Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution

Content Warning: This section of the guide features depictions of bullying, racism, and anti-gay bias.

One important motif throughout the novel is music. Music is a key component of Lotus’s identity that she uses to cope with difficult situations and express how she feels. Sherri Winston uses figurative language throughout the text to convey how important music is to Lotus. For example, Lotus thinks how her grandmother is “a birdlike woman who reminds [Lotus] of the musical score from an old, old movie composed by Bernard Hermann called North by Northwest,” with the “highs and lows and drama and range” (44). This metaphor, comparing Granny to this musical score, conveys the difficult relationship that they have, full of “highs and lows” that involve fights between Granny and Lotus’s mother. However, through it all, she emphasizes that she “can’t stop loving” either the score or her grandmother (44). Similar metaphors and similes are found throughout the novel, emphasizing the way that Lotus feels in her comparisons to music.

Music conveys two important themes in the novel: Music in Personal and Political Expression and Finding One’s Voice in the Fight Against Prejudice.