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Essays on symbolism in literature
Importance of symbolism in literature
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In today’s society many blacks misconstrue what it truly means to love blackness. I believe that it is imperative to make the distinction between appreciating black history and appreciating blackness. Of course, the two should by no means be mutually exclusive, but to my own understanding, sometimes it can be easy to appreciate the attainments of blacks, while still instilling personal checks on our own behavior in public because we are afraid of being equated with an inferior culture and class. In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, Walker displays the reality of what it looks like for an African American to confuse fetishizing blackness for loving blackness. Dee, a main character who battles with this conception is clearly in need …show more content…
In Walker’s “Everyday Use”, the main character Mama who embraces what it means to love blackness clearly has an accurate idea about what “heritage” is, unlike her daughter Dee. For Mama, the family objects in her house are infused with the presence of the people who made and used them. The family heirlooms are the true tokens of Dee’s identity and origins, but Dee knows little about the past. Dee says, “I can use the church top as a centerpiece for the alcove table… and I’ll think of something artistic to do with the dasher.”1 She later continues and expresses, “Can I have these old quilts?...Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!...She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.” Dee views her authentic heritage as dead or something of the past, rather than as a living, or an ongoing creation. She desires the sculpted dasher and family quilts, however she considers them to be ancient rarities of a lost time, reasonable for show yet not for real or pragmatic use. She has set herself outside her own history, dismissing her genuine legacy for a built one. Dee should know that loving blackness is not the fascination of dated materials, it is the understanding and appreciation of all that was produced through these things, utilizing the same products regardless of what things new have been created to do the job better. These family heirlooms are not
Heritage is one of the most important factors that represents where a person came from. In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, this short story characterizes not only the symbolism of heritage, but also separates the difference between what heritage really means and what it may be portrayed as. Throughout the story, it reveals an African-American family living in small home and struggling financially. Dee is a well-educated woman who struggles to understand her family's heritage because she is embarrassed of her mother and sister, Mama and Maggie. Unlike Dee, Mama and Maggie do not have an education, but they understand and appreciate their family's background. In “Everyday Use,” the quilts, handicrafts, and Dee’s transformation helps the reader interpret that Walker exposed symbolism of heritage in two distinctive point of views.
No matter where one is from or where one finds themselves today, we carry with us in some way or another a specific heritage. Certain events and circumstances can lead to someone trying to forget their heritage or doing everything in their power to preserve that heritage. Alice Walker’s “EveryDay Use” was published in 1973, not long after the civil rights movement, and reflects the struggles of dealing with a heritage that one might not want to remember (Shmoop). Alice Walker is well known as a civil rights and women’s rights activist. Like many of her other works she uses “Everyday Use” to express her feelings on a subject; in this case African American heritage. Through “Everyday Use” it can be seen that Alice Walker has negative feelings about how many African Americans were trying to remove themselves from parts of their African American culture during the time of the short story’s publishment. This idea that Walker was opposed to this “deracinating” of African Americans coming out of the civil rights
In Alice Walker’s story “Everyday Use,” symbolism, allegory, and myth stand out when thinking about the characters, setting, and conflict in the story. The conflict is between the mother and her two daughters (Maggie and Dee). There is also the conflict between the family’s heritage (symbolized by the quilt, bench, and butter chum) and their different ways of life. Dee chose a new African name, moved to the city, and adopted a new way of life while Maggie and her mother have stay behind. The quilt (the most important symbol) represents the family’s heritage in that it is made of scraps of clothing worn by generations of family members. The quilt has been sewn by family hands and used on family beds. It has seen history and is history. Maggie and her mother see that that history is alive but Dee thinks it is as dead as her name. Dee does not see that name as part of her heritage. By analyzing these symbols, a number of possibilities for a theme can be seen. Walker could be suggesting that to understand the African-American heritage, readers have to include the present as well as the past. However, the theme could be that poverty and a lack of sophistication and education cannot be equated with ignorance. Lastly, she could be telling her readers that dignity or self-respect rise from and are virtually connected to one’s entire heritage- not just a selected part of it.
Traditions are crucial to identities in order to preserve family values. Those values shape who we are. Without heritage and traditions, we are at risk of losing sight of who we are, and eventually those tenets will perish. In “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker, three women internalize heritage differently; Dee doesn’t value her heritage, Maggie values her family’s heritage, and, in the end of the story, Mama realized the true embodiment and the meaning of heritage.
Dee tries to convince her mother that Maggie should not be given the quilts because Maggie would "probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use" ( Walker 388) and wear them out. Momma comes back with a hope that Maggie does use them since the quilts have been stored in t...
