Strange Pains By Alice Walker Summary
The man finally fell silent as his neck twisted, the vertebrae splintering gruesomely as his spinal cord was lacerated. Sightless eyes stared reproachfully at his killers: white ghosts laughing maniacally at their bigoted way of life. Before Myop stumbled upon this body, she was completely unaware of how the belligerent cord of the sharecropping era had desolated so many lives. Yet, while the lynching of African-Americans in the South was an undeniably heinous crime, it resulted in the creation of beautiful artwork such as “Strange Fruits”. Accordingly, the nature of the world is ripe with both good and evil: one cannot exist without the other as it takes the knowledge of evil to fully appreciate the knowledge of good. Alice Walker’s story,
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First, Myop’s analysis begins “When she pushed back the leaves and layers of dirt and debris”. In this action, Myop must actively search for truth, seen in how she moves obstacles out of her way. likewise, deeper meanings are often hidden and greater inquisiting is necessary to extract the desired knowledge. Another key during the examination is “a ring around the rose’s root. It was the rotted remains of a noose”. With the discover of the noose, the nefarious instrument of death, it leaves little to the imagination of Myop for how the man was hung like a smokehouse pig until his head rotted off. This revelation, while representing worldly evil, is absolutely crucial. For the most important essence of this passage shows how the beautiful wild rose that she sought was right in the middle of the noose, as if the flower had sprung from the man’s corpse to juxtapose good and evil. This contrast ultimately leads her to make her maturing decision where she “laid down the flowers and the summer was over”. Myop releasing her prized flowers suggests that she found something even more valuable. No longer does she need petty plants, inherently superficial as they are, because she now has a greater understanding of how the world works. Myop’s summer is over, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. This knowledge of heart wrenching cruelty brings with it a deeper appreciation for life’s beauty since Myop could easily have swapped spots with the lynched man and been denied the good of
First, Myop’s analysis begins “When she pushed back the leaves and layers of dirt and debris”. In this action, Myop must actively search for truth, seen in how she moves obstacles out of her way. likewise, deeper meanings are often hidden and greater inquisiting is necessary to extract the desired knowledge. Another key during the examination is “a ring around the rose’s root. It was the rotted remains of a noose”. With the discover of the noose, the nefarious instrument of death, it leaves little to the imagination of Myop for how the man was hung like a smokehouse pig until his head rotted off. This revelation, while representing worldly evil, is absolutely crucial. For the most important essence of this passage shows how the beautiful wild rose that she sought was right in the middle of the noose, as if the flower had sprung from the man’s corpse to juxtapose good and evil. This contrast ultimately leads her to make her maturing decision where she “laid down the flowers and the summer was over”. Myop releasing her prized flowers suggests that she found something even more valuable. No longer does she need petty plants, inherently superficial as they are, because she now has a greater understanding of how the world works. Myop’s summer is over, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. This knowledge of heart wrenching cruelty brings with it a deeper appreciation for life’s beauty since Myop could easily have swapped spots with the lynched man and been denied the good of