Analyse af Alice Walkers novelle 'The Flowers'

1g/en B - Written assignment 1Answer the following questions for Alice Walker´s short story THE FLOWERS.

Make a short summary of the text

The short story “The Flowers” by Alice Walker follows Myop, a ten-year old country girl who is enjoying the last days of summer. The story starts off with the first two paragraphs giving visuals of pastoral beauty, nature in its finest moment. Thereafter she strolls off into the woods for picking up blue flowers. In a cove, she accidentally steps over a long-dead man, her heel getting stuck in his face. Close to the corpse, there is a beautiful rose she picks up only to also discover a rotting noose, used for hanging people, as well as the braches of an old rotting oak. The girl puts down her flowers and the summer ends.

Comment on the SETTING - when and where does the story take place??The story takes place in what I would assume was America because of the author’s background and what we are told about the surroundings. The nature then is described as in an idyllic countryside environment by Myop. The time when the story takes places, would be I think around 1800 century where racism was at is highest. My reason for this conclusion is because of the ending, where Myop steps over a man’s corpse, presumably a black one, because of the rotting noose. It was especially in this period that many African Americans got hanged as a result of slavery or something along those lines.