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Essay on african american culture
Essay on african american culture
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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.
Maggie is also oppressed by society and Dee, and, though to a further degree than her mother, her view of herself attacks her equality compared to the rest of the world. The subject is immediately introduced. The story begins with Maggie and her mother waiting for Dee. They waste their time in order to be available to Dee as soon as Dee
Dee doesn’t truly know what her culture represents, but instead she tries to use everything from college to apply to everyday life. Dee never appreciated her roots as a child, and she still don’t. Mama and Maggie used the churnand dasher daily with care, and all Dee wants to do with the churn and dasher is “think of something artistic to do with it” ( Walker 273.) She sees the churn as a project she can work on; on the other hand Mama and Maggie see it as a churn with a lot of meaning behind it. Maggie and Mama cherish the handmade quilts that were made by Grandma Dee.
The point of view in the story “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker plays a big part. Throughout the story, one of Mama’s daughters came to visit. The way Mama and Maggie see her is not in a very pleasant way. In fact, they are scared to tell her no when it comes to anything. From Mama’s perspective Dee seems like this rude, stuck up, spoiled child because she had the opportunity to go out and expand her education, while Mama and Maggie continued to live their lives on the farm.
“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker Literary genius is a term thrown around often in this day and time. Many might say that the literary world has been diluted. However, if there is one who deserves that title, it is Alice Walker. It is especially so for her piece, ‘Everyday Use’. The short story was first published in 1973 as part of the author’s short story compilation.
Kayla Vasquez Dr. George LIT 2000 2 June 2023 Topic 5: Is “Everyday Use” Autobiographical Alice Walker is an African American writer, who is most famously known for her short stories, essays, and fiction about gender and race. One of her well known works is titled “Everyday Use” which tells the story of two conflicting daughters who have different ideas and views about their identity as well as ancestry. After thoroughly reading “Everyday Use” and analyzing Alice Walker’s life in comparison to her characters, there is evidence suggesting that her short story is partially autobiographical.
Dee’s appreciation of her culture is seeing the decorative value of what would be daily household objects for her mother and sister. Dee believes that these objects are some sort of abstract art, while for her sister and mother, they are simply everyday objects. “Despite her neo-African style, she has adapted to a white Western attitude towards art by applying the aesthetic concept of art for art’s sake to objects of everyday use.” (Lewis 1) Dee believes that the only correct way to appreciate their African American heritage is by treating these everyday objects as art, but those objects get their value from their everyday
It also makes me wonder how Dee views Maggie and her mother apart from linking them to the house, lifestyle, and the past. If it were told from Maggie's point of view I think that the story would focus more on changes and challenges of growing up rather than on culture. The story would also be longer , containing more details about each characters’ facial expressions, body language, and other less commonly noticed intricacies than the audience is unaccustomed to paying attention to. My assumptions are primarily based on the overall quiet and watchful demeanor of Maggie throughout the
Most teams have that one player who thinks they can carry the whole team, thinks they could do it all on their own. Would it ever turn out well? No, no it would not. You need the whole team. Every team mate contributes in their own way.
A simple powerful story of a rural family that contains a returned changed daughter leaves a family in surprise. “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker demonstrates that the theme of the story that consists different views of heritage by using literary elements like characterization, imagery, and settings. Each literary element holds a strong value to define the meaning of heritage from different perspectives of the characters. Alice Walker demonstrates it by Mama, Maggie, and Dee by how they each value their heritage by the things that they have left from their ancestors. To start of with, characterization is the highlights and explanation of the details of a character (“Definition and Examples of Literary Terms Characterization”).
Alice Walker made the conflicts of race very well known in “Everyday Use”. Mrs. Johnson, Dee, and Maggie all give an insight of their experiences and feelings toward being an African American women. Mrs. Johnson is the narrator who shows some important information on growing up as an African American girl before the Civil Rights era and this plays a pretty huge role in shaping the submissive side of her personality. This is important because the story is essentially all about racial identity, or how racial oppression plays a crucial role in who we are.
Dee is a girl who lived with her mom and her sister Maggie, but she wasn’t like them at all, she was different than her sister and her mother. Mama was collecting money to take Dee to school in Augusta. Dee liked to be fashionable, she always wanted nice things. Dee changed allot in the story, she changed after she went to study in school.
These quilts are a ways of honoring her African American heritage and to be given these was very significant in their culture. For once Dee sees the historical background because of the stitching and material used, but doesn’t find any use in using them. Dee is going to try and convince her mom to let her keep the quilts, when Dee says, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!” (Walker 721) and “You just will not understand. The point these quilts, these quilts!”
I have chosen to analyze the literary piece of Alice Walker using the context of historical criticism. Historical criticism includes understanding the occasions and encounters encompassing the creation of the work, particularly the life of the creator, and utilizing the discoveries to decipher that work of writing. The author of “Everyday Use” takes up what is a repetitive topic in her work: the representation of the agreement and additionally the contentions and battles inside African-American culture. Alice walker utilizes portrayal and imagery to highlight the contrast between these elucidations and eventually to maintain one of them, demonstrating that culture and heritage are parts of daily life.
These items are part of Maggie’s wedding present, and she is connected and grounded to the part of herself and her family heritage which created them. Maggie and Dee are also alike in their tempers, although it takes much more to get Maggie angry than Dee. Dee is used to being deferred to and getting what she wants. She is beautiful and smart, and she takes matters into her own hands when they are not going her way (take the burning of the house she hated which scarred Maggie for instance). Maggie is not used to getting her way since her sister was always in the spotlight.
