...Meredith Butler English 1102 Fiction Essay In the story Everyday Use by Alice Walker, the author attempts to show the contrasts between family members in regards to their heritage during the 1960’s. Ms. Walker tells the story of how different the family members are in education, lifestyle and beliefs. In doing so, she illustrates the importance of everyday items and of everyday people. Ms. Walker, through the point of view of the mother, paints the picture of a young woman, too good for her family, running off to the city only to find that the city values her heritage and conversely, now must she. The character of Dee is first described by her mother in the excerpt, “Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure” (Walker, 1973). This is in contrast to her “large, manly mother who can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man” (Walker) and her sister who was disfigured in a fire as a young child. The same fire that Dee stands and watches, so intently, that her mother thought to ask her “why she didn’t do a dance around the ashes” (Walker). It is never stated why Dee feels such deep hatred for her home, however shame and ignorance play a key role. “Dee wanted nice things” (Walker), things that would be difficult if not impossible to a young black girl of the time to obtain. Her mother often notes that Dee daydreams to the point of not blinking, determined to get what she wants. When Dee’s mother and the town raise money to send Dee off to school...
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...Hannah Huie Kate Evans Composition II 05 February 2015 Analysis of Characters in “Everyday Use” Alice Walker’s short story, “Everyday Use,” illustrates the importance of family and heritage. Many times in the story, Ms. Walker brings up heritage and the importance of recognizing of what it means to belong to something or someone. Her characters each go through change. Mama seems to switch her favoritism from Dee to Maggie and realizes that Dee is not the perfect child she had come to idolize her as being. Dee comes back home to realize that she no longer able to get her way as she used too and that her place in the household has changed. Lastly, Maggie is recognized as having the gift of knowing her heritage and having the ability to add to it by being able to quilt. As we read through the story we see that Ms. Walker paints a wonderful picture of difference between Dee and the family she left behind. Mama is the voice behind this short story. She narrates and you only see the story through her point of view. As she waits for her daughter Dee to arrive she has a fantasy about her life being on a TV show. She dreams of being a beautiful women, whose hair glistens in the spotlight of the stage, whose witty tongue has the famous TV personality Johnny Carson trying to keep up. As the reader continues they would be able to see that Mama’s true view of herself is not as flattering, she doesn’t mince the truth, and doesn’t have any false illusions about her looks...
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...Associate Level Material Appendix E Final Paper Matrix Fill in the matrix below, in which you will select two pieces of literature from the assigned course readings to compare and contrast in your final essay. Additionally, develop three possible topics for your paper, which your instructor will review for approval. Lastly, list and describe three to five sources that you will use to write your essay. |Literature |Title: Everyday Uses | |Selection One |Author: Alice Walker | | |Why I Chose This Piece: I chose this because of the symbolism it uses on the values placed on old quilts. | |Literature |Title: The House on Mango Street | |Selection Two |Author: Sandra Cisneros | | |Why I Chose This Piece: It emphasizes the symbolization on the emotions that Esperanza feels about her life circumstances. | ...
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..."Everyday Use” - Literary Analysis Alice walker writes about the importance of inheriting family heritage and how it passes on to generations. This story is based on conflicts of two generations; on the bonds of a mother and daughter and their legacy which is symbolized as two hand stitched quilts. The narrator, Mama introduces us to her two daughters who have conflicting minds. Mama is disappointed on the behavior and the tension that takes place when Dee forces her to make a difficult decision about who gets the quilts. The story unfolds when Mama’s eldest daughter Dee, returns home for the first time after finishing college and starts claiming for possessions. The younger Maggie has never left home and is shown to be of quiet character, who was severely burned in a house fire when she was a child due to which her sympathetic and generous nature is over shadowed by her ugly scarred face. Dee, being stylish and blessed with good looks is the centre of agitation between the family and invokes jealously. Her feet appear "as if God himself had shaped them with a certain style." (385). Around Dee, the younger sister is a coward and since the fire she walks with "chin on her chest, eyes on the ground." (384) . The narrator is protective around her daughters hoping that Maggie becomes self confident and stands up for her right. The narrator fantasizes about reuniting with Dee on a television talk show and day dreams about Dee expressing gratitude to Mama acknowledging what all...
