Everyday Use Analytical Essay
Every person has a role model or someone they look up to. For some people it may be a super star who has set good morals or a pastor who has guided them through a difficult situation. Many people look up to a parent just like Alice Walker did. Walker has written many stories and novels which have been very popular and praised greatly. She says that the creativity for these works, along with her beautiful and colorful flower gardens, are all thanks to her mother Minnie Walker. Her stories are in fact very exuberant with beautiful diction and a great plot. In her short story "Everyday Use", Walker uses many literary elements such as characterization, imagery, and irony to piece together a wonderful story which many people have come to love.
Walker uses characterization throughout the entire story to define the characters and show their relationships with the others. The main characters of Dee, Maggie, and Mama are all round characters. This simply means that they have been given many characteristics and the reader knows much about them. Dee is an educated black girl who has gone off to college and been educated far more than her mother or sister. She has found a man that she is in live with and has even changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. This shows that she is so ashamed of her past that she doesn't even want to be called by her own name. When Dee corrected her mother in what she is to be called, her mom asked, "What happened to 'Dee'?" (Walker 713) and Dee replied with, "She's dead,… I couldn't bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me." (Walker 713). Dee now thinks that she is much better than the rest of her family because she now has a liver and an education. Maggie on the other hand is very innocent, unlike her sister Dee. Maggie is not the brightest child there ever was which is clear when Dee states, "Maggie's brain is like an elephant's." (Walker 714). This simile says that Maggie's brain is very small and she isn't very
Walker uses characterization throughout the entire story to define the characters and show their relationships with the others. The main characters of Dee, Maggie, and Mama are all round characters. This simply means that they have been given many characteristics and the reader knows much about them. Dee is an educated black girl who has gone off to college and been educated far more than her mother or sister. She has found a man that she is in live with and has even changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. This shows that she is so ashamed of her past that she doesn't even want to be called by her own name. When Dee corrected her mother in what she is to be called, her mom asked, "What happened to 'Dee'?" (Walker 713) and Dee replied with, "She's dead,… I couldn't bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me." (Walker 713). Dee now thinks that she is much better than the rest of her family because she now has a liver and an education. Maggie on the other hand is very innocent, unlike her sister Dee. Maggie is not the brightest child there ever was which is clear when Dee states, "Maggie's brain is like an elephant's." (Walker 714). This simile says that Maggie's brain is very small and she isn't very