In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker tradition plays an important role among the family. Mama and Dee have different forms of tradition. For Mama, tradition is based on inherited objects, like when Dee goes through Mama’s room and finds two quilts made by her mother, aunt, and grandmother. The quilts contain small pieces of garments worn by relatives all the way back to the Civil War. The quilts were an important part of the family tradition of quilt making.
The Symbol of the Quilt in Story of ‘Everyday Use’ In many countries, especially on African and Asian countries, a quilt is used as a bed cover, a table cover, a cushion, a shawl, and a blanket. Alice Walker has a great imagination as she uses the quilt as a main outstanding symbol in “Everyday Use” to discuss about the rural versus city cultures or educated versus working persons. Mrs. Johnson and Maggie appreciate the quilt for everyday usefulness to make the body warm, while Dee wants to use it as a reminder of her African-American cultural heritage. Mrs. Johnson would like to give it to either one of her daughters who could keep their African traditional generations. The idea of how to use the quilt in Mrs. Johnson’s family in Georgia in the early 1970s describes the whole picture of historical and cultural conflicts in the African-American community at that time.
Juain C. Means 09/10/2010 Analyzing “The Century Quilt” Marilyn Waniek’s poem “The Century Quilt” displays an individualized type of inspiration by detailing the persona’s reading process. Although the speaker is neither the maker nor the owner of the quilt, she somehow comes to own a quilt that is symbolic of her past life. As the character reads her quilt, she puts together different parts of her own mixed racial heritage. Marilyn uses the poem to relay a message to those in search of a lost personal heritage. In the poem, the author reminds the reader that a patchwork quilt, like any other blanket, is merely meant to keep someone warm, but the Century Quilt comes to focus on other purposes, such as the consolation of something special in someone’s life.
The second poem ‘’Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan’’ is about a mixed race girl who tells us about the gifts she receives from her aunts in Pakistan. She likes these vibrant gifts but feels weird wearing them because they are uncomfortable and she prefers wearing English clothes-‘denim’ and ’corduroy’. She tries to imagine what her homeland (Pakistan) is like for she traveled to England when she was just a few months old. She feels as if she doesn’t fit into both countries and thinks she’s all alone. The poem Half-Caste is about Jhon Agard who is mixed race.
Close Reading of a Poem Celissa Brooks Eng125 Karen Lawler March 26, 2007 Close Reading of a Poem Julia Alvarez’s poem Woman’s Work is about “the relationship between mother and daughter through the work that each performs.” (Barnet & Burto & Cain, 2011). Julia Alvarez tells a story from the point of view of the daughter, now a grown woman remembering her childhood. After reading this poem there are a few interpretations that one can make of Julia Alvarez’s thoughts and feelings about the relationship she had with her own mother, or the relationship between a mother and daughter, as the mother instructs her daughter. To communicate the meaning of the poem, Julia Alvarez uses several literary conventions and poetic devices, such as simile, imagery, alliteration, irony, and rhyme. Julia Alvarez was born in 1950, in a time where most women did not work outside of the home, and woman raised their daughters to be housewives.
The title of Book II, “the golden thread” is symbolic of the charm and beauty of Lucie Manette’s long golden hair. Lucie’s character “winds the golden thread that binds them all together, weaving the service of her happy influence through the tissue of all their lives”(218). Lucie weaves her way into the lives of those who are troubled by displaying a powerful feeling of love and happiness. Through out the book, we are introduced to characters that lead a distressful life of disappointment. Lucie ignites these characters and ensures them a more promising destiny by binding them into her family.
And in creating them so vividly, they will live on long after she has passed on. Aunt Jennifer’s sadness is made apparent in the second verse of the poem. Aunt Jennifer's fingers are "fluttering through her wool" in the first line of the stanza and this suggests that Aunt
Marissa Baird ENGWR 101: MW 12-2pm Professor Graham 25 November 2014 Assignment: Compare and Contrast Paper Final Draft Self-Perception is What Counts The everlasting Southern love story of an independent woman is illustrated through the colorful words of Zora Neale Hurston, in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie, the protagonist, is introduced at the beginning of the novel as a natural and comfortable woman. Janie goes through her life story of growing up with Nanny, who took care of Janie, three marriages, and her journey to find new adventures and love. Janie’s self-perception and visions of her life were conflicting from others around her. Nanny believed that her decision, which was to have Janie marry Logan Killicks, was out of love.
She has a two daughters. Which named Dee and Maggie. In this short story we meet conflict between the different understandings of culture and traditions arises, when Dee wants to claim two old quilts which her mother had previously promised to Maggie. Mama changes a great deal. The mama one who grows and changes.
Portrayel of women with reference to the title of the story "Excellent things in women" Sara Suleri, writes in her first chapter, “Excellent Things in Women” about the important characteristics of her female relatives. She has a keen eye for the behavior and essence of her grandmother and siblings. It is interesting to note how Suleri develops the character of her grandmother from an adult perspective and what her childhood memories add to the picture of Dadi the reader gets. As the narrative progresses Suleri shares some of her grandmother’s little idiosyncrasies such as the walking sticks she would cut down from the garden even though Suleri’s father would buy her dozens. We become familiar with Dadi’s traditional values through Suleri’s description of her grandmother sitting in the courtyard in the late afternoon winter sun.