Alice Walker Everyday Use Analysis

Words: 183
Pages: 1
Open Document
I chose Alice Walker’s “Everyday use”. To me the scene that most represents the antagonist of this story, Dee, is when she gets the camera out of her car and takes pictures of her mama, frightened sister and the house, and when a cow comes back she makes sure the cow is also included, but always includes Maggie, mama and the house.
This scene shows Dee not taking her families feelings in consideration, not even asking to take the pictures, but also it shows her gathering “proof” of the subjection of her people. Her people being her race and not her family. The story is coming from mama and so we watch as her daughter is photographing her and while her mother may not be educated, she’s no fool. Mama knows that Dee looks down on the life
Show More

Related Documents: Alice Walker Everyday Use Analysis

Alice Walker Everyday Use Analysis

In “ everyday Use,” Alice Walker tells a narrative of a mom’s frustrating relationship together with her two daughters. At this facet, “,day-to-day Use”, tells that how a mom little by little refuses the cursory values of her older, successful daughter at the aspect of the useful values of her younger, much less lucky daughter. On a deeper facet, Alice Walker looks for the notion of heritage and its norms because it applies to African-Americans. "Everday Use", is set inside the late ',60s or mid…

Words 1723 - Pages 7

Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

During this weeks reading assigment "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker I found the story to be very intresting. First off Dee has created a new heritage for herself because of her views on history of opression in her family. I belive that this creates conflit between Dee and her mother because she is a lady who is very proud of her heritage. I feel like Dee can be such a hypocrite in the way that she wants everything in the house and that she thinks she deserves it. For instance the qulit was a pretty…

Words 305 - Pages 2

Literary Analysis Of Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Literary Analysis on “Everyday Use” A daughter who uses her mother's gifts in contrast to a daughter who preserves them is far more valuable just like in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker because values can be preserved. From here on, Walker utilizes a confused tone which later shifts into an authoritative tone by illustrating a mother who defends her weakest daughter because of her eldest daughter’s opposing views. The confused tone began with Mama watched Dee come out of the “side of the car” with…

Words 682 - Pages 3

Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

and embrace everything that’s been given rather then display it elsewhere. Walker addresses that a person who truly has heritage and culture makes use of it every day of their life. "Everyday Use" is a short story of cultural difference in the American society caused by racial issues. One can agree that heritage and culture is taught and learned though generations; you can either embrace what been pass or loose it. Walker shows readers that tension does exist between mama and Dee on how she breaks…

Words 1454 - Pages 6

Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

In the story “Everyday Use”, the author Alice Walker beautifully combines the harmony and the conflicts within the African-American culture. The main themes of Walker’s story are the heritage and tradition of African-Americans. Using symbolism, the narrator gives more depth to the entire story. The author chooses to attribute symbolic meaning to everyday objects like quilts, yard or dasher as well as characters and their reactions. The main characters of the story, Mama and Maggie on one pole and…

Words 1146 - Pages 5

Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

example,in the short narrative Everyday use by Alice Walker, the character Maggie is an example of this claim.Maggie is nervous and maladjusted with a homebound isolation quite apparent in the story. Her “culture”is extended between her mother and herself, the views and beliefs being similar. For this reason she views her sister Dee as an outsider and her views and beliefs foreign. In the text it states,” I hear Maggie suck in her breath.Uhnnnh is what it sounds like.”(Walker) This expresses her astonishment…

Words 432 - Pages 2

Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis Essay

Walker’s short story “Everyday Use" demonstrates the use of characterization by connecting the qualities of Mama, Maggie, and Dee to the overall theme of heritage. Each character is given unique qualities that allow the reader to compare and contrast their views on the definition of heritage. These characteristics determine the character’s view on their ancestry, whether thought of by an academic standpoint, or a more simple, cultural stance. The main character and narrator of the story, Mama, isn’t…

Words 657 - Pages 3

Everyday Use By Alice Walker Literary Analysis

In Alice Walker’s short story, “Everyday Use”, each woman’s particular connection to the quilts suggest that the females are instrumental in preserving and handing down the family’s history. Each of the family members have their own definition of preservation. Despite the differences, the goal remains essentially the same. Mama knows the story behind each piece of cloth used to make the quilts. She wants the history handed down in the manner she has been passing it, through oral and visual means…

Words 468 - Pages 2

Everyday Use, By James Baldwin

of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin. From the rural South to the bustling streets of Harlem, each of the stories portrays how the search for personal identity and cultural identity affects different characters. Both explore the tenuous relationship between family members against the backdrop of African American struggles and the journey of self discovery, yet one embraces both the cultural and personal identity while the other rejects it. Through the analysis of…

Words 968 - Pages 4

Essay On Everyday Use By Alice Walker

When someone uses the resources that they are granted to achieve education and face every obstacle in life, there is usually a celebration. However, when that accomplishment becomes a barrier between you and your origin, it becomes a problem. In the short story Everyday Use, Alice Walker expressed the achievement of education in a different way. Walker uses her a word in a such a way that when reading you can see the clear grassless yard and even feel the beaming hot sun. She also uses a few different…

Words 630 - Pages 3