Colour plays an important role in creating an atmosphere in each of the texts. As Myop skips in 'The Flowers', she is surrounded by an array of beautiful golds, browns and yellows,
`Each day a golden surprise`.
The healthy growth of the crops also symbolises happiness, as Myop’s livelihood is the farm on which she lives, so a good harvest would mean a wealthy year. Gold is also a symbolic colour, as it is a precious metal, which should be treasured, just as Myop’s childhood is precious.
Gold also features in 'The Lesson' as, the young boy, after hearing of the news of his fathers death goes to assembly where he, along with many other emotions, experiences pride as he is the centre of attention. But it is only for a split second,
`Pride, like a goldfish, flashed a sudden fin. `
This `flash` of a very special emotion should be treasured, as the boy rarely experiences it. The `gold` in the goldfish symbolises this.
In 'Jane Eyre' colour also plays an important role in creating an atmosphere. In the Red Room, there are many overpowering, suffocating colours which make Jane feel trapped and helpless. The wood is all of mahogany, a deep brown and the carpets and curtains are all of dark reds.
`hung with curtains of deep red damask`
The use of the phrase `deep red damask` gives the impression of rich, thick materials, which would make Jane feel claustrophobic.
The redness of everything in the room could also symbolise anger. Jane is very strong spirited and cannot bear injustice, so the red décor would be very fitting for her furious mood, as she has been unfairly treated by her family. The huge windows are covered with heavy curtains and blinds restricting light. The darkness of the room would seem very frightening, especially to a young girl. The curtains cover
‘the muffled windows’
The word ‘muffled’ gives the impression that not only can no light enter, no sound can escape either. This would make Jane feel powerless and trapped. The position of the room is isolated from any other parts of the house. It is
‘remote from the nursery’
Jane would feel helpless as she has been cut off from the rest of the house. She could easily be forgotten, and if anything were to happen to her, no one would know.
The feeling being trapped is emphasised when Bronte writes
‘no jail ever more secure’,
she compares the Red Room to a prison cell, letting the reader know that there is no escape unless the door is opened from the outside.
In ‘The Lesson’, the young boy also has a feeling of being trapped. The news of his fathers death is broken to him whilst he is at boarding school, and soon after he hears of the tragedy, he has to attend assembly. He cannot go home and grieve with the rest of his family, but continues school like usual. This would make him feel trapped, unable to mourn freely. He also feels trapped by the bullies, who have made his life a misery and will continue to do so.
A sense of being isolated features in ‘The Flowers’. Myop usually takes walks with her mother, but as her mother is not with her today, she wanders far away from home into areas where she has never been before. As she travels further and further from familiar surroundings, Myop begins to feel uncertain, and Walker writes that this
‘was not as pleasant as her usual haunts’
when she was happy near her home. Alice Walker uses Myop’s walk in unknown parts as a symbol that Myop is slowly growing up, beginning to leave her childhood behind. But she is aware of the dangers that surround her as she moves into a place she has never visited before
‘keeping an eye out for snakes’
which shows how she senses the need to be cautious now that she is becoming more mature and independent.
Each of the writers build up the atmosphere before the incident occurs. In ‘The Flowers’, As Myop walks further and further away from home, the ‘strangeness’ begins to dampen her happy mood. She finds herself in a
‘gloomy little cove’
and pathetic fallacy signals that something bad is about to happen, as
‘the silence becomes close and deep’
The change in atmosphere as Myop ventures further into the unknown symbolises how the happy and sunny mood of childhood is a very different feeling to the more mature, serious feel of adulthood. Myop feels uncertain about these unfamiliar surroundings and begins to turn back to the
‘peacefulness of the morning’
conveying how she prefers the comfort of home and childhood.
In ‘Jane Eyre’, the atmosphere in the Red Room is extremely powerful, and the terrifying atmosphere results in Jane imagining the ghost of her uncle appearing before her. Jane is overwhelmed by the huge size of everything in the Red Room. In particular the furniture and large windows emphasise the smallness of Jane.
‘A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany.’
Bronte’s use of the word ‘massive’ conveys the vastness of the bed and how it towers over the small girl, making her feel overpowered and helpless. There is a cold, hostile atmosphere in the room, due to the fact the room is hardly visited, except to be cleaned.
‘it is known to be seldom entered’
Jane feels uncertain about the room and it seems unfriendly and even more frightening because it seems to be a place where no one dare enter. The room seems to have a ‘chill’ because Jane’s uncle, Mr. Reed dies in the room. It was also the Red Room where he ‘lay in state’ until he was buried. This would make the room feel eerie,
‘ a sense of dreary consecration’
conveys how it was almost tomblike, especially to a girl of Jane’s age. The bed on which Mr. Reed would have died is a contrasting white to the dark Red Room. It must make Jane feel small and terrified. The bed
‘glared white, the piled-up mattress and pillows of the bed, spread with snowy white Marseilles counterpane.’
The use of the word ‘glared’ conveys an intense, brilliant whiteness that would seem to highlight the place of Mr. Reed’s death. The way Bronte uses the words ‘piled-up’ to describe the mattress and the pillows helps to build an image of the bed towering over Jane.
In ‘The Lesson’, the atmosphere in the assembly hall is also building up, as the young boy enters in tears. Edward Lucie-Smith focuses on the goldfish in the hall, as their silent movement matches the behaviour of everyone else present, and the still atmosphere.
