...Hannah Huie Kate Evans Composition II 05 February 2015 Analysis of Characters in “Everyday Use” Alice Walker’s short story, “Everyday Use,” illustrates the importance of family and heritage. Many times in the story, Ms. Walker brings up heritage and the importance of recognizing of what it means to belong to something or someone. Her characters each go through change. Mama seems to switch her favoritism from Dee to Maggie and realizes that Dee is not the perfect child she had come to idolize her as being. Dee comes back home to realize that she no longer able to get her way as she used too and that her place in the household has changed. Lastly, Maggie is recognized as having the gift of knowing her heritage and having the ability to add to it by being able to quilt. As we read through the story we see that Ms. Walker paints a wonderful picture of difference between Dee and the family she left behind. Mama is the voice behind this short story. She narrates and you only see the story through her point of view. As she waits for her daughter Dee to arrive she has a fantasy about her life being on a TV show. She dreams of being a beautiful women, whose hair glistens in the spotlight of the stage, whose witty tongue has the famous TV personality Johnny Carson trying to keep up. As the reader continues they would be able to see that Mama’s true view of herself is not as flattering, she doesn’t mince the truth, and doesn’t have any false illusions about her looks...
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...The author of "Everyday Use," Alice Walker, portrays that society would value a person such as Maggie more so than her sister Dee. The portrayal of the two characters differs in a huge way considering that Maggie is portrayed as an unattractive, non confident person compared to Dee. The value of Maggie to society is not that she is less confident, but that she has a strong understanding of her heritage and family history that she would pass on to future generations. On the other hand, Dee is seen as a person who has lost her heritage and has become superficial in material things and bigger ideas than her family. Walker shows the portrayal of Maggie and Dee's value of family history when the family quilt is mentioned. The quilt, "had been pieced by Grandma Dee than Big Dee and me [Mama] had hung them on the quilt frames on the front porch and quilted them" (75). This illustrates the importance of the quilts history it has in the family. Walker also gives light to how Maggie would cherish and use the quilts and add to them just as the past women in her family. Whereas Dee only wants the quilts to hang up, ignoring the importance of using the quilt and adding to it has to the...
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...No matter how hard some try, there will always be a preferred child in the family. In Everyday Use, Mama’s favorite is chosen seemingly based on who she relates to more. With two children that have vastly different paths from one another, one was bound to relate to her more. Too, the flagrantly dismissive and insulting behaving that is flaunted by Dee does not aid her relationship with Mama. Maggie is Mama’s favorite child because she can easily relate to her simple aspirations and her lack of formal education, while Dee wishes to be a part of the quickly changing world. The primary contribution of Mama’s favoritism towards Maggie is their shared simple attitude. Mama makes various statements that allude to this such as when Dee is attempting...
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...Characters in “Everyday Use” Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” examines the conflict between family members that are debating over whether to use or to preserve pieces of their family’s heritage. Mama, the mother of Maggie and Dee, is a self-reliant and hardworking woman who can perform any task that a man can. She lives at home with Maggie, who is rather shy and is embarrassed by the burn scars covering her arms and legs. Both Maggie and Mama are awaiting a visit from Maggie’s educated sister, Dee. Upon Dee and her male companion’s arrival, Mama and Maggie stand in awe while gazing at Dee’s exquisite dress and golden earrings. Shortly after her arrival, Dee announces...
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...“Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to them? That is the way my Maggie walks.” Maggie, one of the main characters in Everyday Use, is barely recognized or even seen by people in the world. She’s quiet and withdrawn, hardly a presence even when she does manage to utter a complete sentence. Learning that she’s been this way since she was trapped in a house fire really puts some perspective on her situation. Her rough appearance hides her caring and gentle nature. Maggie's life is full of sadness and silence. In addition to being a burn victim, she's had little education, has trouble reading, and is affected by crippling shyness and awkwardness. Yet, despite her weaknesses, Maggie's...
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...someone's ignorance, pride, or simply their lack maturity, a person's understanding of a situation within the family can be skewered by their faulty point of view as shown in Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” We all come from different backgrounds....
