Everyday Use

A Contrast between Dee and Maggies View Concerning Their Heritage In my writing essay I shall analyze the agency in which heritage roll in the hay be conceived in Alice pushcarts novel nonchalant single-valued function, trying to point out the authors primary(prenominal) ideas concerning the source of the paper. I would a handle try to describe the deuce young ladys points of place, Dee and Maggies, about their ancestral heritage. The contrast between these two young womans is more than than unadorned not only in their appearance but similarly in their behavior when it comes to quilts from their grand stupefy.Everyday Use is a story narrated by a family unitsy obtuse charr, who is the pose of the two girls Maggie and Dee Johnson. Mrs. Johnson, is a simple woman but who, in spite of all difficulties that she passed through, she tried to give her daughters if possible, a good tuition and of ply the around important thing, to make them aware of what heritage is indeed, the detail that traditional culture and heritage is not represented only by the pig pointedness of disused objects, but also by iodins behavior and customs.She outlines in the story that she is not a very meliorated woman, but this does not mingy that the lack of education is also reflected in her contentedness to understand, to recognise and to respect her ancestors. Since the beginning of the story, the narrator makes obvious the contrast between Maggie and her elder infant Dee. Dee is a very thought-provoking girl, with a strong-defined character, the unrivalled who had endlessly been successful and ambitious. Maggie thinks her sis has held life, always in the palm of peerless hand, that no is a explicate the world never learned to say to her. ( pedestrian 2469). Dee denies her actual heritage by changing her given propose, after her aunt Dee, to the superficially more astonishing one W individual retirement accounto Leewanik Kemanjo, arguing to her m a nother(prenominal) that Dee is dead and I couldnt bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me ( Walker 2472), what she does in detail is to slump her family identity. She inspires in her mother a sort of reverence and fear more suitable to the advent of a goddess than the love one might continue a mother to feel for a returning daughter (Farell, dodging).On the other hand, Maggie is the type of simple girl, like her mother, with little education. She is not ambitious like her sister Dee, living somehow in her mothers shadow. But this might be also because Maggie hadnt her sister luck and she burn hard in the house fire when she was a child, fit now a shy and fearful person. These features are more visible in her view date waiting for her sister to come home. mama is communicate her cause anger and frustration onto her young daughter when she speculates that Maggie go outing be cowed by Dees arrival. Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goe s she will stand hopelessly in corners homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe ( Walker 2469). As Marianne Hirsch says in one of her critical essays the mother sees in Maggies angerless, fear an image of her own unresisting acceptance of Dees aggression, her own suppressed anger Moreover, we can see through the lines of this story that, at the beginning, Dee was the daughter that mother preferred most because of her post and because she wanted to succeed in life by following her instincts.But when she saw her totally changed, not only physically but also in her mentality, mother realized that Maggie was the one that understood the essence of heritage and tried to give her justice. It is relevant Mamas awakening to ones daughters superficiality and to the others deep-rooted understanding of heritage ( Tuten, Alice Walkers Everyday Use ). However, Dee seems to despise her sister, her mother and the church that helped to educate her. Intentionally or not, she is selfish and she treats her sister with indifference. plot Dee escaped from the poor life she was supposed to live, Maggie, next to her mother, represents the multitude of black women who must suffer. Scarred, graceless, not hopeful and uneducated, Maggie is a living reproach to a subsister like her sister (Cowart, Heritage) . The contradictions about heritage and culture between Maggie and Dee become more large when the quilts take part from the story. After dinner, Dee discovers some honest-to-goodness quilts which belonged to her grandmother.She is very excited that found them, thinking that these quilts represent the testament of her ancestors. Without taking into account Maggies opinion, she asks her mother if she can have those quilts, arguing that she is the only one who can appreciate and have the right to keep them. At first, mother hesitates to give her an fare and offers her other quilts but Dee gets upset and then m other explains to her that the quilts were from Maggie