short story “The Flower”, Walker takes us on the journey of a young African American girl and her loss of innocence.
The setting of this story takes place on a beautiful day, the flowers have bloomed and harvest has begun. A young African American girl was walking around a farm picking flowers when she happened to wander a little farther out than she usually went. With an armful of flowers, she made her way back to the cabin and accidently stepped on a skull. After removing her foot, she noticed the skull belonged to a large African American man who had been hung from a nearby tree. She calmly laid down her flowers and returned home (Walker, 82).
Myop is the main character in the story. She is an innocent, 10 year old girl, without a worry in the

Her language comes across to the reader as being simple and uncomplicated, fitting the thoughts and language that a child would use. At the beginning of the story, the sentences are very descriptive and beautiful when Myop is collecting flowers near her home. For example, Myop had ‘an armful of strange blue flowers with velvety ridges and a sweet suds bush full of the brown, fragrant buds (Walker, 81).’ After Myop discovers the body, her thoughts become short and matter-of-fact. The last lines of the story are, “Myop laid down her flowers. And the summer was over (Walker, 82).” The brevity of the last lines has a lasting effect. In seeing the dead man and the noose, Myop became aware of the evil and cruelty that exists in the world. She laid down her flowers, symbolizing her loss of happiness, innocence, and the loss of life. Even a substantially sized man could not prevent his own death, and fell victim to this evil. Once the young girl become enlightened to this evil, she lost her