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...Literature In Chinua Achebe’s short story “Dead Men’s Path” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” the reader explores the lives of two individuals whose misguided actions and noble intentions cause grief amongst those around them. While Achebe’s story focuses on modernization and moving forward, Walker’s story is about holding on to the past. Through the authors’ use of conflict, character analysis, and point of view, I was able to recognize the deeper meanings in both stories. The stories do more than just entertain; they reminded us that our heritage is with us everyday and that we shouldn’t change who we are in order to impress others. Achebe’s story is about Michael Obi, a “young and energetic man” who is appointed the headmaster of a village school. He hopes that his ideas and “passion for modern methods” will help turn the school into a place of beauty. After Obi finds a path running across the school compound he quickly works to block it, hoping to impress the inspector. Although Obi’s intentions appear good he ends up making matters worse as conflict arises between the school and the outside village. Another story dealing with noble intentions is Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”. When Mama’s oldest daughter Dee returns home for a visit, Mama is somewhat disheartened after finding out that Dee has changed her name. After the family eats dinner together the author’s use of conflict starts to emerge. As Dee comes across some old quilts she becomes frustrated...
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...Realism is a set of conventions that we as viewers understand, in a given historical moment, to be a representation that corresponds to reality. Through the close analysis of soap opera – and with reference to at least three academic sources, outline the conventions of realism and explain how they are used effectively in British soaps. Realism has been universally recorded as the quality of representing a person or situation in an accurate way. Ever since the conversion from radio to television, British soap operas have used realism effectively to attract and sustain audiences. Coronation Street (1960- ), the British soap opera set in a fictional town in Manchester and Eastenders (1985- ), the British soap opera set in a fictional London Borough are currently the two main soap operas in Britain where realism is used effectively to draw audiences. The original producer of Eastenders once commented, “We don’t make life, we reflect it” (Geraghty, 1991:32). This shows that representing reality has always been the main aim in this genre. This also shows that they are not trying to create their own town, with their own conventions, but rather reflect what they see in everyday life into the soap opera. One main way in which realism is conveyed is by the sense of place and/or community. A sense of place can easily be established by the title sequence alone. For example, Eastenders’ title sequence consists of a map of London’s east end (Allen 1995: 67). This sets up the sense of...
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...Righteous Dopefiend Critical Analysis In Righteous Dopefiend (2008), authors Phillipe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg examine the world of the Edgewater homeless community, an indigent group that established an encampment beside a freeway near San Francisco, California. While it is evident throughout the book that the main characters have unique lived experiences, it remains clear that they all share one major struggle: substance abuse. The authors provide an in-depth exploration of the everyday lives of the Edgewater homeless community, depicting some of the gruesome realities that are associated with heroin addiction. Throughout the book, the authors highlight the intersectionality of homelessness, substance abuse, poverty, race, class, gender,...
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...Running Head: EAT CAKE, AN ANALYSIS Eat Cake A Book Analysis Erica Grossman University of Florida Abstract This paper analyses the novel Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray and how the characters in the novel use a variety of occupations to deal with complex life issues as well as every-day challenges. The relationship between health and the use of occupations is explored and examples from the novel are used throughout to support the link between health and wellbeing, and occupation. This paper also explores the different sociocultural views of “occupation” and how these relate to the characters in the novel. Eat Cake: A Book Analysis In the novel Eat Cake, Jeanne Ray cleverly and humorously captures the day-to-day issues of one family’s life during a couple of trying months. Ray develops and describes each character in such a way that one can identify with each character and his or her struggles. The story is centered on Ruth Hopson whose roles are those of wife, mother, and daughter. We also meet her recently unemployed husband Sam, teenage daughter Camille, her mother Hollis, her estranged father Guy Nash, and Guy’s occupational therapist, Florence Allen. Ray describes how each character utilizes everyday occupations to help each deal with the stresses and challenges that life brings their way. Ever since childhood, Ruth has found the baking of cakes to be an extremely soothing and stress relieving...
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...The Symbolism of Quilts Designs used in quilts are not necessarily symmetrically organized; rather the art of quilting reflects an aesthetic understanding by the makers of what the quilt represents for them in their everyday experience. (Barkley-Brown, 1990). The shape of a quilt results from the meaning that the individual quilters give to the pieces that compose it. This art form is known as gumbo ya ya in Creole which means everybody talking at once. (Barkley-Brown, 1990). Alice Walker’s usage of quilts in her short story Everyday Use reflects the importance and significance of a quilt in African-American history. A quilt embodies heritage and personal stories and events; a quilt is similar to a person’s own journey in that each scrap stitched into a quilt represents “a person’s world view [which] is made up of events, circumstances and influences that shape how [she] see[s] and respond[s] to the world.” (Eshbaugh, 2008, August 21). Narrated by the mother of the two main characters, the symbolism of the hand-stitched quilts in Everyday Use represents the conflicts between two sisters who each experience the world and their heritage differently. The story begins with Dee, the eldest daughter, first homecoming since leaving for college. Walker describes Dee as a woman who no one ever told “no.” Dee is well-educated, wears bright colors that accentuates her full-figured body and exudes confidence. However, Dee will never be satisfied in life, and she...