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...Everyday Use The text “Everyday Use” is a short story written by Alice Walker, from 1967. The story is about an African-American family, a mom and her two daughters. Maggie, the youngest daughter, is a nervous young girl and a bit of shy. “»How do I look, Mama?« Maggie says […] almost hidden by the door.” (p.10, m). The narrative, the mother, talks about the way Maggie walks. “Have you ever seen a lame animal, […] that is the way my Maggie walks.” (p. 10 m). The fire had given her scars, not only physical but also psychological. The physical scars on Maggie’s arm and legs make her feel less attractive. She looks up to her sister, Dee, even they haven’t much in case. After the mother has given the quilts to Maggie, she just sits there and smiles a real smile; there she knows that she has deserved the quilts. Dee, the oldest daughter, is opposed to Maggie; she’s almost perfect, she is good looking with nice hair and a beautiful figure. “Dee is lighter than […] though I sometimes forget.” (p. 10. b). Style is a thing Dee has too, “At sixteen she had a style […] and knew what style was.” Maggie thinks that Dee gets just what she wants and she doesn’t have the most difficult life. “She thinks her sister […] the world never learned to say to her.” (p. 9. m). When Dee is coming out of the car, the mother and Maggie see that she wearing accessories. “Earrings gold, too, […] the dress out of her armpits.” It shows us that she has success and tells that she is a strong woman, who is...
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...In her short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker takes up what is a recurrent theme in her work: the representation of the harmony as well as the conflicts and struggles within African-American culture. “Everyday Use” focuses on an encounter between members of the rural Johnson family. This encounter––which takes place when Dee (the only member of the family to receive a formal education) and her male companion return to visit Dee’s mother and younger sister Maggie––is essentially an encounter between two different interpretations of, or approaches to, African-American culture. Walker employs characterization and symbolism to highlight the difference between these interpretations and ultimately to uphold one of them, showing that culture and heritage are parts of daily life. The opening of the story is largely involved in characterizing Mrs. Johnson, Dee’s mother and the story’s narrator. More specifically, Mrs. Johnson’s language points to a certain relationship between herself and her physical surroundings: she waits for Dee “in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy” (88). The emphasis on the physical characteristics of the yard, the pleasure in it manifested by the word “so,” points to the attachment that she and Maggie have to their home and to the everyday practice of their lives. The yard, in fact, is “not just a yard. It is like an extended living room” (71), confirming that it exists for her not only as an object of property, but also as the place...
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...Conflict Essay “Everyday Use”-Alice Walker Alice Walker authored the short story entitled “Everyday use”. In this story we get a set of characters, round (Mama) and flat (quilt) and several supporting characters, like Hakim-a-barber. Walkers “Everyday Use” is set somewhere between 1960’s America right around the time the civil rights movement was taking place. The setting takes place at Mama’s house primarily with the exception of a flashback to their old house that burned down. The plot of the story reveals the characters cultural pride and ignorance towards the changing times. The themes in “Everyday Use” are, the meaning of heritage and the power of education. Additionally, the author creates different conflicts that arise throughout the story in which they are: man vs. man, man vs. society, and man vs. himself. Man vs. Man is first seen between Dee and Mama due to the fact that Mama doesn’t meet up to Dee’s standards. This coincides with the theme, power of education. Mama struggled to send Dee to a good school, which could have ended up doing more harm than good in regards to their relationship. Mama herself was denied an education and her youngest daughter Maggie lacks in that department. Therefor, giving Dee the advantage of being the only one educated which makes her arrogant and condescending. The education that Mama generously gave to Dee only created a bigger wedge between them and the family. Dee with her knowledge and way of the world becomes a...
