No matter what type of background you have come from everyone has a view on the world. Today we’ll be looking at 2 short stories and a movie such as Everyday Use, An Indian Father’s Plea and Bend it Like Beckham. Through these stories I’ll show you how one's culture informs the way one views the world and others most of the time. In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, Maggie is heavily influenced by her culture and the way she views others. Since, Maggie has been under her mother’s protection for most of her life she has acquired a lifetime skill of quilting, which has been past down from generation from generation. So when Dee/Wangero demands to obtain the quilts made by her grandmother in that instance Maggie realized that she will be more connected to her heritage than her older sister will every be. "She can have them, Mama," Maggie said, like …show more content…
For instance, when Jess dad lets her go play soccer to get it out of her system and her mom goes nuts. “She shouldn't be running around with all these men showing her bare legs to 70,000 people! She's bringing shame on the family. And you three shouldn't encourage her! Jesminder, you get back home now!” Her mom is very traditional and wants to keep her daugher by the book but doesn’t want to accept her daughter being happy. Another example is her sister Pinky, who is heavily influenced by her mother when she talks to Jess. “Well, you make sure it doesn't, all right? Look Jess, you can marry anyone you want. It's fine at first when you're in love and all that but do you really want to be the one that everyone stares at every family do because you married the English bloke?” Basically saying that you can be happy but is it really going to be with a white
They both don’t want to believe that their moms would ever leave them in very similar
Josie doesn’t like the fact that her mother won’t stick up for herself against her
Culture plays a large role on how someone views others and the world. Some things that can affect some one’s perspective are their childhood, past experiences, and their ethnic background. In “An Indian Father’s Plea” by Robert Lake, Wind-Wolf’s father, Medicine Grizzly Bear, explains why his child isn’t a slow learner, and that he is just different from the other children in an educational way. He say’s this because his son has been taught differently than the other children- because of his Indian culture.
The point of view in the story “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker plays a big part. Throughout the story, one of Mama’s daughters came to visit. The way Mama and Maggie see her is not in a very pleasant way. In fact, they are scared to tell her no when it comes to anything. From Mama’s perspective Dee seems like this rude, stuck up, spoiled child because she had the opportunity to go out and expand her education, while Mama and Maggie continued to live their lives on the farm.
After Wangero asks for the quilts for the first time, Mama shares that she promised to give them to Maggie at her wedding. Upset by this response, Wangero quickly attempts to convince her mother that Maggie isn't worthy of having the quilts. In paragraph 12, Wangero claims “maggie can't appreciate the quilts” and “She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.” She was trying to appeal to her mother's love and attachment to the quilts. She wanted to explain to her mother that if she gave maggie the quilts, they would get ruined so instead she should let Wangero have them so they could be preserved.
"Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" she said. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use." ( 351). Dee feels her younger sister's intention of the use of the quilts is not as important as hers.
"She 'd probably be backwards enough to put them to everyday use" (320). Dee thinks Maggie would be dumb to keep the quilts for “everyday use”. Also, she figured her family did not know their own heritage. Dee feels as though her sister should “make something of” herself. She states, “It’s really a new day for us” to show that Maggie needs to see a greater amount of the world.
The comparison of characters is something an author allows us to do while reading a story, by telling us about the characters’ looks, their personalities, their lifestyles, and also the traits that may describe a character. “Everyday Use” written by Alice Walker, two characters named Maggie and Dee had a few things in common and many differences from each other. The characters Maggie and Dee, also known as “Wanergo,” are sisters who compete on who inherits the family heirlooms. The story is told from the mother’s (Mama’s) point of view.
The family leads a hard working, simple and minimalistic life that allows them just enough to get by. Mama is described as a “large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands” (Walker 418). Her day to day life doesn’t allow for the high standards of her eldest daughter Dee. Dee is described by Mama as being unappreciative and bratty. Mama makes is clear that the family’s socioeconomic status would never be good enough for the eldest daughter.
With determined ambitions and education resulted in a lack of sensibility in heritage, history, and self identity, which only family can implement. Dee presents herself almost as a weird, intimidating individual foreign to what her family has ever known. The conflict that Mama and Maggie are confronted with is that Dee is does not care about anything but herself. When being rejected to have possession of the quilts Dee stated “But they’re priceless! She was saying now, furiously; for she has a temper.”.
“Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She said. “she’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.” (walker). This shows that dee really wants the quilts but not for the reason her mother wants.
In the short story Mama states: “Dee… at age sixteen had a style of her own: and knew what tyle was.” pg. 105. Dee knew what fashion was and wanted to pursue a career in the industry. On the other hand, we have Maggie.
Alice Walker was a social activist, born in 1944. She is very popular for her novel “The Color Purple” that was published in 1982. Before that, she wrote “Everyday Use” in 1973. It is a short story about a family that branches out in their own way throughout the years. She shows us that the daughters were being directed into two different pathways.
A relationship between a mother and a daughter is very difficult to maintain. In the story of "Everyday Use", Mama tells her story of her two different daughters. She explains the dissimilarity of Dee, the oldest daughter who is in college and Maggie, the daughter who remains at home. She tells the story of her two daughters while waiting for Dee 's arrival from college. She describes how different they are and in their storytelling, you can tell their differences.
“Everyday Use” is one of the most popular stories by Alice Walker. The issue that this story raises is very pertinent from ‘womanist’ perspective. The term, in its broader sense, designates a culture specific form of woman-referred policy and theory. ‘womanism’ may be defined as a strand within ‘black feminism’. As against womansim, feminist movement of the day was predominately white-centric.