‘the noise was stilled’
Lucie-Smith describes how the goldfish moved as ‘sculled’, which emphasises their small and quiet movement. The atmosphere creates suspense, and leaves the reader feeling on edge and tense. This is so when the poet tells of the young boy’s sudden second of pride, it makes more of an impact.
There is an element of shock in each of the texts. In ‘Jane Eyre’, Jane is thrown into the Red Room for reasons that she cannot control,
`four hands were immediately laid upon me, and I was borne upstairs`
the use of the word `immediately` conveys how quick and sudden Jane was taken to the Red Room, and shows how she almost didn’t realise what was happening to her. In ‘The Flowers’, Myop steps `smack` on the skull of the dead black man. Walker uses onomatopoeia to convey how sudden the shock is as the word `smack` is a short sharp word. The suddenness of this action conveys how Myop learns about the prejudices and discrimination against the people of her race in a quick and shocking way. She gives a
`yelp of surprise`
which tells us how naïve and innocent she is, almost like a young puppy as it yelps in pain. It conveys how Myop has no idea of the racism, which is occurring around her.
In ‘The Lesson’, the young boy hears of the news of his fathers death in a very abrupt way. His headteacher states boldly
‘`Your father’s gone, `’
This blunt statement seems very cold and unsympathetic, making the news seem harsher. A more thoughtful way of giving the news may have brought some comfort to the boy. Each of the writers have made the step from childhood into adulthood in a very shocking way, making the impact of the event seem more tragic for the young child. This makes the reader feel more sympathetic towards them, stirring up more emotions of anger or sadness. This then gets the reader more involved in the book.
As each of the children experience the event that catapults them into adulthood, they all go through many different, confused emotions. In ‘Jane Eyre’, Jane feels angry at the injustice of being locked into the Red Room as a punishment for something that she did not do. She is also terrified at the tremendous size of everything around her, the suffocating colours, the fact she cannot escape and that her uncle died in the very same room. All of these emotions are not pleasant to experience. There are also several upsetting and confused emotions in ‘The Lesson’. When the boy first hears of the sad news that his father has passed away, he breaks down in tears.
‘…brown tobacco jar
splintered at once in tears…’
The poet uses the word ‘splintered to convey how the young child’s vision is distorted by his tears. But it also conjures the image of his view being like a pane of glass, which shatters at the news, and gives the impression that the news affects him like a sharp pain from a splinter of glass. We are then intrigued as the poet writes why he is crying,
‘…It was not for grief
I cried for knowledge which was bitterer
Than any grief…’
It makes the reader wonder what emotion could be worse than the grief of your father’s death. This immediately conveys the intensity of the fear the young boy has for the bully who is making his life a misery. The following line informs the reader of the reason for this terrible emotion.
‘…For there and then I knew
That grief has uses – that a father dead
Could bind a bully’s fist a week or two.’
The poet uses the word ‘bind’ to convey how the bullying will cease, but only temporarily. This shows how extreme the youngsters fear is as he doesn’t care how long the bully stops for, as a short break is better than nothing. The boy is so terrified he is willing to use anything, even something a tragic as his father’s death to restrain the bully. The following line conveys how confused the boy is feeling,
‘And then I cried for shame, then for relief’
He would be ashamed of himself for thinking of how he can benefit from such a tragic event. He then cries for relief, which again shows how terrified he must be for thinking about the bully at a time of what should be great sorrow. All of these emotions, sadness and grief, shame, and then relief would confuse a small boy of ten. There are also conflicting emotions featured in ‘The Flowers’. Myop is a happy, carefree little girl walking in the woods, until she finds the dead body of a black man who has been lynched because of his race. Myop sees the body but sub-consciously does not want to acknowledge what is going on around her. She ignores it, and continues searching for flowers, until she sees the noose and realises why the man was killed. This would cause Myop to experience many emotions. She would feel sorrow for the man who died in such an unfair and demeaning way, and anger at the white people who did this to him. But she would mostly feel scared that anyone could do this to someone for being black, as she herself is black. She would probably be worried that the colour of her skin would affect her life in years to come when she is older. All three of the children featured in the texts are forced to experience painful emotions as they are thrown into adulthood. This increases the impact the event has for the reader, making the text more emotive and interesting.
Metaphors feature in each of the texts. In ‘Jane Eyre’, the Red Room is described as a ‘jail’ by Bronte. This conveys the way there is no escape for Jane, and how she is trapped in the Room. In ‘The Lesson’, Lucie-Smith uses the goldfish in the assembly hall to convey the still and silent atmosphere, and uses a metaphor to show how the young boy is trapped by the bully, when he says the goldfish
‘ …sculled
Around their shining prison on its shelf.’
The fish are trapped just as the young boy is.
A metaphor is used in ‘The Flowers’ to convey how Myop’s childhood has come to an end. When Myop first steps on the skull, she carries on collecting flowers. She then spots a lone
‘wild pink rose’
which symbolises Myop herself and he vibrant, carefree nature. As she looks more closely, she sees
‘a ring, around he rose’s root’.
It is the noose, which strangled the black man. The noose around the isolated flower symbolises racism against black people. It creates the image that racism is strangling Myop’s youth, and forcing her to mature and learn about complex and disturbing issues like racial discrimination. As Myop realises how the man has been lynched because of his skin colour, she
‘laid down her flowers.
And the summer was over’
This symbolises how her happy carefree life as a child is now at an end, and she is thrown into adulthood.
