Everyday Use Literary Analysis Essay - 1306 Words

Mother vs. Daughter In the short story called â€Å"Everyday Use,† by Alice Walker, the mother daughter conflict theme is portrayed throughout the whole story. The oldest daughter Dee constantly believes that she is better than the rest of the family causing a family feud about who gets the cherished quilt. Dee has always been on a pedestal over her family and she soon finds out that it is no longer the case. Once she finds this out conflict arises. The biggest conflict lies between Mama and Dee. This is clearly illustrated by Dee’s high standards, selfish behavior, and lack of knowledge about her family’s heritage. Dee sets impossible standards for her mother, causing Mama to feel inferior. Dee forces Mama to be the way Dee would†¦show more content†¦In Dee’s eyes the pasture that her Mama lives in is not comparable to her fast pace high style world. This caused her to not even bring her friends over to their house (Walker 290). Her frien ds even put her on a pedestal, just like Mama. â€Å"They were nervous girls who never laughed. They were impressed with Dee they worshiped the well-turned phrase, the cute shape, and scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in lye† (Walker 290). This description of how Dee’s friends view her is told by Mama. This is another example of how Mama puts Dee on an unneeded pedestal. She describes her as some kind of God that her friends worship. In reality, it is Mama worshipping Dee. Dee’s selfishness is also portrayed by her cultured verbal skills. Dee can talk her way through anything. Dee often manipulates others with her verbal skills. This is shown when she reads to her mother and sister â€Å"without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice† (Walker 289). This statement further demonstrates the fact that Dee’s family feels inferior to her. Mama describe s the situation as if Dee has some kind of power over her family because she is scholarly and her family is not. Dee uses her education to make Mama and Maggie feel less important without, necessarily meaning to. Critic, Nancy Tuten believes that Mama does not like the fact that Dee bosses her and Maggie around.Show MoreRelatedEveryday Use Literary Analysis1021 Words   |  5 PagesEveryday Use Literary Analysis Alice Walker’s â€Å"Everyday Use† is a short, yet powerful story about a simple, rural family that’s changed with the return of one of the daughters. Maggie and â€Å"Mama† continue to keep the tradition of a simple and hardworking life that seems to be passed down from generations, but we see that Dee has been a black sheep since a young age and holds resentment toward her family because of their lifestyle. Mama was raised into this lifestyle and has become satisfied andRead MoreLiterary Analysis Of Everyday Use By Alice Walker1083 Words   |  5 PagesUse (Literary analysis on Everyday Use by Alice Walker) Everyday many people use the same things such as phones, cars, sinks, washer, refrigerators, and etc. In 100 years would you can future ancestors still have those things but only use them as decoration or use them still no matter how old they are because that is what they are made for? Everyday Use by Alice walker is a story of an African American family that had two daughter that live a very different reality. Maggie being scarred from aRead MoreLiterary Analysis Of Everyday Use By Alice Walker771 Words   |  4 Pages Most readers see what is shown on the surface, but do not go deeper between the lines. There are two different ways readers can interpret â€Å"Everyday Use† by Alice Walker. The first one being Dee/Wangero comes home as a new person with a new attitude. Dee’s mother sees her as a person who,†...washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn’t need to know.†Ã‚ ¬ (Walker 53). The other way the short story could be read is Mama shares the story in her point of view, whichRead MoreLiterary Language And Everyday Language1530 Words   |  7 PagesLiterary Language and Everyday Language What is a Language? At first glance, the question about what is the language might be strange, because we have been using language extemporarily, unconsciously for centuries ago. Nevertheless, the language is the essence difference between human beings and animals, due to what language offers to humans. It enables them to have a history and live the present as well as for planning for the future. furthermore, it is our major tool to communicate ,expressRead MoreTMA01 Plan MattBrayshaw1530 Words   |  7 Pagesbook, The art of English: everyday creativity: (a) Ronald Carter, ‘Common Language: corpus, creativity and cognition’, pp. 29–37. (b) Rukmini Bhaya Nair, ‘Implicature and impliculture in the short, short story and the tall, tall tale’, pp. 97–102. Summarise the main points of your chosen reading, and evaluate, with reference to other material in the module you have engaged with to date, the extent to which it helps you understand how to identify creativity in everyday language. Introduction OftenRead MoreAnalysis Of Walker s Everyday Use863 Words   |  4 PagesAnalysis of Walker’s â€Å"Everyday Use† The short story â€Å"Everyday Use,† by Alice Walker, contains multiple different literary elements. History and heritage play a key role in the development and conclusion of this rather intriguing story. Although history and heritage are important, the driving factors of this story are the literary elements. In particular the elements of symbols, characterization, and point of view in this story are significant. The use of symbols in this short story provide a deeperRead MoreDescribing Stylistics as a Concept in English Studies Essay1054 Words   |  5 Pagese. judge the literary worth on stylistic criteria), but more commonly attempts to simply analyse and describe the workings of texts which have already been selected as noteworthy on other grounds. Stylistic analysis in linguistics refers to the identification of patterns of usage in speech and writing. Analyses can appear objective, detailed and technical, even requiring computer assistance, but some caution is needed. Stylistic analysis in literary studies is usuallyRead MoreEssay about the men admiring themselves on the water891 Words   |  4 PagesThemselves In The water† which seems too short but includes more than what it looks in terms of meaning. Here, I tried to analyze his great but seeming little poem in terms of the physical characteristics of the poem,literary devices used in poem , emotions I have been felt by these literary devices,meaning of the poem and finally Why I chose this poem to analyze . Firstly ,I analyzed the rhyme scheme of poem as a only stanza and I found it one of the most unfamiliar rhyme scheme I have ever seenRead MoreGender: Annotated Bibliography Essay1480 Words   |  6 Pages Mills, S. (2012). Gender Matters: Frminist Linguistic Analysis. London : Equinox. Gender Matters is a collection of various essays on feminist linguistic texts analysis, by Sara Mills. Mills develops methods of analyzing literary and non-literary texts, in addition to conversational analysis based on a feminist approach. The author draws on data from her collection of essays gathered over the last two decades on feminism during the 1990s. The essays focus on gender issues, the representation ofRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of A Bamboo Grove 1269 Words   |  6 PagesAmongst literary works, the reader is told to contemplate numerous aspects of a particular text. Through the use of literary analysis, the reader is guided to discern information that pertains to the written work they are studying. Literary topics such as: motifs, themes, analysis and deconstruction are ways in which a reader can approach a literary text. However, in RyÃ… «nosuke Akutagawa short story collection RashÃ… mon and 17 Other Stories the reader is introduced to a multitude of conflicting id eas