##dike, Sylvia Plath And Alice Walker's 'A & P'

“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, is a story of a black family composed of a mother and her two daughters: Maggie and Dee. Walker does an excellent job illustrating her characters. There are all types of characters in this short story from round to static. Dee is a flat character, yet Walker uses Dee’s character to warn people of what might happen if they do not live properly. Walker describes Dee’s character as arrogant and selfish, and through Dee’s character one is allowed to perceive the wicked effect of an egotistical world.

Alice Walker’s story “Everyday Use” is a story decipating family and heritage. She released the story with a collection of other short stories called In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women. This collection revealed Walker to be one of the finest of late twentieth century American short-story writers (Phy-Olsen). According to Cowart, the story address itself “to the dilemma of African Americans who are striving to escape prejudice and poverty.” One of the main characters, Dee, made drastic changes and would like her mother and sister to see things her way. Dee’s statement to her mother and sister regarding their disregard of heritage is very ironic considering the fact her name is a part of the family’s history, her new behavior, and her

In contrast of “Everyday Use” written by Alice Walker, the use of her character Dee discovers a different and special way to make a description of what Baldwin calls the “ambiguity and irony of Negro life.” Dee really did not want to resemble her

In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the two main characters, Maggie and Dee, are sisters who are very opposite to each other. Throughout the story, the girl’s differences become evident through their physical appearances, personalities, lifestyle decisions, and the way they feel about their heritage.

Often in literature character relationships change and evolve. In “Everyday Use,” the author, Alice Walker, introduces Mama and her daughter Dee as having two completely different attributes. While Mama is caring and hardworking, Dee is selfish and believes she is entitled to everything. This leads to Mama having enough of Dee’s emotional bludgeoning and cause a shift of Mama’s feelings toward her daughter. After a careful analysis of the story, the reader understands how Mama’s feelings toward her daughter Dee have changed, why her feelings changed, and how this change affects the story as a whole.

During the 20th century many people endured and still now are enduring racial injustices throughout America and while some try to undergo a racial transformation where they show themselves to be equal to others no matter their race, others decide to stay low in their socioeconomic identity and do nothing about their past nor their future. Some of those people who decided to take action took part in movements such as the Black Pride Movement. Dee, from Alice Walker's short story “Everyday Use”, is an example of someone who took part of that movement and her actions and choices proved her devotion to what she believed. In contrast, her mother, who is known as “Mama” in the story, believed otherwise and did not take part of any movement because she decided to still live the life that she has always lived. Similar to Mama is Esther Kuroiwa, from Hisaye Yamamoto’s short story “Wilshire Bus”. Esther also went through racial tension during post-war America and throughout the story she is found witnessing a racist act towards an oriental man and his wife in which she did nothing nor spoke up for them leaving her with a feeling of regret and failure. Each character has a different approach to their situation and they either felt good or disappointed because of the outcome.

Two books can seem completely different from each other when judged by characteristics such as genre, plot, and theme. However, if people were to look at the books together and as a whole, they might notice one striking similarity between the two. That striking similarity is known as the hero’s journey. First observed and documented by Joseph Campbell, the hero’s journey is a concept in which heroes, or people who commit actions for the greater good, follow a three-step cycle known as departure, fulfillment, and return. At the first stage of the hero’s journey, the hero receives a call to an adventure that takes him from the comforts of his home. Next, at the most important stage of the hero’s journey, the hero begins to experience life

In 1957, James Baldwin, published “Sonny’s Blues” which told the story of a man struggling to understand why his brother Sonny let his life go in the malevolent direction that it did. Throughout this story one understands how hard it can be to face family who takes a different direction in life. Likewise, in 1973, Alice Walker, a novelist, wrote “Everyday Use”, which told the story of Mrs. Johnson and her daughter Maggie awaiting the arrival of Dee, Maggie’s older sister. Though once Dee arrives it is apparent that she had succumbed to a false understanding of what it meant to be African-American. Collectively, both stories help the reader understand how difficult and inflexible it can become to understand family member’s choices after they

A connection between an author and his or her characters lies in the stories given to the reader, as well as, the author’s life. In this case, one could use this to show the connection between narrator Alice Walker, and her characters, Dee and Maggie, in “Everyday Use.” An example of a connection between the narrator and her characters are their common lifestyle. After the reader views deeper into Walker’s childhood they would notice that “Walker grew up in an environment much like that described in the story. Her parents were both sharecroppers, her family lived in a rundown shack, and racial segregation was legally enforced, prompting the author to describe the times as America's own era of apartheid” (Cengage 2). Noticing the similarity

“The benefits of the accomplished journey cannot be weighed in terms of perfect moments, but in terms of how this journey affects and changes our character.” -Ella Maillart. To many, journey’s are life changing experiences. People venture out into the world to learn and discover new things. In the epic, The Odyssey by Homer, is about a hero named Odysseus that goes on a 20 year journey. For ten years he was in the Trojan War and the ten after that we was trying to get back home. He got into lots of obstacles trying to get home. The character Odysseus in The Odyssey changes by having a desire to gain glory but in the end of the story he is more humble. Another story that shows change throughout a story is “The Cruelest Journey” by Kira Salak. This story about a girl going on a 600 mile kayak journey on the Niger River. People told her it was impossible to do the whole 600 miles and especially for a girl to do it, but she proved them wrong. In the beginning of the of the story she was very strong minded about the trip but at the towards the end of the story she starts to notice how everything that’s around her changes everyday.

In “Everyday Use”, a short story by Alice Walker, two sisters have very different opinions and lifestyles when it comes to their culture. Maggie embraces her heritage and partakes in its everyday style, while Dee would love to not be apart of it, rather display it.

In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”, Walker juxtaposes two different daughters in their quest for a cultural identity. The narrator, their mother, talks about how each daughter is different; Dee went off to college and became well-educated, contrary to their impoverished and low status as black women in the south. Meanwhile, Maggie isn’t nearly as educated as Dee is, but is still literate. The entire story centers around Dee’s visit with her new Muslim significant other. The story’s climax is when Dee wants to take two special quilts back home, but those quilts are for Maggie. These precious quilts comprise their culture. Henceforth, Dee does not deserve to take the quilts with her because she has decided to take on a culture that varies significantly from her own and she is already used to getting what she wants.

The short story Everyday Use by Alice Walker seems that Alice is presenting Dee as this attractive young, light skinned woman but in reality she is as bitter as can be. Dee comes home out of random with an unknown man and has a new identity of some sort for her culture of African Americans, and for the mom and other daughter it seems to be quite odd. By showing this Alice Walker is showing the tension between Africans who have left the village to “become” something and those that are still old fashion and continue to live in the southern areas.

Alice walker, author of “Everyday use” and “The welcome table”, both depict about prejudice and racism dealing with two strong female characters from both stories that are affected by this injustice. Not only this but many attributes that are comparable such as Irony and visual images.

It has been said that “One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.” What should matter is being true to oneself and loving the person that you have become. This short story is narrated by Mama who is telling her story of her two daughters, Dee and Maggie. Both daughters live their lives in very different ways. In Dee's case, she goes out to make all that she can of herself while leaving her mother and sister behind. Maggie stays at home with their Mama and makes the most out of what surrounds her. All three ladies have different perspectives of their own heritage and identity. The conflict in “Everyday Use” is that Mama has these two daughters fighting over a quilt. In the end, readers will find that what matters most is not forgetting where you come from and who you are as a person. In “Everyday Use” Alice Walker emphasizes to her readers the importance of self-identities and family through her use of conflict, setting, and characterization, suggesting that sometimes people are so motivated in pleasing others while neglecting the things that matter to them the most.