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.…
One occurrence that motivates her is the burn scars she got from the house fire several years ago. “Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs.” (69) Because of the burns she has become very self-conscious and ashamed. “She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground.” (71) Since the fire Maggie became introverted and shy.…
Despite the fact that I, Maggie McCormick, am not the most talented musician out of my fellow sopranos, I believe that I should be permitted to attend the choral festival because it would help me to grow as a musician, it would be a great opportunity for me to develop greater bonds with my fellow attendees, and it would be a fantastic learning experience to hear the way each choir from the southeast sounds.…
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.…
Maggie is physically and mentally scarred. Physically because the fire that had took place at the old house and mentally because of the opportunities that were given to her sister. Her older sister Dee was beautiful and confident and she had gotten to go to college and live life. Maggie is highly self-conscious. In “Everyday Use”, her mother compared the way she walked to that of a lame dog that had been run over by a car. Ever since the fire, Maggie had begun to walk with her chin on chest, eyes on the ground and feet in a shuffle. She had communication apprehension when it came to pretty much talking to anyone. Maggie had to accept the country life and endured a much more difficult youth than Dee. Despite her personality, Maggie still lived a justly satisfied and concrete life. She goes on sharing everyday chores between her and her mother. In the end, Maggie is just a modest girl living a submissive…
Alice Walker 's _Everyday use_ is a story about a mother and her two daughters, Dee and Maggie. Mama, the narrator, of the story gives us a good description of both daughters by showing their different strengths and weakness. Dee and Maggie are as different as day and night but Mama love them both. Dee the older daughter is very beautiful, independent, confident, and educated but she is also arrogant, selfish and self centered. Maggie on the other hand, is uneducated and unattractive with burn scars on her face arm and leg leading to her having a low self esteem and being shy. Mama, an African American is a strong hard-working, independent, uneducated, and self sufficient woman who despite all these great qualities still have a low self esteem and lacks self confidence.…
As the story begins, Maggie and her mother are extremely proud of who they are and where they come from. Dee, on the other hand, seems somewhat embarrassed to have the background of an African American. Maggie’s mother refers to her as “a large, big boned woman with rough,…
Maggie was the sweet innocent daughter. Everyone stepped on her like a door mat. She was genuine and caring, very quite and shy. She had all the quality’s of a honest human being. Even though her sister Dee had always belittled her to the point she was afraid of her. “Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes” (161).…
Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” written in 1973 and it was widely studied and frequently anthologized short story, “Everyday Use” came out as one of the story collection In Love and Trouble. In “Everyday Use” she bring up many issue such as comparing relationship between heritage and tradition past. The story also question whether or heritage is something one use or something one possess.…
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.…
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,…
Walker uses the character Maggie to represent the neglect of the American heritage. Mama’s words describes her nature: “Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes; She will stand hopelessly in corners homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture envy and awe.”(744). Maggie’s scars represent the pains and psychological impact all African-Americans carry as a result of slavery in the past and the present pandemic of racial prejudice. For example, the current trend of police harassment of young black men, and the stereotyping of a black male on a huddy in the night. When watching recent videos on youtube and facebook, one would witness the Maggie’s scar on the African American…
Walker finds her voice through her homelife as a child and what she had to overcome. (Cummings 1). Even though Maggie, Dee, and Mama lived through poverty, they did not have to be “Born into a world marked by racism, sexism, and poverty” as the article “Alice Walker” describes (Cummings 1). In the short story, Maggie and Dee were able to go to school to learn skills such as reading unlike Mama (Walker 21). Walker experienced school, she just had to overcome different more severe obstacles. In the short story “Everyday Use,” Mama has two daughters who develop conflict with the family quilts and who will receive them, although in reality, Walker has at least seven children. Walker may have changed the gender of the children to give a more realistic outlook to her stories because boys are not going to fight over the quilt as much as Dee was over Maggie because they won’t see as much value in them as the sisters did. A newspaper article explains, “Walker stresses not only the importance of language but also the destructive effects of its misuse” (Tuten 125). Along with language, Walker stresses heritage and culture in her short story “Everyday Use” through her use of the quilts from her ancestors. Through Walker’s writings, and her personal experiences and life, there are many differences throughout both of…
In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” Mama, the narrator of the story, is rather distant with her daughter Dee and dreams about reconciling with her on a television show. Specifically, she imagines Dee expressing gratitude for all that she has done for her, while embracing her (Mama) “with tears in her eyes (Walker 315).” It is obvious that Mama doesn’t understand her daughter’s life choice to adopt an African lifestyle and feels that Dee is rejecting her origins and family. Furthermore, the reader can see that Mama has a troublesome relationship with Dee by the amount of tension between them. This strained relationship becomes clear when Dee “went to the trunk at the foot of (Mama’s) bed and started rifling through it (Walker 320).” The narrator…
DNA is a similarity that all siblings share. Through their DNA siblings have physical similarities as well as mental similarities. Nonetheless, having the same DNA does not at all make you the same. This is displayed in the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. In this short story, Alice Walker tells about two sisters by the names of Maggie and Dee, who in some ways have similarities, but in other ways they have differences including: their motivations, personalities, and their point of view on preserving their heritage.…