How does Alice Walker use literary techniques to express the theme of how innocence is lost in "The Flowers"?

Even though "The Flowers" is not a long story, it is
filled with amazing descriptions and details, and contains a profound message of lost
innocence at the end.  One way that Alice Walker emphasizes that messages is through
contrast.  Myop and her happy jaunt through the forest is described using very long
sentences filled with flowery details of the beautiful day and Myop's happy mood.  For
example, take this sentence:

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"She found, in addition to various common but
pretty ferns and leaves, an armful of strange blue flowers with velvety ridges and a
sweet suds bush full of the brown, fragrant
buds."

Here we have a long,
descriptive sentence, that describes in detail a type of flower along Myop's path.  The
story is filled with such calm, happy descriptions.  Contrast that with the final line
of the story:  "And the summer was over."  The stark contrast is startling, noticable
and points out the import of the message:  Summer, happiness, and Myop's meandering
innocence was over, and very abruptly.

Another tool that
Walker uses is symbolism.  Note that Alice Walker doesn't say "And Myop lost her
innocence and realized what a horrible place the world can be" at the end.  What she
DOES say is that "the summer was over."  Summer, in the story, symbolizes the innocence
of childhood.  So do the flowers; right before "the summer was over" comes the line,
"Myop laid down her flowers," which symbolizes Myop setting aside her innocence and
happiness.  As she walks through the forest earlier, she gathers a lot of flowers; her
arms were filled with them.  They were various and beautiful, as described in the line
above.  So too was her happiness and innocence.  But at the recognition of evil in the
world, that innocence was no longer possible.  Walker symbolizes that through the
flowers and the summer.

I hope that those thoughts help to
get you started; good luck!