"The Flowers" is a study in control and brevity. Through an account of one child's loss of innocence, Walker manages to evoke the ways in which the history of racist violence in America is temporarily hidden and how that history continues to blight the American landscape. Just as Myop must uncover the man's body and learn the secrets of his murder, so Walker's epigraph suggests that people must strive to uncover this hidden past as a whole. Furthermore they must acknowledge their responsibility to acknowledge these past crimes. In seeing the past accurately people make strides to put to...
Source: Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction, ©2001 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.
(The entire page is 220 words.)
Want to read the whole thing?
Subscribe now to read the rest of this article. Plus, get access to:
- 30,000+ literature study guides
- Critical essays on more than 30,000 works of literature from Salem on Literature (exclusive to eNotes)
- An unparalleled literary criticism section. 40,000 full-length or excerpted essays.
- Content from leading academic publishers, all easily citable with our "Cite this page" button.
- 100% satisfaction guarantee READ MORE
