What is the plot structure of "The Flowers" by Alice Walker?
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Alice Walker's "The Flowers" is a impactful short story with the wallop of an explosion in the midst of a rose garden: her artfully constructed plot in no way prepares the reader for Myop's life-altering experience.
Plot structure begins with the exposition or introduction. The main character is introduced, setting established and mood developed. Myop is ten years old and lives in the country. She is very observant of nature: animals, plants (especially flowers), and even bubbles in the creek. Carefree, she loves the world—she is the epitome of childish innocence.
It seemed to Myop as she skipped lightly from hen house to pigpen to smokehouse that the days had never been as beautiful as these.
The mood and setting are further developed:
The harvesting...made each day a golden surprise that caused excited little tremors to run up her jaws.
Myop is a child excited by nature's beauty. It is harvest time, and "golden surprise" refers not only to her delight in each discovery (figuratively...
(The entire section contains 608 words.)
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