In Alice Walker‘s “Everyday Use”, the three main characters are necessary in revealing the underlying concepts of the story. The critic Timothy Sexton asserts that the older daughter, Dee, is the “embodiment of the struggle for a unifying identity” (par. 4). In contrast with Dee, the critics Houston A Baker, Jr. and Charlotte Pierce-Baker consider ...
What I would like to discuss here is the meaning of poetry in the lives of women. Women often write poems about writing poems. (I have not found many poems of this sort by men.) Amy Lowell writes “…we’re a queer lot We women who write poetry... I wonder what makes us do it, Singles ...
This is not meant to disrespect Mo’Nique for her Academy-Award winning performance in the movie, or for even the book for which the movie was based (also winning an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay). No, my reasons for not watching the movie have to do with the subject matter. As a society we should be ...
Since the beginning of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women have worked to communicate their experiences in dealing with a repressive patriarchal society and their efforts to destroy the degrading myths regarding women through writing. One of the most insistent and passionate voices of the emerging women authors has been that of the African-American woman. ...
Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” reminds me a lot of my family. No, I am not African-American, and I did not grow up in the rural South, but the characters of Mama, Dee, and Maggie remind me of my mom, me, and my sister. The three of us look alike, share some DNA, and ...
For a story written in first person, Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” brings point of view to new heights. The way the story is written let readers in on more than just one perception. The story is centered on an African-American family in the south set back in the 60’s. A mother tells her story about ...
In this very short story, Alice Walker tells of a young, African American girl who, while gathering flowers, stumbles quite literally upon the body of a dead man. The atmosphere, language and subject matter of the story suggest the southern United States as a setting-sometime in the mid- to late-20th century seems an appropriate time ...
In The Color Purple by Alice Walker,the main character’s sister, Nettie, appears briefly but her presence continues through her letters and contributes greatly to the work by creating contrast, affecting the action and development of the other characters. At the beginning of the book Celie tries to be Nettie’s protector by sacrificing herself to her ...
