A Comparison Of 'Girl And Everyday Use'

The story 'Everyday Use', written by Alice Walker, is a story of heritage, pride, and learning what kind of person you really are. In the exposition, the story opens with background information about Dee and Maggie's life, which is being told by Mama. The reader learns that Dee was the type of child that had received everything that she wanted, while Maggie was the complete opposite. The crisis, which occurs later in the story, happens when Dee all of a sudden comes home a different person than she was when she left. During the Climax, Mama realizes that she has often neglected her other child, Maggie, by always giving Dee what she wants. Therefore, in the resolution, Mama defends Maggie by telling Dee that she cannot have the

In “everyday Use,” Alice Walker tells a narrative of a mother’s frustrating relationship together with her two daughters. At this facet, “,Everyday Use”, tells that how a mom little by little refuses the cursory values of her older, successful daughter at the aspect of the useful values of her younger, much less lucky daughter. On a deeper outlook, Alice Walker takes on the theme of heritage and its norms as it applies to African-Americans.

In the short story Everyday Use, by Alice Walker, the short story is narrated by a black woman in the South who is faced with the decision to give away two quilts to one of her two daughters. Dee, her oldest daughter who is visiting from college, perceives the quilts as popular fashion and believes they should undoubtedly be given to her. Maggie, her youngest daughter, who still lives at home and understands the family heritage, has been promised the quilts. Dee is insistent to possess these heirlooms of family heritage, while Maggie is forbearing in allowing Mama to make her own decision as to who should receive the quilts. Dee shows a lack of appreciation, disrespect, and a distancing behavior towards her mother and sister. Mama

Alice Walker sets "Everyday Use" as a story of a mother and two daughters where the older daughter, Dee, is coming home to visit them after being away for a while. Walker sets the tone of the story by displaying how poor and uneducated the family is and how Dee while growing up was always looking for better things never appreciating the aspects of her life. As the story develops, the focus of the story is on a set of quilts made by the mother from pieces of clothing that belonged to her grandparents and the personal battle of who should really keep them in order to appreciate the heritage behind them. In "Everyday Use" a person can see how Maggie and Dee differ on the fact that heritage is a characteristic of pride that a person displays every day of their life versus a fad for a specific period of someone's life.

In "Girl," the mother provides instruction to her daughter on how to live life responsibly and run a home. She also attempts to educate, in a loving manner, morality, attempting to prepare her daughter to become an independent, self-sufficient woman and to avoid a promiscuous life. She seems to believe that her daughter is headed in that direction and that it is something that the daughter desires. The mother makes that clear when she states, "on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming" (Kincaid). The mother seems to be aware of what can happen, either by her own experience or just general awareness and is genuinely attempting to help avoid that lifestyle for her daughter. In "Everyday Use," by Alice

In the story “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker, the plot is greatly influenced by Maggie and Dee, the two daughters of the narrator. The sisters have been raised together and grew up in the same environment all their lives, but they are very two different women. They think and act distinctly. Moreover, their conflicting characters serve as symbols to convey the overall theme of the story. In the beginning of the story, the narrator makes it clear that the girls have differences, which makes it difficult to find similarities. But we do know the girls both wanted to make their mother proud. The girls appreciate their traditions, roots, and their background in different ways. Apart

“Everyday Use” is described by, Mama, who defines herself as “a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands.” She has enjoyed a rugged farming life in the country and now lives in a small, tin-roofed house surrounded by a clay yard in the middle of a cow pasture.(494) She anticipates that soon her daughter Maggie will be married and she will be living peacefully alone. Mama decides that she will wait in her humble yard for her daughter Dee’s arrival. Mama knows that her other daughter, Maggie, will be nervous throughout Dee’s stay, self-conscious of her scars and burn marks and Mama remembers the house fire that happened more than a decade ago, when she carried Maggie, badly burned, out of the house, and Maggie still lives with the jealousy of Dee’s much easier life. Dee watched the flames engulf the house she despised. Mama fantasizes about reunion scenes on television programs in which a successful daughter embraces the parents who have made her success possible, and Mama remembers the struggles of what it took to get Dee to where she is today.

