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Mrs. Flowers Essay

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Marguerite Johnson, the main character of "Mrs. Flowers" by Maya Angelou, became selectively mute and emotionally scarred due to a traumatic incident. But when Marguerite meets a wise woman named Mrs. Flowers, she is able to find her voice again and discover the incredible power of words and the human voice. Through Marguerite's healing process and discovery, the theme is revealed, which is: words have the power to heal. This theme is shown when the two were walking to Mrs. Flowers's house. Mrs. Flowers tells Marguerite, " ' Now, no one is going to make you talk- possibly no one can. But bear in mind, language is man's way of communicating with his fellow man and it is language alone which separates him from the lower animals' " (Angelou …show more content…

Finally, a breakthrough moment is made with Marguerite when Mrs. Flowers reads to her a small excerpt from A Tale of Two Cities. Marguerite wonders "Were they the same that I had read? Or were there notes, music, lined on the pages as in a hymn book?" (Angelou 133) as Mrs. Flowers is reading, and when Mrs. Flowers asks her " 'How do you like that?' " (Angelou 133), Marguerite replies with " 'Yes, ma'am' " (Angelou 133). In this example, Mrs. Flowers demonstrates to Marguerite how the human voice can capture the deeper meaning of words when speaking them. This helps Marguerite how much more meaningful and poetic the words in the story are when spoken aloud, which shows that she is truly understanding just how important speaking and talking are. Furthermore, when Marguerite speaks those two simple words in reply to Mrs. Flowers's question, it shows that her scars are truly healing. This demonstrates exactly how powerful words can be because they helped Marguerite finally get her desire to talk again, which illustrates the theme of the story of how words have the power to heal. In conclusion, the story of "Mrs. Flowers" is conveys not just the theme of how words have the power to heal, but also about how people should use that power to help one another, just as Mrs. Flowers did when she aided Marguerite in her healing

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