StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Short stories by Alice Walker - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Every day use is a short story written by Alice Walker presenting numerous challenges faced by black women within the American society. It is first person narration by Mama, the main character, and mother to two daughters. …
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER91.9% of users find it useful
Short stories by Alice Walker
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Short stories by Alice Walker"

Every day use is a short story written by Alice Walker presenting numerous challenges faced by black women within the American society. It is first person narration by Mama, the main character, and mother to two daughters. The setting occurs in the residence of mama and her daughters where they currently live with her younger daughter. With the expected homecoming of the elder daughter, Dee, they make preparations aimed at ensuring proper reception for expected visitors. The story remains total fiction, which is effectively utilised in delivering the desired message form the author.

The author utilises fiction in depicting the meaning of culture and the power of education, while having humour and irony within the story. The story presents the difference in heritage within family members, who shared similar cultural values while residing together. The visiting daughter changes name from Dee to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, a name which she cannot explain its origin. She claims that Dee is dead depicting the death of cultural heritage. Through the actions and behaviours displayed by the elder daughter, heritage becomes nullified and its existence ignored by the character.

Mama explains the origins of the family name, running through many generations, and appears hurt by the daughter’s failure to understand the importance and meaning of heritage within the setting of the story. Dee desires family quilts, which she views as artefacts of dead heritage. While desiring these articles, she intends to utilise them as wall hangings, which further displays her misunderstanding of meaning of family heritage. She even tries to speak a language she cannot understand. The mother and Dee are displayed as having different meanings of heritage (Walker 64).

The power of education becomes displayed through the mothers struggle to educate her children despite her lack of education. The education received by Dee, however, does not appear to benefit the family. Education becomes portrayed as having a divisive power upon the family. Dee, for example, utilises the intellectual gains from years of education to intimidate other family members. She greets Mama in an unknown African dialect, which intimidates Mama as she cannot answer. Through education Dee continues to force strange ideas upon the family members; consequently unsettling their domestic contentment with their lifestyle.

Education has further separated Dee from understanding herself to adopting obscure cultural practices. While Dee lacks respect for cultural heritage in a result of education, the lack of education makes Maggie accept her condition, hence becoming contented with her present lifestyle. The author effectively utilises humour in covering some observable difficulties within the context of the story. While Mama remains illiterate, which could be termed unfortunate for her, the author utilises her illiteracy in creating humour within the narration.

The pronunciation of Hakim’s name presents difficulties to the uneducated mother. She, however, creates humorous instances through creating her own pronunciation of the name. After continuously trying to pronounce the name correctly in vain, she resorts to addressing Hakim as what she thinks he is. She addresses him as a barber because she cannot comprehend the pronunciation for being uneducated. Through creating humour from regrettable situations, the author eliminates the sorry feeling of readers upon the characters (Walker 61).

Irony becomes presented through numerous occurrences within the context of the story. While Mama and Maggie pursue tiring preparations for the visit of Dee, the visit becomes relatively brief presenting irony on the preparations. While Dee views herself as educated and having superior capabilities over Maggie, the mother displays Maggie having better abilities. Dee seeks to take the quilts and protect them from harm, which could be inflicted by Maggie, the mother, however, appears contented with giving these family artefacts to Maggie.

Dee claims preservation of quilts remains paramount to family history though the does not understand what entails preservation of family history and heritage. For the mother, however, preservation of the quilts resides in risking destruction under the “permanent” care of Maggie. Narrations could be utilised by authors in passing messages to readers through the use of fiction. Application of fiction commonly enables writers to sufficiently enhance their ideas through writing. The utilisation of fiction remains easy because actual events cannot become sufficient in presenting desired ideas.

Through fiction, authors can create characters having the required characteristics to portray desired images. Through the utilisation of fiction, authors could represent desired characteristics of individuals within the story to pass certain messages to readers. Literary ideas of irony, humour, and diction among others could become presented within stories through fictions characters and information. The author of everyday use utilises fiction in delivering desired information to readers. The author uses fictious characters in presenting heritage power of education and ultimately involving humour and irony, within the story.

