Alice Walker Everyday Use Thesis

The short story “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker, contains multiple different literary elements. History and heritage play a key role in the development and conclusion of this rather intriguing story. Although history and heritage are important, the driving factors of this story are the literary elements. In particular the elements of symbols, characterization, and point of view in this story are significant.

Mama, the protagonist in Alice Walker's short story, Everyday Use is a woman with a solid foundation and tough roots. The qualities that society would find admirable within Mama are the same qualities that Dee, Mama's oldest daughter, would spurn, thinking them only the qualities of a down home, uneducated, country bumpkin. Dee, the story's main antagonist, is proof that children are not necessarily products of their environment.

Jacques Derrida had once said that culture is something in which "everything is arranged so that it is this way." I believe that culture is the opposite as it creates the way in which you perceive external forces rather then it being the external forces arranged in a specific way. Culture therefore allows one to become informed about foreign cultures to which one is then to perceive the culture a specific way. Culture is the multitude of many factors in which it consistently informs one 's perception of the world surrounding them as well as the individuals.

Have you ever noticed that siblings can be polar opposites? In the piece "Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the facet of individuality is highlighted. The piece focuses on the lives of two sisters. Maggie and Dee are two very different people with dissimilar views about life despite growing up together.

Through humorous comments, the mother paints a picture of what she is thinking, and allows the audience to see her as she is, and not as the world and those around her perceive her to be. Specifically the mother describes the characters appearance, and actions, as well as offers analogies, such as mothers on T.V. To support her view of reality, or how things really were, in her opinion. As the story progressed, she reveals cultural differences between Mama, Maggie and Dee. Walker also points out the importance of respecting your immediate heritage such as parents, and other family, and truly knowing and internalizing the real meaning of racial

Although Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” is evidently different than Flannery O’Connor’s short stories, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Revelation,” there seems to be a striking similarity between the main characters O’Connor and Walker chose for their stories. Dee, one of the main characters from Walker’s “Everyday Use,” the Grandmother from O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” and Mrs. Turpin from O’Connor’s short story “Revelation,” all share one major flaw, that is, they feel a sense of superiority to those around them. Their self-glorification and prideful beliefs about themselves and the people surrounding them becomes the central conflict as each story unfolds. Dee’s insulting comments towards her Mama and younger sister Maggie about their lack of education, the Grandmother’s sense of moral superiority and her frequent passing of judgment onto others, along with Mrs. Turpin’s categorization of people based on their socioeconomic status and outward appearance, all illustrate the ugly reality of pride that is ever present in the human heart.

In Alice Walker’s insightful short story, “Everyday Use,” the importance of the present is favored over a trivial souvenir of the past.

In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" Mama is the narrator. She speaks of her family of two daughters Maggie and Dee. Through the eyes of two daughters, Dee and Maggie, who have chosen to live their lives in very different manners, the reader can choose which character to identify most with by judging what is really important in one’s life. Throughout the story three themes consistently show. These themes show that the family is separated by shame, knowledge, and pride.

The profundity of the love of parents towards their children cannot be measured. This relationship is like no other. The love of a parent for a child is ongoing surpassing affliction. Our parents can teach us a galore of things. They have the power to show us how we are to be, who we should be, what not to be. Parents could also point out to one traits that one objectifies, soon realizing, that those traits are not of one 's own if not of ones parents which one is reflecting. In the short story "Everyday Use" the author Alice Walker depicts a mothers conflicting relationship with her two daughters Maggie and Dee. The mother feels that Maggie holds the traditional ways of living life and Dee her oldest daughter has broken away from her family 's tradition in effect losing her heritage. The reader may think of this relationship as the typical mother daughter hiss of the rebel child versus the obedient child. However, this challenging relationship shows the reader the struggle to keep hold of African American culture within a family. In "The Queen of Mold" Ruth Reichl informs the reader about how she found that people 's eating habits match their personality through her mother 's deadly cooking. Her mother 's love and daring personality shines through her experimentation with food. Both Walker and Reich make use of characterization to highlight the different ways both mothers showed their love demonstrating that heritage, education and love are essential in a child 's life.

n the short story "Everyday Use," by Alice Walker, a mother and one of her daughters argue over who should get some old quilts. The quilts are valuable to the family, made from clothing family members wore, going as far back as the Civil War. While who gets the quilts seems most important, there is actually a character who gains more by the end of the story. The mother starts the story feeling unimportant and ignorant, especially in the eyes of her daughter, Dee. But by the end of the story, the mother gains pride and self-respect in a way she never has before.

Educated Progressive Blacks vs. Southern African American Culture In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” she uses her characters and descriptive words to demonstrate the differences between the uneducated Southern African-Americans with oppressive mindsets of slavery versus progressive African-Americans who get educated and “make something” of themselves. (82). Through her use of simple words, adjectives, and plain living for the uneducated characters and the use of more complex words, richer adjectives and sometimes unpronounceable names for the educated characters, she continues to support her theme that education makes a significant difference in the way an African American thinks, acts, dresses, speaks, walks, communicates,

In "Everyday Use," Alice Walker stresses the importance of heritage. She employs various ways to reveal many aspects of heritage that are otherwise hard to be noticed.

In Alice Walker’s classic short story Everyday Use, Walker takes her readers through a yester-year, yet contemporary African American experience in the rural southern America; A dynamic human experience that takes roots in despair, oppression, and resilience. In this first-person narration, our narrator anxiously awaits the arrival of her daughter, but in the meantime, we’re brought along a recollection of rough times of our narrator’s family. Through Mama’s memories, and dialogue with Dee, a theme of cultural conflict is revealed. Mama’s recollection of the past and her dreams reveals to the reader how tough life has been growing in the south. In Mama’s narration, we learned that her education level did not progress past second grade due to

Education, formal and otherwise, can have a drastic effect on a person’s perception of themselves and their heritage. Mama’s eldest daughter Dee has always seen their family in a different light than her youngest daughter Maggie. This is especially apparent after receiving a formal education in college. Alice Walker uses these varied perspectives to examine these competing views and the consequences of each of them. Alice Walker's, “Everyday Use” is a perfect example of how education can affect one’s perception of their way of life.

The short story “Everyday Use” was written by Alice Walker and published in 1973. The story is told in first-person by “Mama,” an African-American woman residing in Georgia. Mama lives in a small but comfortable house with her physically scarred younger daughter, Maggie. Mama is preparing for the visit back home of her eldest daughter, Dee. Dee is educated and driven; however, we come to learn that most of her accomplishments come at the cost of her mother and her sister Maggie. Mama’s relationship with Dee is strained, and this creates conflict later in the story. “Everyday Use” depicts the complications between a mother and daughter’s relationship. The story examines the feelings a mother has when she believes she is not needed anymore or respected. Mama’s feelings towards both daughters are illustrated through two of Mama’s character traits, her low-self-esteem and lack of worldliness. However, because Mama has such a strong character and understanding of her family, she undergoes a significant change in her life, which then makes her into a dynamic character.