as a wedding gift. Maggies tolerance in the story contrasts with Dees boldness.When Dee insists that her sister would fall grans quilts by using them everyday, and that hanging the quilts would be the only way to preserve them, Maggie like somebody used to never wining anything, or having anything silent for her says She can have them, Mama. I can remember grandma Dee without the quilts (Walker, 2474). Mrs. Johnson then realizes what makes Maggie diverse form her sister. She sees her scarred hands hidden in her skirt and says When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet.Just like when Im in the church and the spirit of god touches me and I get happy and shout (Walker, 2475). This powerful feelings determines Mama to do something she had never done before she snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangeros hands and dumped them into Maggies intersection ( Walker, 247 5). Mamas behavior here is near like Dees because she rebuffs her wishes for the first time and give justice to the most patient Maggie. The fact that she takes the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie, she confirms her younger daughters self-worth metaphorically, she gives Maggie her voice ( Tuten, Alice Walkers Everyday Use ).In conclusion, I can say that Everyday Use is a story about understanding heritage. This concept is very well exposed by the two characters Alice Walker created, Dee and Maggie. These two daughters have a completely different view in what concerns the heritage from their ancestors in this case their origins and their inheritance, the quilts from nanna Dee. Maggie is the one who understands that heritage is about respecting familys traditions and customs while Dee destroys the traditional image kept by Mrs.Johnson and her sister. She denies her true origins by changing the given name into more fashionable one, Wangero Leewanik Kemanjo. One should apprec iate his legacy because it represents indeed what we are. We can not insure our root and even if we want, this would not be possible because it always remains present in our souls and our minds, we like it or not. WORKES CITED PRIMARY SOURCE Walker, Alice. Everyday Use. In jockey and Trouble Stories of Black Women New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973. second-string SOURCE Cowart, David . Heritage and deracination in Walkers Everyday Use. Studies in Short Fiction. FindArticles. com. Farrell Susan. Fight vs. Flight a re-evaluation of Dee in Alice Walkers Everyday Use- Critical Essay. Studies in Short Fiction. FindArticles. com. Hirsch, Marianne. Clytemnestras Children Writing the Mothers Anger. Alice Walker new-fangled Critical Views. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York Chelsea House, 1989. Tuten, Nancy. Alice Walkers Everyday Use. The Explicator 51. 2,1993Everyday UseEveryday Use Symbolism The Quilts These quilts represent Mamas family and her heritage, they were made by granny kno t Dee and Big Dee. Symbolically, each piece of material was made from scraps of clothing that once belonged to someone in their family, including pieces of their great-grandfathers Civil War uniform. . To Maggie, they represent her family she still remembers with love her grandmother who made one of them and she says it is okay if Dee takes them because she does not need the quilts to remember Grandma Dee. To Dee, however, the quilts have no emotional value.She regards them as a type of folk art that will look impressive hanging upon her walls. (Dee embraces her African heritage while rejecting her personal family history. ) Mama gives those quilts to Maggie because she knows Maggie, unlike Dee, will honor the culture and heritage by using it, or continuing it the way it was originally intended. Maggie cans appreciate these quilts she said. Shed probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use. The Butter rile and the Dasher The author also uses the butter dig and the dash er as a symbol to show mamas understands of heritage.When Mama takes the dasher handle in her hands, she is symbolically trace the hands of all those who used it before her. Her appreciation for the dasher and the quits is based on the love fort the people who made use of them. Dee wants to use the churn top as a centerpiece for the alcove table and do something creative with the dasher. Mama views and honors her heritage as practical by appreciating what she acquired from previous generations and lay the passed down items into everyday use. Dee views and honors her heritage as superficial by appreciating the passed down items for their materialistic and artistic valueEveryday UseA Contrast between Dee and Maggies View Concerning Their Heritage In my writing essay I shall analyze the way in which heritage can be conceived in Alice Walkers novel Everyday Use, trying to point out the authors main ideas concerning the theme of the story. I would also try to describe