Symbolism-The use of symbols to represent ideas or symbols
Cereus Plant
The Cereus plant is a flower. It is also known as the Night Blooming Cereus. It is a flower that blooms in the night, hence the name "Night Bloomer," then they shut close during the day. They are mostly white or have different pale shades of color. They are about the size of two hands. The Cereus plant also produces a fragrance, frequently. These plants mostly during the summer months. Sometimes, as many as 15 Cereus flowers bloom at once during the summer.
What Cereus Plant Symbolizes
To me, the cereus plant represents Billie Jo and her journey. Billie Jo blooms all throughout the story. It shows the curiosity of Billie Jo and how her life is like a roller coaster. The cereus plant also symbolizes hope. It symbolizes the hope and destiny of Billie Jo, her family, and her future. There is like a little light shining in her, which shows occasionally. Billie Jo is hopeful to get "out of the dust" and to explore the world around her, not just her town and not just what she knows.
Night Bloomers
Mrs. Brown's
cereus plant bloomed on Saturday
night.
She sent word
after promising I could com see it.
I rubbed my gritty eyes with swollen
hands.
My stomach grizzled as I
made my way through the dark
to her house.
Ma wouldn't let me go at all.
My father just stood in the doorway
and watched me leave.
It was almost three in the morning
when I got there.
A small crowd stood around.
Mrs. Brown said,
"The blossom opened at midnight,
big as a dinner plate.
It took only moments to unfold."
How such a flower
find a way to bloom in this drought,
in this wind.
It blossomed at night,
when the sun couldn't scorch it,
when the wind was quiet,
when there might have been a sip of
dew
to freshen it.
I couldn't watch at dawn,
when the flower,
touched by the first finger of morning
light,
wilted and died.
I couldn't watch
as the tender petals burned up in the
sun.
Summer 1934
(p.80-82)
cereus plant bloomed on Saturday
night.
She sent word
after promising I could com see it.
I rubbed my gritty eyes with swollen
hands.
My stomach grizzled as I
made my way through the dark
to her house.
Ma wouldn't let me go at all.
My father just stood in the doorway
and watched me leave.
It was almost three in the morning
when I got there.
A small crowd stood around.
Mrs. Brown said,
"The blossom opened at midnight,
big as a dinner plate.
It took only moments to unfold."
How such a flower
find a way to bloom in this drought,
in this wind.
It blossomed at night,
when the sun couldn't scorch it,
when the wind was quiet,
when there might have been a sip of
dew
to freshen it.
I couldn't watch at dawn,
when the flower,
touched by the first finger of morning
light,
wilted and died.
I couldn't watch
as the tender petals burned up in the
sun.
Summer 1934
(p.80-82)