Alice Walker Sociology

Alice Walker used her writing to convey a message to African Americans. She used her character to show that although one might try to remove himself or herself from a race they will always be connected to it. The situation Dee is going through is generational issue for African Americans. They are always on a constant search to find their place in this world. Walker exemplifies this in

Family conflicts Maggie and Mama have family conflicts with Dee. They have conflicts with her about heritage. Dee thinks she is better than them at everything. She always wants to prove that her life is far more better than theirs. Dee says the even her heritage is old fashioned like for example, the quilts, and the Churn top. Now Mama tries to tell Dee that it doesn’t matter how it looks but its what’s left behind that count, or course Dee doesn’t listen at all. One of the major conflicts in the story was the quilts. Dee wants to have the quilts that Mama promised Maggie she’ll have when she marries John Thomas. Dee tells mama that Maggie will do wrong with them by tearing them up and that what she’ll hang them as decoration. Maggie is currently

In Alice Walker’s, Nineteen Fifty-Five, a young white singer, Traynor, acquires song rights from an African American rhythm and blues singer, Gracie Mae. The song makes Traynor rich and famous. Obsessed with finding out the song’s meaning, Traynor remains in contact with Gracie Mae through letters, gifts, and visits. The conflict of the story is in Traynor’s inability to ascertain the meaning of the song. Traynor eventually passes away, without ever resolving the conflict.

In her short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker focuses on a rural family and their different interpretations of the African- American heritage. The story begins when Dee, the educated older daughter, comes to visit her Mama and younger sister, Maggie. The two sisters are completely different physically, mentally, and emotionally. Dee lives an educated and financially stable life with her boyfriend in the city, away from her family; while, Maggie lives an uneducated and poor life at home with her mother. Some may argue that there is no difference between Dee and Maggie’s Interpretations; however, Alice Walker uses characterization and different types of symbolism in her short story to show the difference between Dee and Maggie’s interpretations

“ Some of these early productions have racial themes which reorganize the world in such a way that black heritage is rewarded over white paternity; they are schematic renunciations of the prevailing order of things in white American society where, historically, the discovery of black blood meant sudden reversal of fortune, social exclusion, or banishment.” (Gaines, P.3) Within the movie the amount of mistruths about African Americans was sad. Within the movie you notice that the blacks were always or seem to be yelling, acting uncivilized and doing

Walkers essay is great of getting her audience to reminisce on the past by describing some childhood memories of life on the farm with the use of her beautiful language to share an image in Walkers memory.

In “Everyday Use”, Alice Walker presents an everyday average family which involves a single mother with two daughters, one who seems to have life handed to her, and the other who is shy and lacks confidence in herself due to a family tragedy. Alice Walker gives some interesting stories behind each of her main characters: Mrs. Johnson, Dee (Wangero), Maggie, and Hakim Akbar (Asalamalakim). Among the characters in the story, Mrs. Johnson stands out because she loves her daughters equally, she accepts them both, and she overcomes her conflict with Dee.

     Alice Walker is an African American essayist, novelist and poet. She is described as a “black feminist.”(Ten on Ten) Alice Walker tries to incorporate the concepts of her heritage that are absent into her essays; such things as how women should be independent and find their special talent or art to make their life better. Throughout Walker’s essay entitled “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” I determined there were three factors that aided Walker gain the concepts of her heritage which are through artistic ability, her foremothers and artistic models.

Martha Grimes is an award winning mystery and British detective story writer. She was born on May 2, 1931 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When her father passed away when she was a young child, her mother packed everything up and Martha Grimes, her brother, and mother all moved to Maryland. In Maryland Martha Grimes’ mother owned a hotel where her and her brother would spend their summers. The memory of her brother’s shows in the garage behind the hotel and her mother’s cooking stick with her to this day. As she grew older she had a growing interest in England and Britain. Not only did she admire the two, but she can also be described as an Anglophile. An Anglophile is a person who has strong positive feelings about England or Britain.

“Pop culture shapes our ideas of what is normal and what our dreams can be and what our roles are […]” quoted by Gloria Steinem. Culture has a great influence on the way people view the world and others as seen in the stories By any other name by Santha Rama Rau, Everyday Use by Alice Walker, and Two Kinds by Amy Tan.

Dee’s ashamedness towards her family’s lifestyle never fully allowed her to create a proper or healthy relationship with her culture or family members. It was Dee’s sense of having the “upper hand” that hindered the forming of healthy relationships between she, her mother and sister. Mama stated, “Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in the corners and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe” (315). Throughout the story, it was evident that Maggie feared Dee because she knew she had always been seen as inferior in the eyes of her sister, and Maggie was afraid of Dee’s disdain for her. On top of Dee’s establishing herself superior, she also seemed to always get what she wanted, which made Maggie even more distant from her

The American voice consists of all the oppressed people who have translated their emotions into writing. Historical events such as: The Civil War, The Great Depression, and World War I are some events that have facilitated the American voice. Robert Frost, Alice Walker, and Emily Dickinson are not just generic authors and poets; they have contributed to what we call the American voice through their works. Alice Walker was one of America’s most inspirational writers from her book The Color Purple by exemplifying the importance of women’s rights, civil rights, and domestic violence.

In the light of, the director makes good points through the whole movie about what they went through. I like this movie because it gives me more information of the people who were involved or who were there during that time. Like, Ann Lee Coper (Oprah Winfrey), Martin Luther King (David Oyelowo), and the rest of the people who help fight for African Americans to be able to vote. The movie also shows the difficult and the happy time they went through. Even the problems with their family. No matter what’s going on, they were still focus and full invested in having freedom. What I learned from this movie was that they did not let all the obstacles of what they went through mess up their main goal because of that I am able to take those lesson for my

The idea of racism and equality in society has been a salient one dating back to early days of civilization. One of the most important pushes for this idea of equality was the Black Power Movement. Dating back to the mid-1900’s this movement is defined as one that provided a political and social movement whose advocates believed in racial pride, self-sufficiency, and equality for all people of Black and African descent. In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “Sonny Blues” by James Baldwin multiple characters are presented within this Black Power Movement having various reactions to it. More specifically Sonny from “Sonny Blues”, definitely embraces the idea of social and racial pride through the idea of music, although it may not bein the healthiest of ways. Dee from “Everyday Use”, embraces her racial pride also, but more important is her self-sufficient views of herself in relation to her culture and equality. Sonny uses this movement as the scapegoat for his life struggles. He struggles with his past and now current drug problems and uses the music as a safe haven in times where a black man from Harlem, New York is already viewed as unacceptable. Dee is very similar in the sense that she uses the Black Power Movement as an excuse for her actions. At a time when it’s viewed socially acceptable by your peers to embrace your race to the fullest Dee does so very arrogantly. The settings of these two stories along with the Black Power Movement create a tension between families

   The human mind is divided into three parts that make up the mind as a whole. These parts are necessary to have a complete mind, just as the members of a family are needed to make up the entire family. The use of components to equal a whole is often exercised in literature. Alice Walker's short story, "Everyday Use," contains the idea of family and of the mind, therefore her work can be evaluated through psychological methods. Through their actions, the characters symbolize the three different parts of the mind: the id, the ego, and the superego.