To Accept or Not to Accept, That Is the Question—Comments on Everyday Use.

Susie Wong

CONTENTS

Introduction of the Alice Walker

The Content of Everyday Use

Main Characters and Main Plots

A Variety of Means

CONTENTS

The Quilts as the Image of Heritage

Different attitudes on these heritages

My Criticism on Maggie

•Alice Walker is an American poet, novelist, short story writer, and essayist. When she was eight , one of her brothers accidentally shot her with a gun, leaving her scarred and blind in one eye until age fourteen when she underwent a surgery. This experience made he shy and self-conscious, and she turned to writing as a way of expressing herself. Walker’s work reflects her concern with racial, sexual and political issues-particularly with the black women’s struggle for spiritual survival. She once said: “The black woman is one of America’s greatest heroes.”

In Everyday Use Alice Walker illustrates three

different female characters and their symbolism

meanings to show the author’s care about black

women’s life and spirit, her agreement on

traditional black culture and how to guide black

people to define themselves in a right way. The

story reaches its climax at the moment when

Dee wants the old quilts only to be refused by

the mother, who intends to give them to

Maggie.

Main Characters

Maggie

Mrs. Johnson (Mama)

Dee ( Wangero)

Main Plots

Mama and Maggie waited for Dee’s return at the yard.

Dee ,totally changed, came back with another guy, who was not easy to be accepted by the other two females.

The story reached its climax when Dee wanted the old quilts, passed down by grandmamma, only to be refused by mama.

A variety of means were selected to improve the plots and portray the different

characteristics of the three women.

Conflicts

Similes and Metaphors

Rhetorical Questions

The Appearance

Maggie--“chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle” etc.

Dee--“Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure.” “A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit she'd made from an old suit somebody gave me.”

The Characteristics

Maggies--“ 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, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She 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.” Etc.

Dee—“Dee, though. She would always look

anyone in the eye. Hesitation was no part of

her nature” “She was determined to stare

down any disaster in her efforts. Her eyelids

would not flicker for minutes at a time.

Often I fought off the temptation to shake

her. At sixteen she had a style of her own'

and knew what style was” “When she was

courting Jimmy T she didn't have much time

to pay to us, but turned all her faultfinding

power on him. He flew to marry a cheap city

girl from a family of ignorant flashy people.

She hardly had time to recompose herself.”

etc.

Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort” etc.

The Inharmonious Relationship Between Mama and Dee

Similes and Metaphors

“Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind of him? That is the way my Maggie walks”

title

“my skin like an uncooked barley pan-cake”

“Maggie's brain is like an elephants”

Rhetorical Questions

“Mama, when did Dee ever have any friends?”

content

The Quilts as the Image of Heritage

The quilts, are symbolized as the African American

cultural heritages.

暖了，花开了，碧水庭院，

该买了！

工作在繁华都市，

居住，我更喜欢安静点的

地方．

喜欢那种离尘不离城的悠

然空间，

那种繁华之外的宁静生活．

在春暖花开的日子，

在民心河畔邂逅碧水庭院，

多年的居住理想，

从此，

有了清晰的图象．

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Different attitudes on these heritagesDifferent attitudes on these heritages

Mama and Maggie

Mama and Maggie live in the traditional style, They are standing for the Black people who is just living in his/her own society all the time. He/she knows nothing about the outside world, so it is reasonable that those Blacks fall far behind others.

It is generally because they do not have the right to put themselves in the main stream. In Maggie and Mum’s opinion, the things which they are using everyday is the black art, and the true meaning of black art is not to show, but to use everyday

Dee is standing for the group of people amongst the

Blacks who are willing to change their lives from being

despised by the people of higher levels. In fact, they try

their best to change only to find that they are both

excluded from the White and their own community. It

is quite a pity that they work in vain. But it is a fact

which can be recognized by people around the world.

Dee

My Criticism on Maggie

Though she is gentle and kind-hearted, She is not a brave girl. She wants the quilts, but she give up.

The narrator shows such a weak girl to the readers. It tells us the state of the black culture. Actually, she envies Dee, however, she dare not to show herself. At that time, few black woman asked for the spiritual liberty.