“Pride and Prejudice” and “Letters to Alice” contains many similarities yet some obvious differences even when considering the fact that they were written hundreds of years apart. Both texts provide strong perspectives on a variety of issues and are very blunt in their approach. The key issue throughout both novels is the ideology of marriage in the sense of whether one should marry for love or financial stability and standing. Both novels are written in an epistolary format providing a different perspective for the reader from the standardised third person format. Similarities and differences exist between the changing values of women within the two texts on such issues as moral standards and behaviours or class and social rank however each portrays a slightly different approach and extent with which they exemplify their beliefs.…
Alice Walker, the author of “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self”, describes to us a point in time in which an “accident” distorted her perception of her beauty. Growing up Walker would receive comments such as “isn’t she the cutest thing”, she believed she was beautiful. After she was involved in a BB gun incident her eye was injured, everything changed, she let this small flaw affect the way she viewed herself. She was blinded, she believed this incident had changed her, but in reality everyone saw her the same “You did not change…” they would tell her. Walker eventually had a daughter, Rebecca, she allowed her other to open her eyes, to accept that she was still beautiful. There is a popular phrase that states “beauty is in the eyes…
In the Victorian era, women and men were assigned different gender roles. The notion of gender roles entailed that man may go outside the home and subject himself to mistakes, while women must tend to the household and stand as an example of exceptional morality. According to John Ruskin, a man is “the doer, the creator, the discoverer, the defender. His intellect is for…war, and for conquest.” However a woman’s “intellect is not for invention or creation but for sweet ordering, arrangement, and decision. She sees the qualities of things, their claims, and their places” (Ruskin). A man is free to adventure and subject himself to mistakes and questionable morals, while a woman must stay at home and provide a peaceful and morally sound shelter. Ruskin claims that despite expecting women must remain enclosed in the household, that they possess a different kind of power than men. A woman is “incorruptibly good” and “infallibly wise.” She is free to judge the man’s morality as she is never at fault. Ruskin asserts this assumption by saying that as a woman “rules, all must be right, or nothing is.” He claims that women are…
Most commonly known for her work, The Color Purple, Alice Walker has been a prominent figure in both the African American and American community. Born on February 9, 1933 in Putnam County, Georgia, Walker, in many of her pieces, covers the telling experience during the Jim Crow Era. As the youngest of eight, family had been a major factor in her life. Her parents, Minnie Tallulah Grant and Willie Lee Walker were very hardworking people who tried their best to provide their children with a sense of pride and responsibility. While her had father worked as a sharecropper, Walker’s mother worked seventeen hour shifts as a maid to help send Alice to college.…
Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” written in 1973 and it was widely studied and frequently anthologized short story, “Everyday Use” came out as one of the story collection In Love and Trouble. In “Everyday Use” she bring up many issue such as comparing relationship between heritage and tradition past. The story also question whether or heritage is something one use or something one possess.…
Scott Russell Sanders in his essay "looking at Women" has his views shaped by the people he is surrounded by. This trend is apparent even in his early child hood. He continues this trend thru early adulthood. Well into adult hood this trend show it self through his actions, and through the quotes that he chooses. Sanders forms his opinions from the opinions of others in this essay, and demonstrates thoroughly.…
While reading the short story "Everyday Use" written by Alice Walker, shallow and selfish come to mind as the story describes the oldest sister, Dee. Critics will argue on how selfish she really is though. According to Nancy Tuten, author of "Alice Walker's Everyday Use," Dee, the oldest sister, has grown accustom to getting her way and not sure how to act when she is told NO. Where Susan Farrell says in her article, "Fight vs. Flight: A Re-evaluation of Dee in Alice Walker's Everyday use," Dee is not as selfish as most people believe. Susan Farrell still says that Dee is selfish, but to a point, the rest is her view of her heritage and new way of copping with the oppressed society that they live in.…
Alice Walker 's _Everyday use_ is a story about a mother and her two daughters, Dee and Maggie. Mama, the narrator, of the story gives us a good description of both daughters by showing their different strengths and weakness. Dee and Maggie are as different as day and night but Mama love them both. Dee the older daughter is very beautiful, independent, confident, and educated but she is also arrogant, selfish and self centered. Maggie on the other hand, is uneducated and unattractive with burn scars on her face arm and leg leading to her having a low self esteem and being shy. Mama, an African American is a strong hard-working, independent, uneducated, and self sufficient woman who despite all these great qualities still have a low self esteem and lacks self confidence.…
Initially, you get the impression of Celie as a shadow in the background- the kind of person that you wouldn’t notice even if she was right in front of you. She was utterly silent in her life, never getting in anyone’s way or saying what was on her mind; until she discovered the healing power of writing a series of letters, addressed to God first, and then her sister. Through her writing, she discovers her true nature and the woman that she was supposed to be in her own life.…
- Overall, the article might be provoking, but the lacks of sources cause her argument invalid.…
Showalter, Elaine. “Quilt as Metaphor in ‘Everyday Use.’” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Eds. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 11th ed. New York: Pearson Longman. 2010. 469-470. Print.…
Maggie and Dee have unique personalities. When Maggie is first introduced in the story, she is nervous about her sister's visit. In fact, Dee's arrival makes Maggie so uncomfortable that she tries to flee to the safety of the house. Maggie is also intimidated by Dee, as shown when Maggie is unable to confront Dee about the quilts. Maggie gives in and says that Dee may have the quilts because she is not used to "winning". Unlike Maggie, Dee is a bold young woman. As a young girl, Dee has never been afraid to express herself. Her mother remembers that "she would always look anyone in the eye. Hesitation was no part of her nature". Dee also shows herself to be selfish when she sets her sights on the butter churn. Dee does not seem to care that her family is still using the churn. She states that she will "display part of it in her alcove, and do something artistic with the rest of it". The family artifacts are important to both Maggie and Dee, but for different reasons. Maggie values the family quilts for their sentiment and usefulness. She learned how to quilt from her grandmother and aunt who made the quilts. Her mother has been saving the quilts for Maggie to use after she is married. The quilts are meant to be used and appreciated everyday. Maggie hints that she sees the quilts as a reminder of her grandmother and aunt when she says, "I can 'member them without the quilts". Dee also values the family quilts. She sees the quilts as priceless objects to own and display. Going off to college has brought Dee a new awareness of her heritage. She returns wearing ethnic clothing and has changed her name to "Wangero." She explains to her mother and Maggie that changing her name is the way to disassociate herself from "the people who oppress [her]'? Before she went away to college, the quilts were not good enough for her. Her mother had offered her one of the quilts, but she stated, "They were old-fashioned and out of style". Now she is determined to have the quilts to…
“she used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice.” Mama says the words towards Dee and her past years in the house ever since she left. Dee has come back after many years, and she is coming back for her family’s heritage artifacts, that have been passed down for generations. Instead of coming back to her family, she only wants these items because she believes that this generation of her family is a disgrace. As Dee has come back she has actually started her own heritage and begins it like a tradition. Dee cannot see the family legacy of her name she was given at birth and changed to Wangero, which Dee believes is a more accurate symbol…
What does it mean to be beautiful? This is a question that has been discussed centuries on end and the answer has evolved through time. In Alice Walker's, “Beauty: When the other dancer is self”, we see Walker struggle with defining what beauty is after a tragic accident forces her to reevaluate. Walker’s journey to self-acceptance allows us to see the effects of beauty, as it dispels the notion that beauty is skin deep.…
He is one of the characters in the novel who die early in the story…