Preview

Analysis Of Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
723 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis Of Everyday Use By Alice Walker
Families experience difficult times and loving moments. For example, when their conversation they have challenging moments but in the end they're just doing it to protect you and do whats best for you. In Alice Walkers “ Everyday Use” the family faces several conflicts within each other. This story focuses on lack of communication and relationships. Their issues aren't rare because my family has a set of their own to. The family of “ Everyday Use” and my family have a lot of similarities and differences regarding personally, parenting, and heritage. Personality is a huge part part of live, thats how people connect and describe you. In “Everyday Use” Dee seems very stuck up in the short story. Dee thinks she's better than the rest because momma

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Over the course of your life, how ever long it has been so far, have you been heavily influenced by your heritage and culture? Or have you been able to develop your own ideas and views on the world? If you have or you haven’t been influenced by your culture that’s up to you, but I ultimately think that it should be completely up to the individual whether or not they completely follow every rule of their religion, ethnic background, or whatever.…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" is the story of a woman, referred to as Mama, and her two daughters, Maggie and Dee. Mama and Maggie live together in their small home in a rural area. Dee has gone to college in a big city and is coming for a visit. Maggie is painfully self conscious, "chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle" with scars on her body from a house fire. Dee has always been scornful of her family's simple way of living and has been greatly influenced by her time away. Walker uses Maggie to explore the ideas of a family's heritage and history and, by contrasting her with Dee, voices a concern that in our search for our roots perhaps we are losing important aspects of our heritage.…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker reflects on the heritage of a family of African Americans. The majority of the African American population has forgotten where they came from. The Webster dictionary defines heritage as “ the traditions, achievements, beliefs, etc., that are part of the history of a group or nation.” Maggie, Dee or Wangero, and their mother, who is also the narrator, are the basic characters for this short story.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mama, the narrator of Alice Walker’s story, “Everyday Use,” is a strong, loving mother who is sometimes threatened and burdened by her daughters, Dee and Maggie. Gentle and stern, her inner monologue offers us a glimpse of the limits of a mother’s unconditional love. Mama is brutally honest and often critical in her assessment of both Dee and Maggie. She harshly describes shy, withering Maggie’s limitations, and Dee provokes an even more pointed evaluation. Mama resents the education, sophistication, and air of superiority that Dee has acquired over the years. Mama fantasizes about reuniting with Dee on a television talk show and about Dee expressing gratitude to Mama for all Mama has done for her. This brief fantasy reveals the distance between the two and how under appreciated Mama feels. Despite this brief daydream, Mama remains a practical woman with few illusions about how things are.…

    • 599 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eveyday Use

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the short story, "Everyday Use," Alice Walker teaches us lessons on true inheritance; what it is and who can receive it. Two hand stitched quilts become the center of conflict in the story. They are also used to symbolize the true inheritance. Like a quilt, a person's world view is made up of events, circumstances and influences that shape how they see and respond to the world. "Everyday Use" is a story of two worlds in conflict. Mama, acting as the narrator, guides us through the interaction of the two very different worlds embodied in her daughters.…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" is a short story about the clash between a mother and daughter. Dee is the child returning home to visit. The visit is not exactly pleasant and ends after a stand-off between her and Mama. Many readers see Mama as finally standing up for her own ideals while also refusing to conform to the rules Dee wishes her to follow. Dee follows different rules of society and religion than her mother does in order to become her own person. The rules Dee follows are shallow compared to the old-fashioned ways of her mother.…

    • 1709 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alice Malsenior Walker is an African American author and activist who write of various personal experiences, including the black woman’s struggle. Walker describes herself as a “womanist: a woman who loves other women… Appreciates and prefers woman culture, woman’s emotional flexibility… and woman’s strength… Loves the spirit… Loves herself, regardless”. Walker writes through her feelings and the morals that she has grown with. One of her famous quotes, "It is important to remember yourself," quoted from her appearance at a Miami Book Fair in 1989, where she discussed her 1988’s essay collection, including The Temple of My Familiar, relates to her short story Everyday Use. By not remembering who you are you can grow to be disconnected from yourself. Alice Walker’s short story Everyday Use successfully shows readers how it is possible for one to lose sight of what is important. This essay describes how Walker designed the story to reveal to readers the values of serving heritage and culture. Through the perspective of the protagonist “Mama,’ Walker shows the differences between the two sisters,…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dee is a force in the family, but she is arrogant and condescending towards Mama and her sister. Dee, too, is full of resentment about everything. She hates the way she grew up. She hates their family home. She hates that her mother was more like a man than a woman. She hates that Mama and Maggie aren't as smart and "stylish" as her. Yet, when Dee becomes captivated by the “Back to Africa” movement, suddenly her family's own heritage becomes something popular rather than a source of embarrassment. She returns home demanding the family quilts not for sentimental reasons, but because they now considered “special” and is shocked when Mama denies her of them. Dee's potential narration would be a delusional one, as even she with her self-confidence denies her connection to her family, is swayed by society's views of culture and popularity and even takes on her own new persona as Wangero.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    a. Attention Getter: Most people that are the first in their family to get an education always will try to make their family members feel inferior and want to take advantage of them in every way possible.…