Reference Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women. Ed. Alice. Walker. San Diego: Harcourt, Inc., 1973. 56-66. Print.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Short stories by Alice Walker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words”, n.d.)
Short stories by Alice Walker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/english/1479593-fiction-analysis-essay
(Short Stories by Alice Walker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words)
Short Stories by Alice Walker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words. https://studentshare.org/english/1479593-fiction-analysis-essay.
“Short Stories by Alice Walker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/english/1479593-fiction-analysis-essay.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Short stories by Alice Walker

A bibliographical sketch of Alice Walker

She is considered by many as a widely travelled, controversial and versatile writer of literature that mostly touches on the African American community… Bibliographical sketch of alice walker Alice Malsenior Walker is a renowned African American writer, poet, novelist and activist.... Born on the 9th day of February, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia, alice walker was the last born child of eight children.... During this period of self seclusion, her only solace was reading and writing poetry and short stories....
3 Pages (750 words) Research Paper

Alice Walker Is One of the Best-Known Writers in the US

Another widely cited work of this period by alice walker is “Everyday Use” (1973), which tells the story of Maggie and Dee, two sisters, who were brought up in the same environment, by the same woman, in the same home.... The present paper will talk about the life period of one of the best-known and most highly respected writers in the US - alice walker.... … Today, alice walker is one of the best-known and most highly respected writers in the US, but in or-der to better understand her creative work, one is to know the biography of the writer: Walker's characters and images are inseparable from her own experiences....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Comparison of Two Short Stories

Everyday Use by alice walker and A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway are stories which pack a lot of meaning into a short space.... Comparison of Two Short Stories Everyday Use by alice walker and A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway are stories which pack a lot of meaning into a short space.... hellip; Both writers have used this skill to great effect in their stories. In Everyday Use, walker presents the reader with a study of heritage (White, 2001), and how it can be interpreted and contextualized by the value we place on objects and the uses we put them to....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Living as a Woman of Color in America by Alice Walker

When alice walker was a little girl in a small town call Eatonton, Georgia, when her life changed before her very eyes.... Robert Allen, staff writer for The Dallas Morning News wrote that alice walker's books are intense and very personal.... Although these works are all different forms such as short stories, novels and poems, they all have one thing in common: her personal experiences or someone close to her.... Walker was involved in the Civil Rights movement that she wrote about the Movement in some of her early poetry and short stories....
8 Pages (2000 words) Book Report/Review

Irony: The Reversal of What is Said and Expectations

This essay “Irony: The Reversal of What is Said and Expectations” analyzes examples of irony in alice walker's Everyday Use and William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily.... Dee knows that as the “educated” one in her family, she can easily manipulate her family, who once when she read to them, were “sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice” (walker).... When Dee arrives in a more “African” ensemble, walker seems to be inviting readers to think that Dee has changed and shed her superior ego complex....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Analyse Hills Like Elephants and Everyday use

Upon initial comparison, "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemmingway and Alice Walkers "Everyday Use" may appear to be starkly contrasting short stories.... While there are indeed many obvious differences between the pieces (like narration perspective, length, and… The primary theme in both works is sociocultural misunderstanding between members of differing groups, and each leaves a lasting impact upon the attentive reader/viewer regarding the complexity of Here Here Here Here An Analysis of "Hills Like White Elephants" and "Everyday Use" Upon initial comparison, "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemmingway and Alice Walkers "Everyday Use" may appear to be starkly contrasting short stories....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Critique of Alice Walker's Everyday Use Story

One of the short stories that are written by alice walker is “Everyday Use” (Bloom 163)The story is written at the time when the new generation was emerging and it was hard for people especially to break through the horrors of their past and/or to emerge from the specter of inequality.... The paper "Critique of alice walker's Everyday Use Story" discusses that the focus of the story is the Mama's disappointment in her daughter at showing no respect to her past and her heritage; she is so ashamed that Dee has even changed her character name in the story....
4 Pages (1000 words) Book Report/Review

Alice Walker - Living as a Woman of Color in America

The paper "alice walker - Living as a Woman of Color in America" demonstrates the story of the Afro-American woman-writer in the US.... The paper describes a story of alice walker as a voice for countless women that haven't been able to make their own known.... Although these works are all different forms such as short stories, novels, and poems, they all have one thing in common: her personal experiences or someone close to her.... hellip; walker's work would not have had the personal feeling that it has if she didn't put her related experiences into her work....
9 Pages (2250 words) Coursework
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us