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...GUIDELINES FOR STAGE PLAY ANALYSIS FORMAT OF PAPER 1. Use 8 ½ x 11 white paper. 2. Use Times New Roman font, Font size 12, no Boldface, and use of All Caps 3. Put page numbers. 4. Double spaced. 5. 1 inch margin in all sides 6. Put your STUDENT NUMBER (NO NAMES, SURNAMES OR NICKNAMES) on the upper right hand of the paper. And your section across it. 7. Include your own title of your essay. GUIDE QUESTIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS 1. Word Count SHALL NOT BE LESS THAN 3,000 WORDS. 2. As you ponder these elements, answer the following questions about the play, in paragraph format. Use complete sentences and good grammar to develop a good paragraph response to each question. Your style need not be formal, but it should be polished and thoughtful. WRITE YOUR OWN THOUGHTS, and DO NOT use outside internet sources or any other resources, other than for context. Steps to follow in writing a play analysis: CONTEXT: Consider the period setting of the play, and then research the events of the world during that time period. For example, if you are analyzing a play that takes place during the great depression, you will need to research and understand the current events and everyday human concerns of that period in order to write a dramaturgical analysis. The time setting is the most important part of dissecting the inner workings of a play. Characters are defined by their environments, just as we human beings are. So understanding the world events of a play's...
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...Critical Play Analysis: A Raisin in the Sun 1. Thought/Theme/Ideas When reading a play, it is often difficult to obtain understanding and describe the theme. This particular play, A Raisin in the Sun, allowed for the meaning of the play to be conveyed through the characters. After completing the read, the play seemed to reveal that family is most important in life. In all of the stresses and events that take place within each person’s life, it is hard to become side-tracked on the family aspect of life. Throughout this play, money seemed to be the struggling conflict; the husband of Lena passed away and money was left over for the family. With the Youngers being a lower income family they were wanting to utilize the money for different purposes. Their lives are quite difficult in addition to them living a neighborhood that is experiencing some racial issues. Lena, the mother, was watering her plant everyday in hopes that it would prosper into something (pg. 28) By doing so, it showed that she was determined and committed to dreams and aspirations while the rest of the family were in conflict over the use of the 10K. While money is important in the everyday activities of life, it is not the most important aspect. If one does not have anyone to share the experience with, what is the use of the money. It would be best to let the money decide its purpose on its own (bills) rather than having everyone else deciding it individually; relationships can be destroyed that...
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...While there are some differences in audience and scale of reach between writing for reality television and social media, the similarities in their use of person and persona, and how those lines are blurred, are interesting and merit some analysis. A reality television writer’s job is to take the everyday moments of the chosen cast and develop a story that creates drama in order to keep the attention of its audience. This calls for countless hours of analysis of developing relationships between the cast members and crafty editing to angle storylines for dramatic affect. In his article, “Of Losers and Moles: You Think Reality TV Just Writes Itself?” Derrick Speight, a reality TV writer, says his job is to “sniff out what I think the story will be, then craft the interviews or situations that will draw it out”. (Speight p.351) He essentially dissects the mundane and reassembles it to highlight an interesting line for the audience. The writers do not script the lines of the cast members but they “make sure the right interview questions are asked to round out what appear to be the prominent stories.” (Speight p.352) In essence, they take the mundane, private real life and personality of cast members and create a public one. The lines become blurred between what is the real person and the character portrayed on television. Writers use that...
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...there is a main character, whether the main character is more important than the rest is only to discussion. These two series are similar in many ways, because they both use the same episode-structure. However, there is one little difference. The group of friends in “How I Met Your Mother” are five whereas the group in “Friends” are six. Either way, these two TV-series contain many similarities except for a quite significant difference in a central cinematic technique. 2. The two popular sitcoms “How I met your mother” (2005) and “Friends” (1994) contain several similarities. They are both built up on a group of friends who have very unique individual personalities. We follow their everyday life in New York; mainly staying at the local bar/coffee shop or in an apartment, which some of the characters lives in. But then again they are not completely similar. “How I met your mother” is, as the title reveals, about how the main character met his wife, which he tells his kids in the year 2030. Then the sitcom takes us through his life in the year 2005 among his friends, trying to find his future wife. “Friends” is on the other hand about 6 friends relationship to each other and their yet different lives. They are both themed as romance and comedy. 3. I have chosen two different TV-series but at the same time, they have lot in common. In this analysis, I want to say something about the TV-series cinematic techniques and also something about the character sketches. And then...
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