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The Flowers
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Flowers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age and the Loss of Innocence
“The Flowers” is a somber coming-of-age tale, specifically highlighting the ways in which racist violence in the Jim Crow era (and beyond) forced Black children to confront unspeakable horrors at very young ages. When 10-year-old Myop—who is Black herself—comes upon the corpse of a lynched Black man in the woods, the brutal history of racism in America effectively robs her of her sense of security and safety in the world.
It's worth noting…
read analysis of Coming of Age and the Loss of Innocence
Cultural Trauma and Mourning
The end of “The Flowers” represents Myop’s recognition of the deep cultural trauma that she has inherited as a Black American. At the beginning of her journey, Myop—whose name might hint at the word “myopic” (nearsighted)—appreciates the flowers for their fragrant beauty as she gathers an armful of them. However, the sight of the skull and rotting corpse of a man who was lynched causes a profound shift in her feelings and her understanding…
read analysis of Cultural Trauma and Mourning
Racism, History, and Economic Injustice
Published in 1973, five years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Flowers” illustrates how the racial injustices of slavery continued long after the Civil War. Although “The Flowers” does not specify its setting, its reference to Myop’s home as a “sharecropper cabin” reveals that it is set after the Civil War, and its reference to harvesting peanuts and cotton suggests it is in the South (where these crops grow). Sharecropping…
read analysis of Racism, History, and Economic Injustice
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