Analysis Of The Book ' Everyday Use '

Tuten shows her readers that what Dee wants is superficial and that Maggie has a better understanding of heritage. Susan Farrell states in her article that in the story, Mama’s views of Maggie are not accurate. She makes the point that perhaps Mama’s views of Dee are not accurate either, because the story is told from Mama point of view and we never hear Dee’s side of the story (179). Farrell believes that Mama views Dee as a sort of goddess, she may even envy her. Susan states that, “Dee inspires in Mama a type of awe and fear more suitable to the advent of a goddess that the love one might expect a mother to feel for a returning daughter” (180). Later in the article, Farrell makes the point that what Mama’s thinks Dee wants may not actually be what she wants. This could just be a perception of what Dee wants. Farrell also points out other instances in the story that shows Dees actions contradicting Mama’s thoughts.

Momma's point of view defines how she feels about her daughters and the degrees of separation that exist between the two girls. Momma describes Maggie as a partially educated child who does not look as appealing as her older sister. Maggie was burned in a house fire that left her scared all over her body. She does not wear revealing clothes, nor does she attract men as Dee does. Dee, on the other hand, is described as an educated young woman who is ready to take on any and every adventure. Momma says that Dee used to read to her and Maggie without pity (94). She describes Dee as the stylish child; she always prepared dresses out of momma's old suits and is always up on the current style. Momma likes the different qualities Dee possesses, but she is slightly threatened because they are unfamiliar to her. From the description that momma gives of her daughters the reader can feel the differences that exist in her thoughts about her daughters.

Dee sets impossible standards for her mother, causing Mama to feel inferior. Dee forces Mama to be the way Dee would

While Maggie was a very shy person who loved her mother and liked their way of living and didn't wanted to travel away like Dee did. Mama was an uneducated woman but was confident about herself and liked her way of living and she looked about herself as a hero that she was very poor but she was able to well educate her children and to make them not to be like her and she was tough person who worked anything to get money for her children just to make them better than her and well

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.

I believe that the short story clearly presents the stereotypes of rural Black women, and the challenges and struggles that African women faced with regard to heritage, personal fulfillment, and family relations as the past collided with the present realities. The concepts of family and Black women within this short story are highlighted by the fact that the three main characters among who the story revolves are all Black women and members of the same family. The clash of the past and future, personal fulfilment, heritage struggles, and the stereotyping of rural Black women is visible in the clear contrast of attitudes and ambitions of Dee and her boyfriend, who represent the future, and mama and her daughter Maggie, who in this case embody the past.

The character of Mama in the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker endures through intense times and takes advantage of what she has. She is a lady that tells things how they are, only plain truth. She can be entertaining now and again and intense at others. She is self-portrayed as “a large, huge boned, women with rough, man-working

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.

Dee could probably be considered a main character in the story, but her change was too simple, because she changed on the outside only, and because she didn?t change on the day that the story occured. Mama stated ?When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the souls of my feet. Just like when I?m in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout? (94). Maggie did not have a lot of input in the story although she did change a little, both were flat characters. Mama is a more in-depth character than Dee and Maggie because the reader is given very descriptive attributes of her physically and mentally. Dee did not want to quilt to remember her heritage by, but instead to hang it up on the wall like some sort of trophy to show others where she has come from. She loves her family very much, but is ashamed of the surroundings she grew up in. Overall, Mama?s change had a big impact on the story due to the fact that she went from a woman who had low self esteem and was scared to

The examination of black women's need to keep their powerful heritage and identity is important to the protagonist in “Everyday Use.” Walker uses the mother’s voice to show the trials and tribulations of a small African American family located in the South. She speaks on multiple levels, voicing the necessity and strength of being true to one's roots and past; that heritage is not just something to talk about, but to live and enjoy in order for someone to fully understand themselves. Unlike Kincaid, Walker gives her black female character’s an identity of their own, each in their own right, and observes the internal conflicts of each mother and daughters struggle with identity. The mother represents a simple content way of life where identity and heritage are valued for both its usefulness, as well as its personal significance. In order to illustrate how the mother viewed identity versus her daughters, Walker quickly acknowledges that the mother has inherited many customs and traditions from her ancestors. She describes herself as a large big-boned woman with rough man-working hands (485). She also describes here various abilities including, killing and cleaning a hog as mercilessly as a man. Being able to work hard and not care about being such a lady, is how the mother defines identity at this point. On the other hand, the two daughters each have opposing views on the value and worth of the different items

Alice Walker’s text is in fact a short story that can be portrayed as central to the event being described, however, many prominent scholars have begun to make the argument that this text was not so much a story about a small family, but rather a reflection of the African American culture and the ways in which the ideas of heritage have been warped during the strive for liberty. “One begins to see how the fashionable politics espoused by the central character of Walker’s story becomes the foil to an authorial vision of the African American community, past and present, and its struggle for liberation.” (Cowart) Alice Walker ’s text is a very clear depiction of the ways in which the younger generation of the African American culture has completely misinterpreted the idea of heritage. Dee is this way with her own mother, as is depicted in the very last scene.

When Mama was a little girl, her school got closed down and never reopened. She had only gotten up to a second grade level. So that left for Maggie or Dee to read to her. Maggie could not read really well, but all that changed. One of her daughters had to chance of a lifetime for a black woman back in the 1920s to get an education.

Mama is a downhome country woman who loves her children dearly. Her house burned down, leaving her younger daughter, Maggie, burned and scared. Mama is a strong, independent, and capable character. She faces her snobbishly rude daughter, Dee, which would clearly hurt many mothers. Mama does anything she can to make her two daughters happy. She sends her eldest daughter to Augusta for school which comes with many sacrifices. She defends Maggie and shows her love despite her sacrifices for her other daughter. Dee wants a quilt handmade by her grandmother and that quilt is meant for Maggie to bring into her future marriage. She is a just person, she knows what is right or wrong, especially when it comes to her daughters. Mama is a realistic person, she knows what can and cannot be done easily. She is open-minded and welcoming to Dee’s new characteristics and beliefs, including her new given

As the story begins, Walker introduces “Mama”. She, the narrator of the story, describes herself as a “large, big-boned woman with rough, man working hands”

There are two very different settings in Gloria Naylor’s “Mama Day”. Both settings happen to be characterized by the ideas and culture of the people who inhabit the different places, both being located in America. Throughout “Mama Day” Naylor tells a story of two African Americans, that are in love, from different backgrounds. Cocoa who was born in Willow Springs, an island that is not considered part of the United States and that is not part of South Carolina nor Georgia, was raised by two female figures and George, an orphan who grew up in a program controlled by whites. As Naylor tells the story of the relationship between the two characters, the reader begins to realize the issue of maintaining the identity of African Americans. In Gloria