I'm going to begin with the more gruesome of the two, "The Flowers" by Alice Walker. Because, I do feel like if i tackle this one first than I will not feel quite as depressed the rest of my day :). First off I would like to point out there is a lot of color imagery throughout the story. Walker uses phrases such as, "golden surprises," "large white teeth," "wild pink rose," etc. It could have some kind of meaning that these colors Walker seems to implement are bright and almost youthful. This too presents a vast contrast with the dead man lying on the ground. He is lifeless laying there, but he still has the bright colors of life all around him. But Myop seems to be in the beginning of this story, a young vibrant girl who is simply looking for adventure and gathering flowers all along the way. She is enjoying every minute of summer exploring the woods. Throughout this piece though she is beginning to lose some of her innocence and grow up, even at the young age of ten years old. In the third paragraph it talks about how "Today she made her own path, bouncing this way and that way, vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes." This is the first instance of her starting to show her maturity and growth as a young girl. Also, Walker writes a little later how this experience beings to become unpleasant for Myop even before she encounters the man. Which is quite true for anybody. The process of growing up can be quite invigorating, but also scary just plain not fun at times.
But the shift begins when she encounters this man who has taken his life by actually stepping on his face. What I don't understand here is why this child is not spooked?! I mean, she just found a dead man in the woods while she is by herself. The author does indicate that she's surprised but now where does it say she's scared...weird is all i can say to that. This is where she grows up though. The summer/her flowers, which symbolically means her innocence/youth is gone. As soon as she laid down that bouquet, nothing is going to be the same for Myop again. This same sort of thing could be true for the rest of us (although hopefully not the same type of encounter!) Something drastic could cause us to grow up at a young age, leaving behind those carefree years. It's kind of a shame if you think about it. At least I think it is. This poor girl, at the ripe age of ten years old will forever be different.
Now the second story, "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid presents quite a different aspect. This entire piece is basically a "How to" for girls, but I believe this is specifically an African American women speaking to her daughter. For this piece I think I may have more questions than answers...but I will try. This mother, or mother figure, is trying to teach what is pressumably her daughter how to be a good wife. How to wash clothes, how to fix fish, how to iron, how to act in public. But the part that is interesting and stands out a lot (because the narrator says it two or three times) is, "to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming." This makes me wonder has the girl gone and gotten herself knocked up? Or did her mother catch her shackin up with some boy behind the house? I don't know? Maybe she's telling her all of these things because a baby is on the way and she's going to have to know how to take care of a household, but really I don't think that's what it is. I think this mother is concerned for her daughter's obvious loose morals and is maybe trying to correct them somehow. A piece of advice I truly loved and thought was quite comical was the, "this is how you smile to someone you don't like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don't like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely." I just had to giggle at this because isn't this true for so many girls, or southern women it seems? They just smile, but behind that smile there is so much pent up hate and gossip that if it came out it would just flood the other person. Now the daughter only speaks twice throughout this piece and the last thing she says is, "But what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?" and then the mother responds, "you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let her near the bread?" All I can figure is this is a sexual reference...I can't think of any other thing the bread can symbolically mean and it would go right along with the daughter's "sluttiness." Okay so that is my interpretation..hopefully not too far off base. But i definitely enjoyed these pieces the characters were quite interesting to engage with in the literature.
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