Topic: Analysis Essay On Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Type of paper:	Essay
Subject area:	American Literature
Academic level:	College
Style:	MLA
Size:	30.0 kB
Word count:	1068
Mark awarded:
Date submitted:	2010-01-06 05:02:05
Rating/Votes count:	n/a

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Tags:

world, use, literature, heritage, alice, walker, everyday, Maggie, Celie

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People value their cultural heritage in different ways . Some are proud
of who they are and where they come from . Others hide with shame their
origins and native culture . In order to fit in , some people pretend they
belong to a certain cultural group - usually the majority group in the
society they live in - when , in reality , they descended from another .
Still others , in order not to deny their cultural heritage , promote it
in a way that would generate acceptance among others like glossing over
the unattractive traits and customs of their people . Alice Walker 's
short story , Everyday Use , shows two differing ways by which
African-Americans view their cultural heritage through the characters of
Mrs . Johnson and her daughter , Dee .
The story is narrated in the first-person by Mrs . Johnson who describes
herself as a ``large big-boned woman with rough , man working hands .can
kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man .work outside all day (Walker ' She is uneducated , having finished second grade only . She is
hard-working and made tough by a tougher life growing up at a time when
civil rights and emancipation were new concepts and American society was
yet struggling to come to terms with the idea of equal treatment between
the races . Even long after segregation has been abolished , Mrs . Johnson
has not learned to embrace it fully . She could not even imagine herself
``looking a straight white man in the eye (Walker ' Borne out of habit
and her own sense of history , the white man for Mrs . Johnson and others
like her , is someone you treat with deference or secret hatred .
Mrs . Johnson has two daughters . Maggie is a very shy girl . Her mother
describes her walk as that of a ``lame animal sidling up to someone who
is ignorant enough to be kind to him (Walker ' She is not intelligent
like the other sister , not as ambitious , and her future is laid out for
her . She will , like her mother , marry a childhood friend and be a good
wife and mother . She has lived with her mother all her life , influenced
by her attitude and way of thinking . Maggie would eventually become her
mother in a few years .
Dee , Mrs . Johnson 's other daughter , is the women . She is modern , educated , confident , and believes herself to be a
progressive thinker in terms of her African-American heritage . She had
the intelligence , ambition and potential that , even in childhood ,
separated her from the rest in the neighborhood and her family . Growing
up , ``she wanted nice things (Walker . As a grown-up she had changed
her name to something more African-sounding . She also wears clothes in
loud colors as most Africans do .
The conflict in the story ensues when the differing values of Mrs .
Johnson and Dee clash one day when Dee comes for a visit to get the
churn top , dasher and a quilt her great grandmother made . She asks these
things from her mother because she is going...

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