QUIILTS The short story Everyday use by Alice walker, the main person in the story is Mama. She had two adult daughter, there name are Maggie and Dee. The short story focused on the bonds between women of different generation and the connection is strong, emotionally as well for Dee. This short story took place on Mama's yard is a private space is like an extended living room. Mama and Maggie have very different ideas about generation about the quilts from Dee point of view.
Mama finally stands up to Dee and realizes the beauty in Maggie. Mama is a simple woman. She has worked hard her entire life and has done the best to support her family. Although Mama may not agree with Dee, it seems as if she is caught up in Dee’s opinions and behavior. Almost as if she wants to be enough for Dee because she knows she never has been.
The bulk of this essay addresses the actual story of Florence Thompson, which I found very entertaining. Thompson’s discontent with Lange is reasonable. She is forever labeled as a poor drifter, and “would never
Riley Walters October 26, 2014 “Everyday Use” Character Analysis The Character of Mama in “Everyday Use” Mama, the narrator of Alice Walker’s story, “Everyday Use,” is a strong, loving mother who is sometimes threatened and burdened by her daughters, Dee and Maggie. Gentle and stern, her inner monologue offers us a glimpse of the limits of a mother’s unconditional love. Mama is brutally honest and often critical in her assessment of both Dee and Maggie. She harshly describes shy, withering Maggie’s limitations, and Dee provokes an even more pointed evaluation. Mama resents the education, sophistication, and air of superiority that Dee has acquired over the years.
Then there is Dee, the older sister, which is out spoken and thinks she is the best looking girl in the world. As for Maggie, she is ok with the way they live, however Dee does not understand why they still live the way they do. The older sister thinks she can take and do as she wishes, as Maggie lets everything go without a fight. If they could just get along, they could change a whole lot in each other’s lives and be allot more understanding of each other. If every person in this world would stop judging, and start listening to each other, there may not be as many wars and deaths.
B. Rembert Professor Owens English 1101 1 September 2012 In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” the story symbolizes the different perspectives of what heritage truly represents and the value of significant items. Sisters, Dee and Maggie, both strive for their Mama’s acceptance and love. Maggie, who is timid yet caring, envies her older sister. However, Dee feels quite different towards her sister. She shows resentment towards Maggie and insults her intelligence.
During this era, society’s gender expectations were narrow and proscribed, and the opportunities presented to women were limited. Anys’ personality showed a significant amount of power as a majority of women in the novel look up to her and aspires to be like her. Anys was an unusual woman of that time; an accomplished, self-reliant and, underneath a remarkably kind woman who Anna sadly reflects “should have been my friend”. Her understanding from an early age, of the health benefits of various herbs and plants came from her Aunt, Mem Gowdie. Anys and Mem provide Eyam with the “physic” that the villagers need, as well as the “best chance our women had of living through their confinements with healthy infants in their arms”.
Character Sketch of Mama In the book Having Our Say, Mama is described as a courageous black woman and a devoted mother. She loves each of her children the way “God loves His children” (Delany, Hearth 70). She never turned anyone away who was in need of a meal. According to her daughters Sadie and Bessie Delany, “She’d stop…and fix them a plate” (Delany, Hearth 66). Mama was a busy woman, but always had time for her children.
‘Everyday Use’ is almost an historical novel, based upon Dee’s family history. It is very much about African identity and Dee’s reaction to this having leaving home and moving to university. On one side there is the history of her immediate family, having lived through the civil war. However there is also the history of the culture and community in which her family belong to, dating back hundreds of years to the time of African slavery and oppression. Choosing to end the novel with ‘1973’ also indicates that Alice Walkers wants the reader to place the texts historically, after the years of the apartheid in America, when segregation was law.
Dee is attractive, stylish, & well educated – with some apparently portrayed traits of selfishness, brashness and excessive confidence. Her sister Maggie on the other hand is a relatively timid, and quiet young woman. She hasn’t received any formal education like her sister but has learned a few traditional skills, like quilting, from the family. Dee believes the quilts shouldn’t be used for warmth, but for the preservation of her African-American cultural ideals. This way, she could display them in her home; much akin to museum pieces.