ipl-logo

Mama In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

377 Words2 Pages

In “Everyday Use” Alice Walker describes the narrator of the story, Mama with strong alliterations, and vivid imagery. Mama is a loving mother plagued by two polar-opposite daughters, Maggie who is a naive yet good-hearted person who wants to maintain the last connection she has with her heritage and Dee who is a selfish and egotistical character with a superficial understanding of her inheritance. Mama’s inner monologue gives us a glimpse of how far she would go to show this unconditional love, and the reasoning behind her rising tension and separation towards Dee. Mama describes herself as a “large, big boned women,” which she is very proud of her manly nature and ability to milk cows and butcher hogs. She is not the average “housewife” and

Show More
Related

  • Late Night Chitlins With Momma Analysis

    771 Words  | 4 Pages

    Audrey Petty uses “Late Night Chitlins with Momma” to express her own close bond with her mother and how it shaped her identity; this is expressed through the narrative style, the diction and syntax, the use of food as a metaphor, and the short story’s structure. Narratively this piece does an incredible job of making the reader feel personally invested in the story. The way Audrey Petty does this is through a multitude of techniques. The point of view is a first person omnipotent, allowing for a closer read to the narrator themselves; the narrative flow is akin to being told the story verbally instead of the traditional 3rd person omnipotence.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Sula And Everyday Use

    587 Words  | 3 Pages

    The authors, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, demonstrates how two women growing up together can lead to different point of views. In both stories, there is a woman – Sula in “Sula” and Dee in “Everyday Use” – returning home to find things the way they left them. Sula and Dee’s lives are considered very unconventional in comparison to their towns and families. In the case of Dee, she changed her name because, “I [She] couldn't bear it any longer, being named after people who oppress me." (Walker 1191)

    Read More

  • Point Of View In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    983 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Essay On Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    830 Words  | 4 Pages

    The oldest daughter, Dee, is an educated young women who redefines her identity and beliefs of her heritage. On the contrary, the youngest daughter, Maggie, leads a traditional lifestyle in the South with her mother and remains faithful to her idea of heritage. The author of the short story, Alice Walker, shares several parallels between her own life and this story. Kathleen Wilson, award winner of the Guggenheim Fellowship

    Read More

  • Motherhood In The Bean Trees By Barbara Kingsolver

    481 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The Bean Trees,” by Barbara Kingsolver, is a novel surrounding the life of Taylor Greer as she travels west while discovering the hardships of motherhood due to raising a three-year-old American Indian child named Turtle. Although Taylor grew up in Kentucky, she travels west to Tucson, Arizona, in which she moves in with Lou Ann and finally embarks on the journey that is her life. It is evident that feminism and womanhood is a central theme throughout this novel, as both Lou Ann and Taylor have to raise children on their own. Another crucial theme seen throughout this novel is transformation which is seen in most, if not, all, of the characters. The relationship between Taylor and Turtle exemplifies the glorious bond between a mother and her daughter, showing how Taylor transformed from once being appalled at the idea of raising Turtle

    Read More

  • Motherhood In The Bean Trees By Barbara Kingsolver

    156 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the novel The Bean Trees by Barbara KIngsolver the symbol/motif of motherhood and why it's unrealistic to expect perfection from mothers is commonly explored with Taylor, Lou Ann and Esperanza, none of who fit the stereotypical vision of a mother. Taylor, who avoided pregnancy her entire life becomes the mother of an indian girl, Lou Ann's husbands abandons her before their child is even born, and Esperanza is forced to leave her child to save the lives of others. Each of them love their children greatly and are willing to put their children before themselves and their outside relationships; Taylor holds back her relationship with Estevan because she sees herself in Esperanza as a mother. Esperanza does not blame Taylor when turtle

    Read More

  • Dee's Identity In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    721 Words  | 3 Pages

    But yet they both sometimes don’t respect their mother. Mama is a gentle women, she always has to be honest with her children. Mama is not an educated women her school closed at the second grade. ” I never had an education myself” (Walker, 316, 13).

    Read More

  • Everyday Use Transformation

    809 Words  | 4 Pages

    Have you ever not seen eye to eye with your mother? In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, we are shown how many of the choices we make and the things we value create our identity. This story focuses on two characters, mama and her daughter Dee (Wangero), who struggle to see the same way about their heritage. Dee wants the things made by her grandmother, to not admire it as an artifact, but rather to remake it. She wants to take them, and change them to match her lifestyle as it is today.

    Read More

  • Themes And Imagery In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    910 Words  | 4 Pages

    The short story, Everyday Use, is written by Alice Walker. This short story tells about the narrator, mama, and her daughter Maggie wait for a visit from Dee, mama’s older daughter. Throughout this short story, the reader can see the distraught relationship between mama and Dee. The reader can see how Dee is different than mama and Maggie; she thinks that she knows way more about her heritage than mama and Maggie, when she really does not. In the short story, Everyday Use, Walker uses imagery, symbolism, and point of view to show that heritage can only be understood when one is true to their roots.

    Read More

  • Literary Elements In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    712 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alice Walker wrote what Mama said about Dee or Wangero, “Dee wanted nice things.” Mama describes Dee as a lavish person who is only interested in herself and her fulfilling’s. Dee had changed her name to show that she is not accepting that a “white person” named her ancestors in way, so it can be passed down. Walker describes Mama as someone who is satisfied with what they have. “I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon,” Walker demonstrates how Mama is pleased with nature where her life takes place in.

    Read More

  • Symbols In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    1338 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the beginning of the story the narrator who is the mom is waiting for her daughter named dee. She waits in the garden with Maggie. She knows that Maggie and dee do not get along. She imagines a big nice family reunion in her head.

    Read More

  • Irony In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    1283 Words  | 6 Pages

    Alice Walker’s Everyday Use (rpt. in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature Sound and Structure 11th ed [Boston: Wadsworth, 2012] 166-173) is a short story told by the mother of two daughters, Mama. The story tells the tale of the return of Mama’s oldest daughter, Dee, and the problems that Dee’s return causes for Mama and her youngest daughter, Maggie. This short story includes humor and irony, displays detailed characterization, and portrays a very effective point of view. These three literary elements contribute to this story by giving insight into the past and the true personalities of the characters, and the way the characters have changed over time.

    Read More

  • Dee's Struggle For Identity In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    271 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” illustrates Dee’s struggle for identity by placing her quest for a new identity against her family’s desire for maintaining culture and heritage. In the beginning, the narrator, who is the mother of Dee, mentions some details about Dee; how she “...wanted nice things… She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts… At sixteen, she had a style of her own: and (she) knew what style was.” Providing evidence to the thesis, she was obviously trying exceptionally hard to find for herself a sense of identity. She wanted items her family couldn’t afford, so she worked hard to gain these, and she found a sense of identity from them, but it also pushed her farther away from her family.

    Read More

  • Everyday Use By Alice Walker: Literary Analysis

    333 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Womanism In Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'

    1029 Words  | 5 Pages

    And, womanism here represented through Mama, calls for a critical relatedness to the heritage. The narrative articulates the shallowness of Dee’s

    Read More

More about Mama In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Open Document