The Flowers

The wild pink rose startles not just because of its juxtaposition with the decapitated head of the hanged man but also because of its singularity: the specificity of its color and the fact that it stands alone in the dirt. Myop is attracted to its beauty, but she is soon acquainted with the violent symbol at its root, the noose, which repulses her and turns her delight at seeing the rose to unease. The pink rose symbolizes reclamation and redemption. Walker suggests that there can be a positive recourse to racism if action is taken. Myop’s compassionate burial rite—laying down the flower—signifies her awareness of racism and its subsequent dangers.

The woods symbolize reality and encompass both beauty and cruelty. Myop deviates from her mother’s path to explore on her own, an indication of her burgeoning independence. Her joyful exploration leads her from the security of her family cabin to a foreboding, “damp” cove. In lieu of song, the woody cove offers only unnatural silence. The mood of the story changes once Myop enters the unfamiliar woods and foreshadows the discovery of the hanged man. The woods facilitate Myop’s coming of age.

The syntax in the description of the noose mimes Myop’s delayed apprehension of what the object is. The “raised mound” becomes a “ring” that, in this image, is affixed to the rose by the root. Long, winding sentences downplay the power of this used object, which served its purpose in its time. The noose is described as a mere remnant of what it once was, “a bit of shredding plowline” (Paragraph 8). In this way, the use of the word “benignly” to refer to it is both ironic and earnest. Its other half is “barely there” (Paragraph 8); Walker offsets the words in em-dashes to emphasize its overbearing presence and lingering effect on the viewer. This piece of the noose is personified as “restless” as it spins at the mercy of the breeze. The uselessness of the object in the present moment invites Myop herself to imagine when the object had last been useful—to hang the dead man before her. Myop will carry this real and imagined scene into her adult life.