“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, though, that Myop seems to cling to her sense of childhood innocence even after she first encounters the corpse. She is certainly unnerved by the fact that she has stepped into the corpse’s skull, but she then “gaze[s] around the spot with interest,” eventually noticing a bright flower nearby. Her interest in the flower suggests that, though troubling, this experience hasn’t necessarily impacted her ability to appreciate nature and beauty with childish wonder. However, she soon notices that the flower is encircled by the noose that killed the man lying nearby, and then she sees the top of the broken noose hanging from a tree above. In other words, she realizes how the man died, understanding that he was lynched. In turn, she realizes that—because of her race—the same kind of racist violence could happen to her or to her loved ones. Of course, Myop’s realization in this regard isn’t stated in explicit language, but it is implied by the story’s final line: “And the summer was over.” This signals a loss of innocence, as Myop has been thrust into a world in which it’s no longer possible to avoid, ignore, or misunderstand the horrific threat of racism in the United States.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Coming of Age and the Loss of Innocence ThemeTracker
Coming of Age and the Loss of Innocence Quotes in The Flowers
It seemed to Myop as she skipped lightly from hen house to pigpen to smokehouse that the days had never been so beautiful as these. The air held a keenness that made her nose twitch. The harvesting of the corn and cotton, peanuts and squash, made each day a golden surprise that caused excited little tremors to run up to her jaws.
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.
Turning her back on the rusty boards of her family’s sharecropper cabin, Myop walked along the fence till it ran into the stream made by the spring.
She had explored the woods behind the house many times. Often, in late autumn, her mother took her to gather nuts among the fallen leaves. Today she made her own path, bouncing this way and that way, vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes.
She had often been as far before, but the strangeness of the land made it not as pleasant as her usual haunts. It seemed gloomy in the little cove in which she found herself. The air was damp, the silence close and deep.
Myop began to circle back to the house, back to the peacefulness of the morning. It was then that she stepped smack into his eyes. Her heel became lodged in the broken ridge between brow and nose, and she reached down quickly, unafraid, to free herself. It was only when she saw his naked grin that she gave a little yelp of surprise.
Myop gazed around the spot with interest. Very near where she’d stepped into the head was a wild pink rose. As she picked it to add to her bundle she noticed a raised mound, a ring, around the rose’s root. It was the rotted remains of a noose, a bit of shredding plowline, now blending benignly into the soil. Around an overhanging limb of a great spreading oak clung another piece. Frayed, rotted, bleached, and frazzled—barely there—but spinning restlessly in the breeze. Myop laid down her flowers.
And the summer was over.