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...Name Tutor Subject Date Everyday Use Alice walker in her short story “Everyday Use” teaches on heritage and inheritance. A quilt is made up of patches of cloth intricately stitched together to make the final product. Symbolically, an individual's perception of the world is constructed out of different influences, circumstances and events, which dictate how one responds to the world. Mama as the narrator in “Everyday Use” tell us of the conflict of two worlds personified by the daughters. Dee is infuriated by what she sees as a past of oppression in her lineage and has created a new heritage for herself while rejecting her true heritage. She is obstinate to her family name and takes up a new name Wangero (158), which she believes best portrays her African heritage, however, like her African jewelry and clothes it is meaningless. She does not fully understand Africa; therefore, her conception of true heritage is false and empty. Additionally, Dee considers her heritage to be of the past and dead, instead of something ongoing and living. She wishes to have the family quilts and the carved dasher, but Dee considers them to be old artifacts not suitable for practical use but for display. She alienates herself from her own history through rejection of her true heritage and adopts a constructed heritage. The family quilts and the carved dasher symbolize heritage and inheritance and are the epicenter of conflict in the short story. Maggie, on the other hand, is nature portrayal...
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...The story “Everyday use” is a story about a family and their relationship and conflicts with each other, written by Alice Walker. Mrs. Johnson is a mother of two daughters, Dee and Maggie. Her and her family does not have the nicest things but she appreciates everything that they do have. Dee who is apparently the older daughter has been sent to August, Georgia where she would attend Augusta State University. They did not have money to send her to school on their own, so the church helped them raised the money. She is the only person in her family to expand their education that far. But before she left to school her family had suffered from the burning of their previous house. The house was entirely burned down leaving Maggie, the younger sister, with burns and scars down her arms and legs that she will never overlook. This made her become uncomfortable with herself causing her to separate from her sister. She is really ashamed with how she looks, so she becomes nervous of being around anyone other than her mother. The burning of the house didn’t seem to bother Dee as much, because she always wanted bigger and better things. Even though they have grown up with each other and face the same consequences, with contrasting the past and present of the two clearly shows that they have grown up to be two very different individuals. . Dee is on her way home from school, So Maggie and Mrs. Johnson welcomes her to a nicely Cleaned yard.” It’s not a yard;...
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..."Everyday Use" is a short story by Alice Walker. It was first published in 1973 as part of Walker's short story collection, In Love and Trouble. The story is told in first person by the "Mama", an African American woman living in the Deep South with one of her two daughters. The story humorously illustrates the differences between Mrs. Johnson and her shy younger daughter Maggie, who still live traditionally in the rural South, and her educated, successful daughter Dee,or "Wangero" as she prefers to be called, who scorns her immediate roots in favor of a pretentious "native African" identity. The story centers around one day when the older daughter, Dee, visits from college after time away and a conflict between them over some heirloom family possessions. The struggle reflects the characters' contrasting ideas about their heritage and identity. Throughout the story. Dee goes back and forth on being proud and rejecting her heritage. For example, when she decides at dinner that she wants the butter dish, she shows that she respects her heritage because she knows that her uncle carved that with from a tree they used to have. However, she wants it for the wrong reason, saying that she will use it only for decoration. Another example is when she wants the quilts that Mama has. She states that she wants them because of the generations of clothing and effort put into making...
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...Have you ever wondered about what family heritage means, and the value of it? Some people seem to think that family heritage is only family heirlooms passed down from generation to generation that could be viewed by the family as very important. This is partially true; however, there are traditions and legacies that can be passed down to display the family’s heritage and also be cherished as much as an heirloom. In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use,” family heritage is defined as what a person deems “valuable.” Walker begins her short story by using Mama’s point of view. In the story, Mama seems to be an observant and opinionated parent. Throughout the story gives her assumption of what she sees going on in her family. And it is her assumptions that reveals what she values in heritage. Mama sees her daughter Dee or Wangero as being different than her and her daughter Maggie. Mother shows what is important to her from the start of the story by saying “I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon(Walker).” In other words, here she tells us what matters – her home, her family, the place she belongs. She showed how much she wanted to feel love from her daughter Dee. Not only did she want to show her love for her daughter Dee but for her other daughter Maggie as well by taking the quilts that she promised to Maggie from Dee’s arms and giving it back to her. The mother’s longing for family and love displays the mom’s sense of family...
