Comparing Everyday Use By Alice Walker And Good Country People

People often feel as though their lives are not what they expect them to be so they make the decision of going out and getting an education. This education often changes the way people look at others who were in their previous situations meaning social class. The education sometimes makes people forget who they truly are because they feel bigger than the people they came up with. In the two texts, “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor the main characters Dee and Joy try to manipulate people even though they lack something in their lives. Dee is the main character from the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker she attended college directly after high-school and she never returned home. Dee returns

These two girls both lack something in their lives that are critical Joy doesn’t have a leg and her health is declining overall and Dee doesn’t have knowledge of her history. Joy lost her leg at a young age from a shooting accident but she does have a prosthetic. The prosthetic leg doesn’t deter her from being this outspoken rude person who loves to talk down on her family. She makes other always feel bad because she though that her education entitled her to have a higher status. Joy learns the hard way that people aren’t always what you expect them to be, Manley Pointer. Pointer was a bible salesman. Joy though she could use that to her benefit along with the fact that Manley seemed to be interested in Joy because he was complimenting her consistently when he visited her. She thought that things would be fine and until she got to the barn with Manley. The two sat in the barn and conversed for a while and then he decided to try and get her to confess her love. The conversation between the two went completely left. Joy decide to tell Manley that she was 30 years old instead of 17 like she originally said and with this opportunity Manley continued on with trying to get them to confess her love. Walker wrote, “The boy’s look was irritated but dogged. “I don’t care,” he said. “I don’t care a thing about what all you done. I just want to know if you love me or don’tcher?” and he caught her to

She went to college after high school and didn’t return home after she graduated. She got married to a Muslim man and she became so concerned with her family’s history. When she arrived, she became so concerned with taking pictures of the farmhouse she grew up in a soon as she got their she didn’t even greet her mother and sister Maggie right away. When she entered the home she immediately began to scan the room for things that she felt were good enough to go into her apartment in the city, she also wanted included things that she felt were good enough to impress her friends and to show her where they are from. When she reached the home, she mentioned a few things that stood out to her which included a butter churn and 2 quilts. The two quilts in particular stuck out to her because the two were hand sew by her grandmothers and aunt , along with her mother. Maggie her sister states, “She can have them, Mama,” She said, like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her. “I can member’ Grandma Dee without the quilts’” (Walker). Maggie her younger sister who still lived at home with her family let her sister know she could have them simply because she knew that it wasn’t the quilts that were going to make her remember she’s remembers the years they spent together unlike her sister who was never really around the house as much as Maggie and this was giving Maggie as sense of pride