Walker's brief and haunting story suggests that appearances are deceiving. Myop is a happy young child enjoying a summer's day. She is skipping through the woods, carrying flowers, and enjoying life. However, there are many suggestions early on that this pleasant scene isn't all its cracked up to be. First, we have Myop "vaguely keeping an eye out for snakes", suggesting that the woods can be dangerous. To reinforce that, Myop finds herself in a new spot in the woods, and is unsettle by it:
She had often been as far before, but the strangeness of the land made it not as pleasant as her usual haunts. It seemed gloomy in the little cove in which she found herself.
It is after this that Myop finds the skeleton. Not only the discovery, but also the implications associated with this particular skeleton support that deception of appearances. The skeleton appears to be smiling, but clearly this man was the victim of a lynching, suggesting a violent and unpleasant life. The warn clothing of the man suggests a worker, very possibly a slave. While the stereotype of the "smiling slave" has existed for centuries, that appearance is false. Life for slaves wa dangerous and full of fear.
Myop is clearly not living in a time of slavery, but the fact that her family lives in a sharecropper's cabin connects her with that time, suggesting that her life will not as pleasant as her childhood suggests.
No comments:
Post a Comment