When Dee finds out that her mama promise to give the quilts to her sister, Dee gets very angry and says that she deserves the quilts more than Maggie because Maggie would not take care of them like she would. Dee feels that she can value and treasure heritage more than her sister Maggie. Dee does what she wants, whenever she wants and she will not accept the word no for any answer. “She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that "no" is a word the world never learned to say to her.” Maggie is used to never getting anything. Throughout the entire story, it says that Maggie gives up many things so Dee can have what she needs or
Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” centers on a mama, Mrs. Johnson, and her two daughters, Maggie and Dee, and how they view their heritage. In “Everyday Use”, the author, Alice Walker, uses symbolism not just to convey imagery and increase the story’s emotional impact, as is typical for most literature, but also to tell parts of the story, be more descriptive with her depictions of characters and objects within the story, give back story, and communicate more of her characters’ personalities. Like most writings, “Everyday Use” contains symbolism in the form of objects and actions, but the symbolism in Everyday Use is very notable and striking because it is materialized in rather unorthodox ways and places, such as characters’ names, in the back
The characters in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker serve as a comparison between how family heritage and traditions are viewed. Walker illustrates that heritage is represented not by the possession of items or how they look, but buy how they are used, how one’s attitude is, and how they go about a daily lifestyle. Every memory or tradition in “Everyday Use” strengthens the separation in the relationship between Dee and her mother, the narrator, which involves different views on their family heritage.
A very famous person once said that people are who they are because of their past. The past is the foundation upon which people’s success is built and this is seen in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” about two sisters, Dee and Maggie, and their Mama. Dee, fortunately, was able to get a fancy education in the city with the support of her church, and reach a financially stable position, unlike her rural and traditional Mama and sister Maggie. In an attempt to connect to her past, she tries to gather traditional heirlooms and belongings, such as a quilt to showcase, but faces resistance from her family with differing values. Alice Walker, in her short story “Everyday Use”, applies indirect characterization through appearance, uses a vitriolic
Regretfully, though readers can see how Mama has had a difficult time in being a single mother and raising two daughters, Dee, the oldest daughter, refuses to acknowledge this. For she instead hold the misconception that heritage is simply material or rather artificial and does not lie in ones heart. However, from Mama’s narrations, readers are aware that this cultural tradition does lie within ones heart, especially those of Mama’s and Maggie’s, and that it is the pure foundation over any external definition.
In her short story Everyday Use, Alice Walker talks about a Mother Mama, and her two daughters Dee and Maggie, their personalities and reactions to preservation of their family heirlooms. She shows that while Dee has been sent to school for further education, Maggie is left at home and brought up in the old ways. Mama often dreams and longs for the day she can be reunited with Dee, like in the TV shows. She knows this may not be possible because Dee would read and shower them with a lot of knowledge that was unnecessary, only to push them away at the right moment, “like dimwits” (313); Mama and Dee have different conceptions of their family heritage. Family heirlooms to Mama means the people created, used
Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," is a story about a poor, African-American family and a conflict about the word "heritage." In this short story, the word "heritage" has two meanings. One meaning for the word "heritage" represents family items, thoughts, and traditions passed down through the years. The other meaning for the word "heritage" represents the African-American culture.
Alice Walker used symbolism to convey the importance of heritage in her short story "Everyday Use," by using the sisters' actions, family items, and tradition. Dee does not appreciate her heritage like her sister and mother. She does not see the importance of family traditions. The churn top, the bench with her ancestor's rump prints, the butter dish, and the quilts are all symbols of their heritage. Dee is only interested in the items because they make great decorations. Heritage is very important factor in a person's life. Everyone should learn to appreciate their family history.
In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," the message about the preservation of heritage, specifically African-American heritage, is very clear. It is obvious that Walker believes that a person's heritage should be a living, dynamic part of the culture from which it arose and not a frozen timepiece only to be observed from a distance. There are two main approaches to heritage preservation depicted by the characters in this story. The narrator, a middle-aged African-American woman, and her youngest daughter Maggie, are in agreement with Walker. To them, their family heritage is everything around them that is involved in their everyday lives and everything that was involved in the lives of their ancestors. To Dee, the narrator's oldest daughter, heritage is the past - something to frame or hang on the wall, a mere artistic, aesthetic reminder of her family history. Walker depicts Dee's view of family heritage as being one of confusion and lack of understanding.
In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, we hear a story from the viewpoint of Mama, an African American woman, about a visit from her daughter Dee. Mama, along with her other daughter Maggie, still lives poor in the Deep South while Dee has moved onto a more successful life. Mama and Maggie embrace their roots and heritage, while Dee wants to get as far away as possible. During her return, Dee draws her attention to the quilt. It is this quilt and the title of the piece that centers on the concept of what it means to integrate one’s culture into their everyday life.