Growing up in the same environment does not always mean that siblings will grow to be the same person with the same values and beliefs. Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" is about the conflict that multi-generational families have with understanding the importance of identity and ancestry. The story focuses on the relationship between a mother and her two daughters, Dee and Maggie, over their grandmothers quilts. Unlike Mama, Dee is educated and is envied, Maggie, who was scarred in a house fire when she was little. Dee has returned from a long trip away from home and now determines her culture by the things she gathers from the house like the quilts and butter churn but in the end Maggie is the one with the right idea about her heritage.
Dee is under the impression that she appreciates her heritage more than Maggie ever could. She expresses these feelings on page when she says, "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" she said. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use". Dee's mother adds that when Dee went off to college she had offered a quilt to her and then she thought they were old-fashioned.
Regardless, throughout the story we really only hear Maggie once. ““Mama,” Wangero said sweet as a bird. “Can I have these old quilts?” I heard something fall in the kitchen, and a minute later the kitchen door slammed” (Walker, 75). This is a crucial part of the story because up until this point, Maggie stood behind Mama, made no sound, cowered in the corners, and could not even look into the eyes of their visitor. When Mama informs Dee that these quilts are for Maggie, Dee’s response follows, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!
She had hated the house that much.” This shows just how much Dee cared about her lifestyle and the location of the house. Resulting from her disrespect, she pushes her mother around. When Dee tries to take the quilts, Mama tells Dee that she had promised Maggie she could have them one day. Dee disregards her mother’s comment and begins to walk out the door. Mama realizes she must stand up to Dee and tell her that she cannot take the quilts because they are Maggie’s.
How does Heckerling’s Clueless sustain interest in the values represented in Austen’s Emma? 7. How does a comparative study of Emma and Clueless bring to the fore ideas about the quality of relationships in society?In your response make detailed reference to your TWO prescribed texts. Year 11 English Extension 1 Emma & Clueless Appropriation Sample Essay Questions 1. You have studied two texts composed at different times.
In turn this event began to eat at her father’s ability to stay present for his daughters, leaving only Tana to be there for Pearl. Years later, Tana has been given the Cold and Pearl is now left with no one there for her. This character is easy to sympathize with because she has gone through many hardships at a young age, and is left with no family to care for her Next, the author makes it so that the reader can easily sympathize with Tana. This is because Tana is used and attacked by her mother, who was unable to control her temptations. The Cold makes you thirsty for human blood and Tana’s mother manipulated her and appealed to her naivety by saying that she changed and was better.
The story is told through Emma's perspective as she takes on the role of omniscient narrator and guides the reader by her occasional intrusive statements and authorial comments and her self-deception generates amusement and sympathy rather than laughter. From the beginning she establishes an analytical slightly moralizing tone, “The real evils indeed on Emma’s situation were the power of having rather too much of her own way, and a disposition to think to well of herself.” The Opening
It has been several weeks, you can’t possibly still be upset about Lulu’” (132). Madame Khoun feels horrible about what she did to Kien’s dog. She has the mother instinct that all mothers have, she knows when something is wrong with her children. Madame Khoun leaves her children with her sister while she takes off. When Madame Khoun returns, Kien tells her about the fight between him and his cousin, “Under the pale streetlights, I showed her the bumps and contusions Tin had left on my back while Jimmy relived the potato story.
When discussing Addie's sole chapter in class, everyone had a hay-day ripping on the poor, dead woman and we found out that she was not really so poor anyways. The class dappled back and forth on the subject of if Addie really does love her family or if she is even capable of loving anyone, much like the light dappled back and forth on Darl's body as he weeped on top of his mother's coffin. But what if Addie's chapter didn't exsist? We would have never been able to take a glimpse inside her surprising mind and would still feel sympathy for her and the struggle her family is making to bury her body all the way in Jefferson. We would have never understood the strange mindset she has about life and about her role as a mother.
The most significant objects in the story, which Dee wanted to have, are the two hand sewn quilts that were created by Grandma and Aunt Dee. These quilts are full of history; contain pieces of dresses worn by Grandma Dee and a piece of Dee’s Great Grandfather’s Civil War uniform. The quilts had already been promised to Maggie for when she married John Thomas, but Dee feels the quilts should be hers. Dee saw the quilts as objects to be shown off and kept in perfect condition, while Maggie had an emotional connection to the quilts that would last even without them. “‘She can have them, Mama,’ she said, like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her.