Loss Of Innocence In Alice Walker's Pink Rose

As the story progresses and Myop moves further away from the safety of her home, Walker starts to imply a sense of uncertainty throughout her words. The first sentence includes the phrase ‘turning her back’ which could infer Myop ignoring or maybe not appreciating that the world is not as innocent as the image she has fixed in her mind. If you turn your back on something you do not pay attention to the thing you turn your back on – in this case, for Myop, she is ignoring or simply not seeing the bad in the world. Walker carefully placed these words to start to create a sense of Myop’s discovery of the world not being as peaceful as she thought it was. As Myop walks further away, she is walking away from the security of her home and closer to potentially discovering something that would trigger her loss of innocence.

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The fact that Walker chose a single rose is very interesting. A rose has connotations hope, peacefulness and new beginnings, however this is contrasted by the thorns. The thorns could symbolise defence, pain and loss. This distinctive difference could have been used to represent that even good things, or people, have a bad side to them – not everyone is innocent. In addition to this, the use of the adjective ‘wild’ could represent being free and having the right to freedom. Despite this, the ‘wild’ rose is surrounded by a noose and creates a sense of almost being caged up, almost like an imprisoned animal. Another description Walker includes in the final section is how a piece of rope is still spinning ‘restlessly’ in the wind. The adverb ‘restlessly’ may represent that racism is an ever-present threat, even now. This makes us as the reader realise the scale of the issue of racism and makes us feel quite