the two daughters points of view, Dee and Maggies, about their ancestral heritage. The contrast between these two daughters is more than obvious not only in their appearance but also in their behavior when it comes to quilts from their grandmother.Everyday Use is a story narrated by a rural black woman, who is the mother of the two girls Maggie and Dee Johnson. Mrs. Johnson, is a simple woman but who, in spite of all difficulties that she passed through, she tried to give her daughters if possible, a good education and of course the most important thing, to make them aware of what heritage is indeed, the fact that traditional culture and heritage is not represented only by the possession of old objects, but also by ones behavior and customs.She outlines in the story that she is not a very educated woman, but this does not mean that the lack of education is also reflected in her capacity to understand, to love and to respect her ancestors. Since the beginning of the story, the narrator makes obvious the contrast between Maggie and her elder sister Dee. Dee is a very ambitious girl, with a well-defined character, the one who had always been successful and ambitious. Maggie thinks her sister has held life, always in the palm of one hand, that no is a word the world never learned to say to her. (Walker 2469). Dee denies her real heritage by changing her given name, after her aunt Dee, to the superficially more impressive one Wangero Leewanik Kemanjo, arguing to her mother that Dee is dead and I couldnt bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me ( Walker 2472), what she does in fact is to reject her family identity. She inspires in her mother a sort of awe and fear more suitable to the advent of a goddess than the love one might expect a mother to feel for a returning daughter (Farell, Flight).On the other hand, Maggie is the type of simple girl, like her mother, with little education. She is not ambitious like her sister Dee, living somehow in her mothers shad ow. But this might be also because Maggie hadnt her sister luck and she burned severely in the house fire when she was a child, becoming now a shy and fearful person. These features are more visible in her attitude while waiting for her sister to come home. Mama is projecting her own anger and frustration onto her younger daughter when she speculates that Maggie will be cowed by Dees arrival. Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes she will stand hopelessly in corners homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe ( Walker 2469). As Marianne Hirsch says in one of her critical essays the mother sees in Maggies angerless, fear an image of her own passive acceptance of Dees aggression, her own suppressed anger Moreover, we can see through the lines of this story that, at the beginning, Dee was the daughter that mother preferred most because of her authority and because she wanted to succeed in life by following h er instincts.But when she saw her totally changed, not only physically but also in her mentality, mother realized that Maggie was the one that understood the meaning of heritage and tried to give her justice. It is relevant Mamas awakening to ones daughters superficiality and to the others deep-seated understanding of heritage ( Tuten, Alice Walkers Everyday Use ). However, Dee seems to despise her sister, her mother and the church that helped to educate her. Intentionally or not, she is selfish and she treats her sister with indifference.While Dee escaped from the poor life she was supposed to live, Maggie, next to her mother, represents the multitude of black women who must suffer. Scarred, graceless, not bright and uneducated, Maggie is a living reproach to a survivor like her sister (Cowart, Heritage) . The contradictions about heritage and culture between Maggie and Dee become more extensive when the quilts take part from the story. After dinner, Dee discovers some old quilts w hich belonged to her grandmother.She is very excited that found them, thinking that these quilts represent the testament of her ancestors. Without taking into account Maggies opinion, she asks her mother if she can have those quilts, arguing that she is the only one who can appreciate and have the right to keep them. At first, mother hesitates to give her an answer and offers her other quilts but Dee gets upset and then mother explains to her that the quilts were from Maggie as a wedding gift. Maggies tolerance in the story contrasts with Dees boldness.When Dee insists that her sister would ruin grandmas quilts by using them everyday, and that hanging the quilts would be the only way to preserve them, Maggie like somebody used to never wining anything, or having anything reserved for her says She can have them, Mama. I can remember Grandma Dee without the quilts (Walker, 2474). Mrs. Johnson then realizes what makes Maggie different form her sister. She sees her