Everyday Use Alice Walker
Name: Sarif Udavar Mohammed Nazaaf
Course: EN110-44 Composition and Literature
Date: 1/5/2014
Everyday Use- Alice Walker
Mrs. Johnson’s narration is honest and forthright. The reader sees the story”Everyday Use” by Alice Walker through Mama’s eyes. Dee and Maggie,Mama’s daughters do not make life any easier for her. Throughout the story, the element of surprise is kept going by not mentioning her full name. As the narrator, Mrs. Johnson provides information about her life and the differences between her daughters. Her life has been harsh and filled with hard work, much evident to a common day African American Woman.
“I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. I can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing…”
Mama has never been to school, and she cannot read. Most of her life she has worked like a man and worried about her daughters. She goes right into thinking about her daughters at all times in her life, whether or not all her hard works will pay off is the big question of the story.
Maggie, her youngest daughter, has become Mama’s companion. She worries about Maggie because she has lost her connection to the real world. Severely injured when the family’s house burned several years before, Maggie is both emotionally and physically scarred.
Neither of the women understand Dee who represents everything that both Mama and Maggie are not. She is pretty, self-confident, educated, insensitive, and extremely selfish. Unconcerned about Mama and Maggie, Dee hates her life at home. When she goes off to school, Dee becomes interested in the Black Muslims and changes her name to Wangero.
The narrator's experiences with white men have obviously made her feel pretty fearful, which may explain a lot about her timid and non-confrontational nature. Living in a racially oppressive time has clearly had a profound impact on who this narrator is.
Using the mother to narrate the story, the author points up the importance of both aspects of black
Course: EN110-44 Composition and Literature
Date: 1/5/2014
Everyday Use- Alice Walker
Mrs. Johnson’s narration is honest and forthright. The reader sees the story”Everyday Use” by Alice Walker through Mama’s eyes. Dee and Maggie,Mama’s daughters do not make life any easier for her. Throughout the story, the element of surprise is kept going by not mentioning her full name. As the narrator, Mrs. Johnson provides information about her life and the differences between her daughters. Her life has been harsh and filled with hard work, much evident to a common day African American Woman.
“I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. I can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing…”
Mama has never been to school, and she cannot read. Most of her life she has worked like a man and worried about her daughters. She goes right into thinking about her daughters at all times in her life, whether or not all her hard works will pay off is the big question of the story.
Maggie, her youngest daughter, has become Mama’s companion. She worries about Maggie because she has lost her connection to the real world. Severely injured when the family’s house burned several years before, Maggie is both emotionally and physically scarred.
Neither of the women understand Dee who represents everything that both Mama and Maggie are not. She is pretty, self-confident, educated, insensitive, and extremely selfish. Unconcerned about Mama and Maggie, Dee hates her life at home. When she goes off to school, Dee becomes interested in the Black Muslims and changes her name to Wangero.
The narrator's experiences with white men have obviously made her feel pretty fearful, which may explain a lot about her timid and non-confrontational nature. Living in a racially oppressive time has clearly had a profound impact on who this narrator is.
Using the mother to narrate the story, the author points up the importance of both aspects of black