Rhetorical Devices In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

My Rhetorical Analysis is on the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. Alice informs everybody about the importance of bounding between mother and daughter. Alice established emotion in a dynamic tone and used imagery in a very powerful way. “Everyday Use” is a short story about is about an African-American mother and her two daughters’ struggling to make it in life. The story evolves around Dee, as she is coming back home to visit her family. Maggie and Dee are very different. Maggie is portrayed as a homely and ignorant girl as Dee is portrayed as a beautiful and educated woman. The story goes to the differences to deal mainly with the way in which the two sisters value their heritage. Maggie doesn’t know anything of her heritage. But Maggie

Mother as the narrator of the story explains Dee’s personality and background. Dee has been running from her poverty stricken past since she was a child. When the Johnsons house burnt down. Dee had just stood from afar and watched. Dee actually physically separates herself from her family as soon as she got old enough. She left home to attend college in search of a better lifestyle. After Dee moves out she was assured that her mother will come to see her. Dee actually thinks she is too good to admit her true heritage to anyone. The specific choice of narration and point of view is used in order to illustrate two divergent philosophies of culture. The personal views of one heritage are to challenge the black power movement to respect and acknowledge the American heritage of black people. The story is about the way in which an individual understands his/her present life in relation to the traditions of his/her people and culture. It shows the different sides of culture and heritage in the characters of Dee and her mother. Her mother view these object as normal everyday

(“Dee wanted nice things. Yellow organdy dresses…block pumps to match a green suit.”(Walker3) Alice uses images in a good characteristics way. I really appreciate images in every text. (“In both of the quilts were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War.”) (Walker55) (“When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet.”) (Walker16) “I didn't want to bring up how I had offered Dee a quilt when she went away to college.” (Walker67) “A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just a yard. It is like an extended living room. When the hard clay is swept clean as a floor and the fine sand around the edges lined with tiny, irregular grooves, anyone can come and sit and look up into the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never come inside the house.”