Diction In Alice Walker's The Flowers

Chrysanthemums are beautiful, delicate flowers, which often symbolize happiness. In the short story, “The Chrysanthemums,” John Steinbeck walks the readers through the lives of Elisa and Henry Allen. They live on a foothill ranch in Salinas Valley, California, where they spend most of their days living a simple lifestyle. The Allens focus their time on maintaining their ranch, but in the eyes of Elisa, this meant more time for her to tend to her beloved chrysanthemums. Steinbeck incorporates quizzical diction and repetition to characterize Elisa and to define happiness, to convey the message that it is more important to be happy than to try to please everybody else.

‘The Farmer’s Bride’ was written in the 19th century in what, today, would be seen as a misogynistic and patriarchal environment; Charlotte Mew uses this to induce the female audience as they are able to empathise with the farmer’s bride, who may be seen as a symbolic representation of all women in the era, when the poet tells us the farmer ‘chose’ her as his ‘maid’ in the first line. This informs us that the young girl had no choice in her marriage already conveying her as powerless and through the use of ‘maid’ the audience assume, due to the time period, that the farmer is much older than his bride perhaps depicting the girl as vulnerable, weak and innocent, therefore,

Writers and poets often spread deep meaning in ordinary things: bowl can represent our parents’ heritage, food can represent our relationships with people and chocolate bar can be a symbol of childhood or green tea can be a symbol of love. Those simple things can be really meaningful, but mostly all authors understood the meaning of those objects and the value of the moments that they had lived only after several years. To take things for granted is a human nature, isn’t it?

Figurative language has a tremendous influence on literature because it enlivens the words and makes them jump off the page. This allows the reader to visualize the scene in a unique, explicit way. Laurie Anderson’s Speak demonstrates an abundant use of figurative language. Figurative language appears in various forms; this includes simile, metaphor, personification, symbol, hyperbole and more. Speak is a book written about the internal and external conflicts that protagonist, Melinda faces after being raped by Andy Evans (“IT”) and hated by her peers for ruining an end-of-summer party. This has traumatized Melinda and she is too afraid to speak up. Anderson enhances the big theme of sadness and depression through similes, metaphors,

Correspondingly to figurative language, Lee also uses diction is to imply a message about racism and justice in Maycomb County. The "inflexible and time regarded code" of society was that, while, white individuals could utilize and even endeavor African-Americans, there could be no individual relationship between African-Americans and whites and no acknowledgment that African-Americans had the same responses and emotions as white individuals. Furthermore, there was an obnoxious assumption "that all Blacks lie, that all Blacks are essentially indecent creatures". “Despite the fact that Calpurnia is a female, Aunt Alexandra neglects her great work as a result of her race” (Lee p.129). The Court trial is described by Lee with strong diction in

In the story, “Marigolds”, the author, Eugenia Collier uses imagery, diction and connotation in deep way. One example is of connotation is “... how thick were the bars of our cage”. This gives a negative connotation because it's pointing out how big their poverty is. An example for imagery is “running together and combining like fresh water color painting in the rain”. This shows how she and her friends would run around and play together. An example of diction is “a strange nostalgia”. The author chose the word “nostalgia” to add texture to her

Marigolds by Eugenia Collier is about a woman named Lizabeth looking back on her past, specifically the moment and things leading up to when she became an adult. “Chaotic emotions of youth” as she calls it are what really lead to the main event and are caused from confusion. In the story she as well as other children don’t understand how something like their neighbor, Miss.Lottie’s, marigolds could be so beautiful amid such a poverty-stricken, dilapidated town. She also does not understand where she belongs in her family after witnessing a huge role change between both her mother and father. These along with peer pressure are what made Lizabeth embrace those chaotic emotions and childishly act out in a violent way mutilating and destroying

Walker’s essay shows the dehumanization and abuse that black women have endured for years. She talks about how their creativity was stifled due to slavery. She also tells how black women were treated more like objects than human beings. They entered loveless marriages and became prostitutes because of the injustice upon them. Walker uses her mother’s garden to express freedom, not only for her but for all the black women who had been wronged. Walker described her mother as radiant when she was planting, her work outshining the wrongdoings done to her and the people before her. The garden was where her mother could make truly make “art.” The garden was also a representation of the creativity of the women who hold a talent close to their heart

In her short story “Marigolds”, Eugenia Collier, tells the story of a young woman named Lizabeth growing up in rural Maryland during the Depression. Lizabeth is on the verge of becoming an adult, but one moment suddenly makes her feel more woman than child and has an impact on the rest of her life. Through her use of diction, point of view, and symbolism, Eugenia Collier develops the theme that people can create beauty in their lives even in the poorest of situations.

Lizbeth in her distress at overhearing her parents conversation directs her anger and fear at Miss. Lottie’s marigolds . The marigolds a symbolize beauty that only Ms. Lottie, a scary old lady , possesses. “For some perverse reason, we children hated those marigolds. They interfered with the perfect ugliness of the place.”(5). The beauty of the flowers against the extreme background of poverty makes the children's realize the lack of beauty and hope in their future. The children do not know whey they are angry by the flowers but the flowers represents the only hope, beauty and life amongst their life in the dust. When Lizbeth hears her father sobbing over his inability to find a job, she loses hope because her father had represented strength

An individual’s perception of the world can be shattered by unexpected provocative discoveries. Walker explores the loss of innocence due to zemblanic discoveries made by the protagonist. The use of foreshadowing in, “Today she made her own path”, declares the way in which Myop has decided to take control of her own destiny, which is important as making her own path will lead to a wider perception of the realities of the world. The

Alice Walker uses imagery and diction throughout her short story to tell the reader the meaning of “The Flowers”. The meaning of innocence lost and people growing up being changed by the harshness of reality. The author is able to use the imagery to show the difference between innocence and the loss of it. The setting is also used to show this as well.

In the short story “The Flowers”, Alice Walker sufficiently prepares the reader for the texts surprise ending while also displaying the gradual loss of Myop’s innocence. The author uses literary devices like imagery, setting, and diction to convey her overall theme of coming of age because of the awareness of society's behavior.

The poem, “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe dramatizes the theme of everlasting love. The use of contrasting diction effectively conveys this message. For example, the speaker states, “That the wind came out of the cloud by night, / Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee” (26-26). Poe uses the wind to represent a disease, such as tuberculosis. In addition, the choice of the words, “chilling” and “killing” and the use of cacophony emphasize Annabel Lee’s death and the effect it had on the speaker. Later, the speaker declares that neither angels nor demons “Can ever dissever my soul from the soul / Of the beautiful Annabel Lee” (32-33). Euphony occurs throughout the entirety of this quote, in phrases such as “my soul from the soul” and “the beautiful

“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is a short story containing a first-person point of view, narrated by the mother in the story. “The mother” is not named in the story, yet holds an important role in being the protagonist while also incorporating vital details of the characters’ emotions, views, and ideas of each other. The narrator tells the audience everything she knows about the other two main characters, giving the audience insight on how to view these characters in the story. Walker does a great job using two specific literary elements in “Everyday Use” to pinpoint the story’s theme. In “Everyday Use”, Walker develops the theme of the importance of Christ-like behavior by unifying these literary elements: point of view and characterization.