scarred hands hidde n in her skirt and says When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet.Just like when Im in the church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout (Walker, 2475). This powerful feelings determines Mama to do something she had never done before she snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangeros hands and dumped them into Maggies lap ( Walker, 2475). Mamas behavior here is almost like Dees because she rebuffs her wishes for the first time and give justice to the most patient Maggie. The fact that she takes the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie, she confirms her younger daughters self-worth metaphorically, she gives Maggie her voice ( Tuten, Alice Walkers Everyday Use ).In conclusion, I can say that Everyday Use is a story about understanding heritage. This concept is very well exposed by the two characters Alice Walker created, Dee and Maggie. These two daughters have a completely different view in what concer ns the heritage from their ancestors in this case their origins and their inheritance, the quilts from Grandma Dee. Maggie is the one who understands that heritage is about respecting familys traditions and customs while Dee destroys the traditional image kept by Mrs.Johnson and her sister. She denies her true origins by changing the given name into more fashionable one, Wangero Leewanik Kemanjo. One should appreciate his legacy because it represents indeed what we are. We can not hide our roots and even if we want, this would not be possible because it always remains present in our souls and our minds, we like it or not. WORKES CITED PRIMARY SOURCE Walker, Alice. Everyday Use. In Love and Trouble Stories of Black Women New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973.SECONDARY SOURCE Cowart, David . Heritage and deracination in Walkers Everyday Use. Studies in Short Fiction. FindArticles. com. Farrell Susan. Fight vs. Flight a re-evaluation of Dee in Alice Walkers Everyday Use- Critical E ssay. Studies in Short Fiction. FindArticles. com. Hirsch, Marianne. Clytemnestras Children Writing the Mothers Anger. Alice Walker Modern Critical Views. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York Chelsea House, 1989. Tuten, Nancy. Alice Walkers Everyday Use. The Explicator 51. 2,1993Everyday UseA Contrast between Dee and Maggies View Concerning Their Heritage In my writing essay I shall analyze the way in which heritage can be conceived in Alice Walkers novel Everyday Use, trying to point out the authors main ideas concerning the theme of the story. I would also try to describe the two daughters points of view, Dee and Maggies, about their ancestral heritage. The contrast between these two daughters is more than obvious not only in their appearance but also in their behavior when it comes to quilts from their grandmother.Everyday Use is a story narrated by a rural black woman, who is the mother of the two girls Maggie and Dee Johnson. Mrs. Johnson, is a simple woman but who, in spite of all dif ficulties that she passed through, she tried to give her daughters if possible, a good education and of course the most important thing, to make them aware of what heritage is indeed, the fact that traditional culture and heritage is not represented only by the possession of old objects, but also by ones behavior and customs.She outlines in the story that she is not a very educated woman, but this does not mean that the lack of education is also reflected in her capacity to understand, to love and to respect her ancestors. Since the beginning of the story, the narrator makes obvious the contrast between Maggie and her elder sister Dee. Dee is a very ambitious girl, with a well-defined character, the one who had always been successful and ambitious. Maggie thinks her sister has held life, always in the palm of one hand, that no is a word the world never learned to say to her. (Walker 2469). Dee denies her real heritage by changing her given name, after her aunt Dee, to the superficia lly more impressive one Wangero Leewanik Kemanjo, arguing to her mother that Dee is dead and I couldnt bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me ( Walker 2472), what she does in fact is to reject her family identity. She inspires in her mother a sort of awe and fear more suitable to the advent of a goddess than the love one might expect a mother to feel for a returning daughter (Farell, Flight).On the other hand, Maggie is the type of simple girl, like her mother, with little education. She is not ambitious like her sister Dee, living somehow in her mothers shadow. But this might be also because Maggie hadnt her sister luck and she burned severely in the house fire when she was a child, becoming now a shy and fearful person. These features are more visible in her attitude while waiting for her sister to come home. Mama is projecting her own anger and frustration onto her younger daughter when she speculates that Maggie will be cowed by Dees arrival. Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes she will stand hopelessly in corners homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe ( Walker 2469). As Marianne Hirsch says in one of her critical essays the mother sees in Maggies angerless, fear an image of her own passive acceptance of Dees aggression, her own suppressed anger Moreover, we can see through the lines of this story that, at the beginning, Dee was the daughter that mother preferred most because of her authority and because she wanted to succeed in life by following her instincts.But when she saw her totally changed, not only physically but also in her mentality, mother realized that Maggie was the one that understood the meaning of heritage and tried to give her justice. It is relevant Mamas awakening to ones daughters superficiality and to the others deep-seated understanding of heritage ( Tuten, Alice Walkers Everyday Use ). However, Dee seems to despise her siste r, her mother and the church that helped to educate her. Intentionally or not, she is selfish and she treats her sister with indifference.While Dee escaped from the poor life she was supposed to live, Maggie, next to her mother, represents the multitude of black women who must suffer. Scarred, graceless, not bright and uneducated, Maggie is a living reproach to a survivor like her sister (Cowart, Heritage) . The contradictions about heritage and culture between Maggie and Dee become more extensive when the quilts take part from the story. After dinner, Dee discovers some old quilts which belonged to her grandmother.She is very excited that found them, thinking that these quilts represent the testament of her ancestors. Without taking into account Maggies opinion, she asks her mother if she can have those quilts, arguing that she is the only one who can appreciate and have the right to keep them. At first, mother hesitates to give her an answer and offers her other quilts but Dee get s upset and then mother explains to her that the quilts were from Maggie as a wedding gift. Maggies tolerance in the story contrasts with Dees boldness.When Dee insists that her sister would ruin grandmas quilts by using them everyday, and that hanging the quilts would be the only way to preserve them, Maggie like somebody used to never wining anything, or having anything reserved for her says She can have them, Mama. I can remember Grandma Dee without the quilts (Walker, 2474). Mrs. Johnson then realizes what makes Maggie different form her sister. She sees her scarred hands hidden in her skirt and says When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet.Just like when Im in the church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout (Walker, 2475). This powerful feelings determines Mama to do something she had never done before she snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangeros hands and dumped them into Maggies lap ( Wa lker, 2475). Mamas behavior here is almost like Dees because she rebuffs her wishes for the first time and give justice to the most patient Maggie. The fact that she takes the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie, she confirms her younger daughters self-worth metaphorically, she gives Maggie her voice ( Tuten, Alice Walkers Everyday Use ).In conclusion, I can say that Everyday Use is a story about understanding heritage. This concept is very well exposed by the two characters Alice Walker created, Dee and Maggie. These two daughters have a completely different view in what concerns the heritage from their ancestors in this case their origins and their inheritance, the quilts from Grandma Dee. Maggie is the one who understands that heritage is about respecting familys traditions and customs while Dee destroys the traditional image kept by Mrs.Johnson and her sister. She denies her true origins by changing the given name into more fashionable one, Wangero Leewanik Kemanjo. One sho uld appreciate his legacy because it represents indeed what we are. We can not hide our roots and even if we want, this would not be possible because it always remains present in our souls and our minds, we like it or not. WORKES CITED PRIMARY SOURCE Walker, Alice. Everyday Use. In Love and Trouble Stories of Black Women New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973.SECONDARY SOURCE Cowart, David . Heritage and deracination in Walkers Everyday Use. Studies in Short Fiction. FindArticles. com. Farrell Susan. Fight vs. Flight a re-evaluation of Dee in Alice Walkers Everyday Use- Critical Essay. Studies in Short Fiction. FindArticles. com. Hirsch, Marianne. Clytemnestras Children Writing the Mothers Anger. Alice Walker Modern Critical Views. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York Chelsea House, 1989. Tuten, Nancy. Alice Walkers Everyday Use. The Explicator 51. 2,1993