Alice Walker’s Short Story Everyday Use Essay - 905 Words

Alice Walker’s Short Story â€Å"Everyday Use† In Alice Walker’s short story â€Å"Everyday Use,† tells us a story of two daughters’, Dee and Maggie Johnson, with different ideas about their identities and values. Dee a young woman who, in the course of a visit to the rural home she thinks she has outgrown, attempts unsuccessfully to divert some fine old quilts ,earmarked for the dowry of a sister, into her own hands. Dee is Mrs. Johnson’s oldest daughter, the one who has always been determined, popular, and successful. Maggie is her young sister who was severely burned in the house fire as a child. She is still lives with her mother in poverty, putting â€Å"priceless† objects to â€Å"everyday use.† A similar view is expressed by Houston Baker and†¦show more content†¦(103) Mama, with grudging admiration remembers Dee as a fearless girl. While Mama imagines herself unable to look at people in the eye, talking to them only â€Å"with one foot raised in flight,† (103) Dee however, â€Å"would always look anyone in the eye. Hesitation was no part of her nature† (103).She goes on to say Dee is self-centered and demanding but also remembers this daughter as a determined fighter. Dee is concerned with style, but she will do whatever is necessary to improve her circumstance. For instance, when Dee wanted a new dress, she had to â€Å"make over† a green suit someone had given her mother. Maggie a victim of fear since she was burned by the fire, Mama describes her as â€Å"a lame animal, perhaps a dog† (103). She says, â€Å"That is the way Maggie walks. She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire burned the other house to the ground† (104). The major difference between the two sisters is the understanding of heritage. More critics see Dee’s education and her insistence on reading to Mama and Maggie as evidence of her separation from the lack of understanding of her family identity and heritage. Nancy Tuten, for instance argues that, in this story: Walker stresses not only the importance of language but also the destructive effects of its use †¦Rather than providing a medium for newfound awareness and for community†¦verbal skills equip Dee to oppressShow MoreRelated(A Critical Analysis of Alice Walker’s short story Everyday Use)700 Words   |  3 PagesAnalysis of Alice Walker’s short story Everyday Use) Albert Camus once asserted: â€Å"Men are never convinced of your reasons, of your sincerity, of the seriousness of your sufferings, except by your death. So long as you are alive, your case is doubtful; you have a right only to their skepticism.† In Everyday Use a strong willed mother tries to protect her younger daughter, Maggie, from having a quilt passed down for generations stolen from her by her materialistic older sister Dee.The short story EverydayRead MoreEveryday Use by Alice Walker: A Look at Symbolism and Family Values879 Words   |  4 PagesAlice Walkers â€Å"Everyday Use†, is a story about a family of African Americans that are faced with moral issues involving what true inheritance is and who deserves it. Two sisters and two hand stitched quilts become the center of focus for this short story. Walker paints for us the most vivid representation through a third person perspective of family values and how people from the same environment and upbringing can become different types of people. Like most peoples families there is a dynamicRead MoreThe Importance Of Family Heritage By Alice Walker1100 Words   |  5 PagesSydney Elliott ENGL 102-52 Dr. Irmer February 25, 2015 The Importance of Family Heritage One of the most inspiring authors in American history is Alice Walker. Walker is the youngest child in a sharecropper family that found her overly ambitious and highly competitive (Walker 609). This gave her a strong fighting attitude, which allowed her to make positive changes in an extremely racist society. Unfortunately, when she was young, Walker was accidentally shot in her right eye with a BB gun whileRead MoreAlice Walker s Everyday Use906 Words   |  4 PagesCritique of Alice Walker’s â€Å"Everyday Use† Title Often authors use the titles of their writing to portray a part of the story that will eventually come up, or to give an underlying message about what’s going on in the story. In Alice Walker’s short story, Everyday Use, she uses a title that isn’t blatantly seen within the story, but is explained through different aspects of the dialogue and actions of the characters. Walker could’ve chosen to explain the title more obviously within the story, but insteadRead MoreDead Mens Path Literary Analysis1000 Words   |  4 Pagesvillagers go. â€Å"Everyday Use† by Alice Walker shows conflict between Mama, Dee, and Maggie. Dee wants to take the quilts away from her home, but Mama already planned to give the quilts to Maggie. Both literatures are relatable to readers. However, one literature shows a stronger connection readers can relate too. â€Å"Everyday Use† by Alice Walker distinguishes a more relatable conflict to modern day readers than †Å"Dead Men’s Path by Chinua Achebe because readers connect the short story to everyday problemsRead MoreAn Analysis of Alice Walkers quot;everyday Usequot; Essay929 Words   |  4 Pagesp An Analysis of Alice Walkers Everyday Usep Alice Walkers novel, The Color Purple, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982. This novel, in addition to her short story collections and other novels, continue to touch the emotions of a vast audience. This ability, according to critics, has solidified her reputation as one of the major figures in contemporary literature (Gwynn 462). Born to sharecroppers in Eatonton, Georgia, in 1944, Alice Walkers life was not always easy. Her parents strived toRead Moreâ€Å"Everyday Use† by Alice Walker Essay1310 Words   |  6 PagesIn its simplest form, a child is a product of a man and a woman but Alice Walker one of the foremost authors during the twentieth century, adds depth to her black American women by focusing on the role that race and gender played in their development. Family reunions can be times of great anticipation, excitement and happiness but for Dee, a young, beautiful, African American and our leading character, it was a reunion with underlying, unspoken tensions. Dee was Dee but Dee had changed; a new husbandRead MoreSymbolic References in Everyday Use by Alice Walker1848 Words   |  8 PagesSymbolism is the taking of an object big or small, and giving it something to stand for. It could be your everyday math symbols for addition, subtraction, division, and etc. Although math symbols are perfect examples of symbolism, there’s also objects that can be more than what they are. For example animals, Lions are known to be symbolized as strength, aggression, and assertiveness. Birds like doves are symbolized as love and peace. Colors are also held symbolically, for instance the color blackRead MoreEveryday Use By Alice Walker1725 Words   |  7 Pagespeople forget that heritage has to do with truly understanding their past. Many often misrepresent it, especially the younger generations who just accept its presence. Alice Walker’s short story, â€Å"Everyday Use,† revolves around an African American family that consists of three wo men, who are very different from each other. The story begins with Maggie and Mama waiting in the yard for Dee, the main character, to visit from Augusta. Dee is the first person in her family to attend college, which createsRead MoreIn 1973 Alice Walker wrote a short story called Everyday Use. This story is told in first person by800 Words   |  4 PagesIn 1973 Alice Walker wrote a short story called Everyday Use. This story is told in first person by mama and in set in the Deep South. Now, Alice Walker is a very well known name when it comes to writing and acting. She began her life in Eatonton, Georgian and was the youngest of eight children. Her family made their living by sharecropping and she says that, â€Å"It was great fun being cute. But then, one day, it ended.She had an accident with a BB gun and it almost blinded her at the age of eight