Walker’s “Everyday Use” takes place in a village in southern United States. The mother and her daughter, Maggie, unexpectedly met her other daughter, Dee, who left home for a long time. When Dee returned, it was not to visit her mother and sister, but to ask for some family’s ancestral items such as two special quilts. Eventually, the mother saw through Dee’s vanity and refused to give them to her. After Dee went away, the mother and Maggie went back to the peaceful life they used to live. This story happened in the 70s, it was the peak point of the Civil Rights movement in the United states in 1973. At that point, African-Americans fought for racial equality and abandoned some aspects of their bad African-American culture. Many African-Americans like Dee went back to find their African cultural roots. However, some African-Americans despited of this movement, and chose not to rediscover and practice their ancient African culture such as the mother and Maggie, because they were keep their African-American traditions alive. The author uses direct and indirect presentation, epiphany and conflict to show readers the inheritance of African-American old culture should focus on it’s connotation, and put it into everyday life.

Growing up I was raised within a culture, following rituals performed by those before me. As an individual, I pictured and experienced my heritage in different ways. Within my family, traditions were served to enhance our natural heritage. Sometimes in my longing to know more of my heritage, I sometimes disallowed myself the genuine experience of my family tradition. With this I sometimes fight with easiness and complexity, old ways and the new ways of my heritage. Everyday Use by Alice Walker was published in 1973; it tells the story of Dee a young girl struggling to find her on heritage. For her, it was about fighting for a change and changing the lives of others who were okay with the way things were. Mama, the narrator, is a loyal and caring

“Everyday Use” is about a two daughters that were both raised by the same Mother yet view valuable family possessions very differently. At first I was a bit disappointed with how slow the story was going, but things later picked up towards the middle of the story.

The short story of “Everyday Use” was written by Alice Walker. Mrs. Johnson is the narrator of the story. In this petite narrative, Mrs. Johnson and her youngest daughter Maggie get a visit from her oldest daughter Dee who graduates from college and Mrs. Johnson and Maggie both bear witness to Dee’s change. As Dee is trying to embrace the modern culture in the twentieth century. Thus, in Alice Walker’s story, Mrs. Johnson’s perspective changes at the end, at first favoring Dee and eventually favoring Maggie instead.

Society is often seen to have different biases or perspectives on topics such as the role and perception of women. The short story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, consists primarily of a catalog of commands and instructions, the purpose of which is to make sure that the mother’s daughter is constantly in check and not getting into any trouble. Jamaica Kincaid utilizes a wide range of techniques such as symbolism and diction in order to showcase the theme of how the depiction of women rely mainly on how they present themselves in the public and how they are so easily described as impure or filthy.

Standing up for what is right is not an easy task, but it is necessary to protect those who can not defend themselves. “Everyday Use” is about Mama and her decision to choose sentimental values over materialism. Dee is the educated yet selfish sister of Maggie, who is self conscious and withdrawn because she had been scarred by a house fire. After a very long time, Dee returns to her home in search of materialistic goods so that she can preserve her family’s heritage by turning their culture into a commodity. Dee believes that possessing items with traditional value will allow her to understand her cultural heritage, and this symbolizes her misconception of viewing heritage as a material entity. However, Mama and Maggie clearly defines family and cultural heritage through their knowledge of everyday traditional practices, such as churning butter and quilting. Maggie and Dee are sisters, but they are like the two ends of a stick. Although they have been brought up in the same home and raised by the same mother, this is as far as their similarities

Although the story "Everyday Use" is narrated from Mama's point of view, Alice Walker reveals Dee, Mama's eldest daughter, to be the central character. Dee remains essentially unchanged throughout the story. Even though Dee achieves her aim by overcoming complications such as poverty and racial discrimination, she is not admirable for her achievements and courage. Walker describes her to be selfish and self-centered, a woman who remains unchanged from her childhood to the current position after several years. The disregard for her sister's pain, ingratitude for the money raised for her education, and the desire for quilts indicates her static behavior.

First of all, the story “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker, would be told differently if told by Dee. Dee is a very upfront person she tells people what she thinks and what she believes to be true about certain things. Momma and Maggie believe that Dee does not have any friends, because she never brings them to the house. Dee would say that she does have friends she just simply does not want her friends to see her Mother’s house. Dee remembers when her old house burnt down, she never is going to forget that experience of her house burning down. Dee wants everything if she sees something she will try to get it no matter what. In the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker Dee wants the quilts that her grandma made. Momma and Dee where arguing about