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...Micheal N. Teklie Professor- E. Nunnaley Eng. 112 February 11, 2012 Have you ever felt you know little about the main character’s motif in a story? That is exactly what the story “Everyday Use” leave you with. In the story “Everyday use” by Alice Walker it is quite hard to judge the motive of the main character Dee. Even though it is obvious Dee degrades her culture it is quite difficult to determine whether she feels her culture is uncivilized and backward. I believe that is the main reason why it is hard to determine whether Dee is the protagonist in the story because it is hard to know whether she was the good or the bad. In parts of the story she shows interest in appreciating the culture she came from specially when she wanted to keep some items of her house but since she didn’t take them for use rather for decorations the question is does she believe they are uncivilized and backward. On the other hand she talks about her African roots and wanting to keep her African ancestry which makes her look appreciative of her culture. The answer may be different based on each and every audience’s perspective of Dee. For me it is obvious she feels her family is uncivilized and backward. One indication that shows us how much Dee thinks her culture is backward is her changing her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. I believe it shows not only how much she thinks her culture is non-civilized but also how much of an uneducated she sees her family and culture to be. Her mother told...
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...Delgado Holper English 1B 9 Nov. 2010 Everyday Use When I was kid I was quiet, shy and never stood up for myself. Today I’m loud, brash and I always get my point across. You would never recognize me from that little kid I once was. My change was not a choice, rather, a necessity forced upon me to strengthen me. I changed because I needed to. Everybody changes. People start one way and end their lives another accordingly to the roads they have traveled. The roads I’ve taken have taught me to stand up and make people take notice of me. People are all following their own paths growing and changing as they go. We all take roads and each road will take you to a different point. Joseph Campbell came up with “The Hero’s Journey” to illuminate these changes a person goes through. These are a set of stages a hero, or person, go through during a significant time. Campbell writes, “Stories of these mythological adventures are really metaphors and symbols for the “journeys” in life that all of us go through as we pass from one stage to another” (par.2). Everybody goes through these stages one way or another. That’s life. We see these stages in Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use.” Mrs. Johnson, the hero, changes from a quiet, unconfident, passive woman to a woman who at the end of the story finally stands up for herself. She changed because of the situation and people that were placed in front of her. Mrs. Johnson begins the story “Everyday Use” as unconfident and passive. Her oldest...
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...Foluke Ogunmiloro English1101 Dr. Pope October 26, 2011 “Everyday Use” Why is Dee so different from her mother and Maggie? The vibe that is present in the short story is that Dee is better than Maggie and their mother. She went out to the big city for college and has experienced much more than her mother and Maggie had ever. So when she come back home to see them she feels that they both should be like her. But in reality they live off of a dirt road far from the city so they don’t get out much. Dee also feels that they are not in touch with the time that they are in, nor their heritage. Dee is more into the fine arts and the finer things in life but Maggie and their mother are humble people that don’t ask for much. One would say Dee was born to another family. When Dee first pulled up to the house her mother was so happy to see her even though she has been away for more than six years. She acted as if she was really happy to see them but she was just showing off. The man that she claimed to be her friend her mother was not sure if they were married or not and didn’t want to ask to make herself look dumb, for she had only completed the second grade. Dee or Wangero as she preferred to be called had started to take pictures not for memories but for her own reasons. She liked and believed in folk art and instead of keeping things as family heirlooms, she would rather decorate the home she was with things she collected from her mothers’ house that she could not stand...
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...The Symbolism of Quilts Designs used in quilts are not necessarily symmetrically organized; rather the art of quilting reflects an aesthetic understanding by the makers of what the quilt represents for them in their everyday experience. (Barkley-Brown, 1990). The shape of a quilt results from the meaning that the individual quilters give to the pieces that compose it. This art form is known as gumbo ya ya in Creole which means everybody talking at once. (Barkley-Brown, 1990). Alice Walker’s usage of quilts in her short story Everyday Use reflects the importance and significance of a quilt in African-American history. A quilt embodies heritage and personal stories and events; a quilt is similar to a person’s own journey in that each scrap stitched into a quilt represents “a person’s world view [which] is made up of events, circumstances and influences that shape how [she] see[s] and respond[s] to the world.” (Eshbaugh, 2008, August 21). Narrated by the mother of the two main characters, the symbolism of the hand-stitched quilts in Everyday Use represents the conflicts between two sisters who each experience the world and their heritage differently. The story begins with Dee, the eldest daughter, first homecoming since leaving for college. Walker describes Dee as a woman who no one ever told “no.” Dee is well-educated, wears bright colors that accentuates her full-figured body and exudes confidence. However, Dee will never be satisfied in life, and she...
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