    • 734 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The preservation of one’s cultural history is something that everyone must decide how to handle. In the short story Everyday Use by Alice Walker, two characters have different ways of preserving their history and culture. Dee and Maggie, sisters, have different personalities, motivations, and views on society. This may seem unusual considering they grew up in the same house, and they were raised by the same person; one might compare these girls to two different sides of the same coin. Their different views on life alter the way each of them act.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    English POV essay

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Thousands of years worth of history passed down generation to generation through culture is not easy to maintain with the evolving world around us, but being close to the roots of your heritage is a priceless and unique aspect of everyone's life varying between families either greatly or only a tiny bit. In "Everyday Use", Alice Walker creates a short story telling of a mother and her two daughter's contradicting interpretations of heritage. In "Everyday Use", Walker uses point of view, symbolism, and characterization to portray how people should be connected to their deepest roots of heritage every day.…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever not seen eye to eye with your mother? In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, we are shown how many of the choices we make and the things we value create our identity. This story focuses on two characters, mama and her daughter Dee (Wangero), who struggle to see the same way about their heritage. Dee wants the things made by her grandmother, to not admire it as an artifact, but rather to remake it. She wants to take them, and change them to match her lifestyle as it is today. She loves them for the way they look. Mama, on the other hand, views the things from her mother as artifacts. She loves the items more than how they look. She admires the quilts because of their everyday use. Transformations take place between these characters. Dee’s transformation is more external than it is internal. She shows her transformation in the way she speaks, the clothes she wears, and her judgement. Mama’s transformation is more internal. She begins to see Dee’s real thoughts, and she stands up against her. When she takes the quilts away from Dee, she doesn’t only stand up for herself, but Maggie, as…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker Heritage

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Through contrasting family members and views in "Everyday Use", Alice Walker illustrates the importance of understanding our present life in relation to the traditions of our own people and culture. Using careful descriptions and attitudes, Walker demonstrates which factors contribute to the values of one's heritage and culture; she illustrates that these are represented not by the possession of objects or mere appearances, but by one's lifestyle and attitude. In "Everyday Use" Walker personifies the different sides of culture and heritage in the characters of Dee and the mother (the narrator). Dee can be seen to represent a materialistic, complex, and modern way of life where culture and heritage are to be valued only for…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    one- This story , in my opinion, does not possess the warm-hearted, jolly, and happy side of a short story, we’d expect from a title, such as Everyday Use. Instead, this story is a more refreshing realistic tone of life and the harshness it may possess. There is a perfectly adequate amount of crudeness in the story, especially within the lifestyle of these individuals. The tone changes as the story continues on. In the beginning the story has a more worrisome, jealousy, and a want to be accepted feel, especially at the opening when it discusses Maggie and how she is ashamed of her burns, then peering at her sister in envy and awe. Then the mother’s want to be accepted by her daughter, Dee, who she feels would accept her if her appearance was different. Also, my assumption is greatly backed up by these two statements. The first quote being- “She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, and that “no” is a word it never learned to say to her.” The last being the dream statement, which exemplifies the want for acceptance from her daughter– “Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort…Then we are on the stage and Dee is embracing me with tears in her eyes.” As the story continues the tone moves from worrisome to mystery and embarrassment. The mystery was shown by the want to know why the change in Dee and who this man was with her. The embarrassment, in my opinion was a underlining tone, because it was solely shown through actions like Maggie’s want to dash away when she noticed her sister arriving in the vehicle, and the ashamed statement Dee wrote once before her arrival. This statement was that “no matter where we family “choose” to live, she will manage to come see us. But she will never bring her friends.” Next tone I grasped was the anger of Maggie when Dee came to take the things she wanted and then Maggie wanting to just get it over…

    • 1457 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker Everyday Use

    • 809 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Everyday Use is centered on the homecoming of Dee. Anticipating her arrival, mother and her youngest daughter Maggie “wait for her in the front yard” which for them is an extension of the living room (p.69, 1). Maggie is intimidated by her sister and is very nervous about the home coming of her more assertive sister. While the mother is waiting she has a vision of her and Dee being reunited in the same way that “a child who has made it is confronted, as a surprise by her mother and father who are backstage” (p.70, 3). She is knocked back to reality when she realized that she could never, unlike her daughter “look a white man in the eye” (p.70, 6). Maggie is nervous about the whole ordeal and when Dee finally…

    • 809 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics