An Analysis of Everyday Use by Alice Walker
02/28/2012
Begum Kayacan
Analyze of ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker
In this story Dee is a character who is ashamed of her root, she changes her name thinking that her name was the same name of the people who oppressed her. Even when their house burns down she watches it almost happily. The mother is the narrator and as she tells the story she says if they would be in a TV show, she would look like a mom that Dee wants, like White as pancakes, n 100pounds lighter. Dee runs away from her reality and goes to a city for her education that her mom never got.
The paragraph on page 63 sums it up:
"Don't get up," says Dee. Since I am stout it takes something of a push. You can see me trying to move a second or two before I make it. She turns, showing white heels through her sandals, and goes back to the car. Out she peeks next with a Polaroid. She stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me. She never takes a shot without mak' ing sure the house is included. When a cow comes nibbling around the edge of the yard she snaps it and me and Maggie and the house. Then she puts the Polaroid in the back seat of the car, and comes up and kisses me on the forehead…
Dee is a visitor, a tourist at the house. It is like sightseeing for her to be there. She does not belong there and we can understand that she never did. The way the mother narrates the story and describes her own daughter give us a clue about their relationship. She is a stranger, the mother does not know if she is married with Hakim or not. Before saying hi or hugging her mom and sister she takes pictures of the old house, her mom and even the cow. Picture of Everything that she can’t see in the city but everything she grew up in. The house is exotic for her now which means it is not her home anymore. She walks around as if it is a tour in the museum. She eats the food that she didn’t appreciate before, she wants to take the
Begum Kayacan
Analyze of ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker
In this story Dee is a character who is ashamed of her root, she changes her name thinking that her name was the same name of the people who oppressed her. Even when their house burns down she watches it almost happily. The mother is the narrator and as she tells the story she says if they would be in a TV show, she would look like a mom that Dee wants, like White as pancakes, n 100pounds lighter. Dee runs away from her reality and goes to a city for her education that her mom never got.
The paragraph on page 63 sums it up:
"Don't get up," says Dee. Since I am stout it takes something of a push. You can see me trying to move a second or two before I make it. She turns, showing white heels through her sandals, and goes back to the car. Out she peeks next with a Polaroid. She stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me. She never takes a shot without mak' ing sure the house is included. When a cow comes nibbling around the edge of the yard she snaps it and me and Maggie and the house. Then she puts the Polaroid in the back seat of the car, and comes up and kisses me on the forehead…
Dee is a visitor, a tourist at the house. It is like sightseeing for her to be there. She does not belong there and we can understand that she never did. The way the mother narrates the story and describes her own daughter give us a clue about their relationship. She is a stranger, the mother does not know if she is married with Hakim or not. Before saying hi or hugging her mom and sister she takes pictures of the old house, her mom and even the cow. Picture of Everything that she can’t see in the city but everything she grew up in. The house is exotic for her now which means it is not her home anymore. She walks around as if it is a tour in the museum. She eats the food that she didn’t appreciate before, she wants to take the