Alice Walker

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Alice Walker

This essay will examine the characters in Alice Walker 's short stories Everyday Use , Nineteen Fifty-five , and To Hell With Dying . The characters will be compared and contrasted with one another and the style in which Walker writes will also attribute to these juxtapositions

The essence of Alice Walker 's short story Everyday Use can be found in the past , as is true for each of her other stories . Each character in Everyday Use is in representation of

heritage , therefore the focal point of the story subsists with the quilts and the symbolism behind them The main character , whose point of view the story takes , is that of Mama . She adequately describes herself and her body as a working body not one that hinges upon frail life ventures , but as Walker states

In real life I am a large , big boned woman with rough , man working hands . In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day . I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man . My fat keeps me hot in zero weather . I can work outside all day , breaking ice to get water for washing I can eat pork liver cooked over the open fire minutes after it comes steaming from the hog . One winter I knocked a bull calf straight in the brain between the eyes with a sledge hammer and had the meat hung up to chill before nightfall . But of course all this does not show on television . I am the way my daughter would want me to be : a hundred pounds lighter , my skin like an uncooked barley pancake . My hair glistens in the hot bright lights . Johnny Carson has much to do to keep up with my quick and witty tongue

This self analysis serves to present the reader with how the main character perceives herself . This is significant because in the aspect of cultural heritage , Dee is the offspring of her mother , and yet when she is juxtaposed with her , they are two very different individuals

Dee as a character is representational of progressive heritage . She at one time scolded her past , and her home , and would have danced around the fires of her burning house because she hated it that much . Upon her return from Alabama however , she is embracing (however true her sentiment is ) of her heritage and wants to take almost everything from the house that has a history especially the quilts . This heritage also takes place in Walker 's story Nineteen Fifty-Five in which Gracie Mae is representational of black culture and music and relation which she has with Traynor is one in which two cultures blend together and Traynor 's culture shares in Gracie Mae 's culture through music . However , the contention point in Nineteen Fifty-Five is that Traynor `borrowed Gracie Mae 's song , and made his career from its base , but Gracie Mae doesn 't get to see this...