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Literary Analysis of Everyday Use by Alice Walker
Literary Analysis of Everyday Use by Alice Walker
Literary Analysis of Everyday Use by Alice Walker
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In the short story Everyday Use the character Dee shows the character traits of greed, over confidence, and uptight. One example, of Dee being greedy is how she wanted to take the quilts that her grandmother made. This example shows how Dee is greedy because Maggie deserved the quilts more because she acts like part of the family. An example, of Dee being uptight is when she takes pictures of her family and their house, but does not include herself in the picture. Furthermore this shows how Dee is uptight because she is too embarrassed to include herself in the picture.
"She 'd probably be backwards enough to put them to everyday use" (320). Dee thinks Maggie would be dumb to keep the quilts for “everyday use”. Also, she figured her family did not know their own heritage. Dee feels as though her sister should “make something of” herself. She states, “It’s really a new day for us” to show that Maggie needs to see a greater amount of the world.
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.
unemotional interactions between the two characters when they meet. When Dee arrives at the house she doesn’t run to her mother and say she misses her. Instead she walks slowly and gives her mother a
The 1920’s, nicknamed the roaring twenties, was a time to be alive. The extravagant spending, new music, and the all around happy mindsets allowed for an era, many people did not want to miss out on. One of these people was a man named Louis Armstrong, a musician who contributed to something that would remain a part of this country until today. Louis Armstrong had a great deal of impact on this time period with his influence on jazz music and the Jazz Age. As a young boy Armstrong did not have such an easy life.
The prettiest daughter had a life outside of where her mother was located. The less attractive daughter stayed with her mother and that was probably the best choice for her. “Everyday Use” allows readers to see the conflicts on how culture can be twisted and viewed differently by generations through the theme, characters and symbols. To begin with, there are three generations of culture that is
The authors, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, demonstrates how two women growing up together can lead to different point of views. In both stories, there is a woman – Sula in “Sula” and Dee in “Everyday Use” – returning home to find things the way they left them. Sula and Dee’s lives are considered very unconventional in comparison to their towns and families. In the case of Dee, she changed her name because, “I [She] couldn't bear it any longer, being named after people who oppress me." (Walker 1191)
Looking at the story with Dee telling it would allow access to her thoughts so that the reader can understand why she is the way she is. It would allow the reader to access the deeper meaning to certain actions she takes and why she says the things she says. The point of view in a story determines so much for the reader including their feelings towards a certain character, in this case,
The character Dee represented in Walker 's story shows how easily one can completely depersonalize heritage while showing mannerisms of condescending nature. Dee’s name was in fact passed down from her grandmother and given to her as a symbol of respect for family and fondness for their grandmother. Dee completely oblivious to the nature of her given name simply changes it to what she believes is her authentic African name. “No, Mama,” she says, “Not Dee; Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!”(492). Displaying the name in boastful temperament and parading it in front of her mother and sister.
Alice Walker wrote what Mama said about Dee or Wangero, “Dee wanted nice things.” Mama describes Dee as a lavish person who is only interested in herself and her fulfilling’s. Dee had changed her name to show that she is not accepting that a “white person” named her ancestors in way, so it can be passed down. Walker describes Mama as someone who is satisfied with what they have. “I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon,” Walker demonstrates how Mama is pleased with nature where her life takes place in.
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.
The short story, Everyday Use, is written by Alice Walker. This short story tells about the narrator, mama, and her daughter Maggie wait for a visit from Dee, mama’s older daughter. Throughout this short story, the reader can see the distraught relationship between mama and Dee. The reader can see how Dee is different than mama and Maggie; she thinks that she knows way more about her heritage than mama and Maggie, when she really does not. In the short story, Everyday Use, Walker uses imagery, symbolism, and point of view to show that heritage can only be understood when one is true to their roots.
In “Everyday Use” we are able to see the different ways physical appearance, education, and surroundings influence the cultural aspects of one's view of the world around them. Dee is considered to be a thin, pretty girl
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.
This womanist conceptualization is shown by a nuanced destruction by Dee’s response to the quilt, which is the main metaphor in the story. A typical political rhetoric is represented in the character of Dee. This is a rhetoric which is more aggressive than mature, showier than subtle. Dee ends up in simplifying and commodifying culture, instead of relating it to any meaningful way. She comes out as a being who takes activism as a fad rather than a commitment.
