Everyday Use Dee Johnson Character Analysis

Maggie is a static character. She is shy and timid and remains that way throughout the entire story. Her motivation in the story is wanting to have the same opportunities or lifestyle as her sister. Maggie is a round character because she is affected by her environment. Maggie is jealous of her sister-She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand , that “no” is a world the world never learned to stay to her.

While as informed by the author Beloved has no good intentions but only to cause Sethe pain, Seth can’t because she is blinded by her aim to make it up “to her daughter.” Blinded by her love for her daughter, Sethe continually shares information about her past with Beloved which ultimately serves as a catalyst for the materialization of unpleasant memories she had lived to suppress. While Denver, Sethe’s child relates well with Beloved under the impression that she is creating a bond with her, she is oblivious to the fact that beloved is using that opportunity to make her mother suffer and destroy her. Through highlighting the experiences of these characters at this point, Morrison sets out to use the trauma theory to show the implications of trauma and the actions people result to to go through their experiences. In this case, the author shows guilt as an outcome of trauma and how Sethe blinded by her guilt gets exploited and even at some time her pain get intentionally added. Informed by the insights of the trauma theory, the author shows the far-reaching implications of trauma where in the case of the characters, they become reckless and oblivious even in situations where other people seek to abuse and cause them harm (Kreyling

After all, she represents the scarlet letter: wild, passionate, and completely oblivious to the rules, mores, and legal statutes of the time. “But again Hawthorne, by connecting the above moral platitude and by portraying the elf child not as treacly little paragon- like little Eva- but rather as a goad as much as a comfort to her mother elevates the emotional tone of the situation so that it is hardly recognizable.”(William 3). Pearls had a individualistic passionate innocence. Hawthorne presents hypocrisy with forgiveness. Peal does not see her mother as a sinner because she has been isolated by puritan society and as a result does not have the same beliefs.

Thus, unlike the characters around her, such as the sneaky minister or the greedy lovers, Hester is the one character who lives by reality instead of appearance. The best example of this is her lifestyle before and after she is shunned. Before her exile, Hester recognizes the unjust nature of the laws around her. She refuses to follow them and present a façade of perfection and happiness. When Dimmesdale demands that she name her baby’s father and promises that her sentence will be lightened as a reward, Hester steadfastly refuses (Hawthorne, 1850).

Which leads to the debate between Dee’s superficial and true heritage that is displayed through Mama and Maggie. In the process of trying to find her identity Dee deceived Mama and their heritage. Even though one can be granted with an envious life they can often be seen as ungrateful and selfish based on their attitude and personality. Although Dee is beautiful, had a good education, and nice clothes she never appreciated

In the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, a change in her daughter, Dee, causes Mama to grow a new appreciation for her often overshadowed daughter, Maggie. While Dee has returned to her home more educated, she has become ignorant to who she really is, causing a change in the attitudes of the characters towards each other. The new background that Dee has created for herself presents a sense of irony as her rise in education has resulted in her loss of knowledge about the world that she grew up in. After Mama refuses to allow Dee to take her grandmother’s old quilts because she promised them to Maggie, Dee claims that “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts... She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use” (926). From the

Any person who has been away from home will know the feeling of coming home and having a mother waiting. Even as she is waiting for Dee, her brain is still on her other daughter who is home and who is emotionally distraught. She seems to be brutal in her assessment of her daughters, but one gets the feeling that it is out of love. For example, she says that Dee has become ungrateful and uppity since she got her new life. She however daydreams of the day they will meet on a talk show, and her daughter will thank her.

Like above, Juliet is clearly unsatisfied by the undertakings of her parents, as a result of the feud. Although, this time she sees the fear in defying her fate, but disregarded it. “That is renowned for faith? Be fickle, Fortune.” (3.5.62). She then calls fortune, the undertakings of the feud, fickle and vows to oppose it.

To many people this personality would not come off as appealing, but Gatsby had fallen in love with Daisy, her uncaring personality had not bothered him, it was just something she could use to help herself get ahead in life. Like her husband Tom, they both cared about what was best for themselves. And poor Gatsby may have never mattered to Daisy at all. Thought of in harsh ways, “She’s a woman of ‘Vicious emptiness’ of ‘Criminal Amorality,’ a ‘destroyer’ and ‘femme redeemer.’” (The Problem With The

For Edna Pontellier, however, this is alien and she even despises the seeming domestic harmony of the Ratignolles: It was not a condition of life which ñtted her, and she could see in it but an appalling and hopeless ennui. She was moved by a kind of commiserau 'on for Madame Ratignolle,-a pity for that colorless existence which never upliftecl its possessor beyond the region of blind contentment, in which no moment of anguish ever visited her soul, in which she would never have the taste of life’s delirium 107). Edna thinks there has to be something more, something better in life than sacrificing one’s whole life to the service of others-even though she only “vaguely wondered what she neighborhood gossip” with “an animation and earnestness that gave an exaggerated importance to every syllable he uttered” (p.