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analysis of magical realism
analysis of magical realism
"Everyday Use" symbolism
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In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, Mama describes both the personalities and relationships of the two sisters Dee and Maggie. Although the sisters spend a lot of time together throughout the story, they are portrayed as total opposites of each other. Both sisters highly differ from one another throughout the story. Dee is seen more as a static character, whereas Maggie goes through changes, thus making her a dynamic character. Mama says that Maggie isn’t very confident in herself due to the burns that she has on her face and arms because of a house fire that happened about twelve years ago. Maggie is described as someone who is not very pretty or bright neither. Throughout the story, she shows signs of envy towards her sister Dee. Although Walker portrays Maggie as a girl with many flaws, there seem to be a few positive attributes to Maggie’s character. Maggie knows a lot about her family history. What she lacks in book smarts, she makes up for in knowledge of her background. Walker uses imagery to convey Maggie’s personality and other traits. The author describes how Maggie resembles a “dog run over by a car” (476). Walker does not use much dialogue to convey Maggie’s character. Although Maggie seems quiet, the few words that she does speak throughout the story are very telling about her personality. For example, Dee admires all the things in the kitchen and Maggie knows that Uncle Buddy whittled the churn out of an old tree they have, then when she comes across the dasher, she wasn’t sure who had whittled that. When Dee looked to Mama for the answer, it was Maggie who answered, showing that she has a little more spark than what appears to the reader. Although Maggie knows who whittled the dash, the tone th... ... middle of paper ... ... with the people that some might refer to as old fashioned and learning from their well-being and embracing what they have to say. Maggie’s development also adds to the message that Walker is trying to portray throughout the story, because Maggie’s character embodies the essence of “Everyday Use”. In “Everyday Use”, Walker really wants to emphasize the importance of a person’s family history and how important it is to know about each individual’s family history. Maggie, although not very pretty nor intelligent, knows much about her family history. Walker shows that it’s not always about flash and obnoxiously showing that someone knows about their heritage and culture. It’s more about the idea that someone can quietly sit back without having to put on a show and be assured that because he or she knows their history, he or she will know a lot more about themselves.
They may argue Maggie could of escape from the slum life and she didn’t have to let it take a hold of her. They may also say that Maggie was her own downfall and demise by letting a boy drag her down to the mud and damage her good name. However, because of her upbringing, it was hard for her not to be affected by her environment and social factors.
Maggie is ignorant. Mama and Dee compare Maggie to animals throughout the story stressing the idea of how uneducated she is mentally and or physically. For an example, “Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some .
Maggie is introduced into the storyline quite subtle and quickly becomes the main focus of attention by the other three main characters. From the beginning, Maggie is a harsh contrast to the slum environment she has to endure. She "blossomed in a mud puddle ... a most rare and wonderful production of a tenement district, a pretty girl" (16) that not only had the physical beauty that her family seemed to lack, but also the hope that she could be better than what was around in her environment. Therefore, the slum environment that surrounds her contrasts her character greatly. "None of the dirt of Rum Alley was in her veins" (16) as she became the talk of numerous males in the neighborhood.
Throughout the story really stresses the importance of heritage and suggests different ways to view one's heritage. Anyone could have his/her own way to view his/her heritage as Dee and Maggie did. One might value the attachment to one's ancestors via the heritage more than the heritage itself, and one might think the other way. Walker seems to be recommending her preferred way to view the heritage, which was Maggie's view on heritage. Walker tells the reader that they can pursue the connections to their ancestors by accepting and preserving their heritage in proper way, and it is more important to keep being connected to the ancestors than to keep the heritage in better shape.
The saying never judge a book by its cover is brought to mind when I read this story. "Everyday Use" has three main characters; Mama, Maggie, and Dee. The only things we know about these characters are through Mama's eyes. Mama is telling the story, so everything we read is from what she says. It is hard for us to know the true personalities of the characters because we learn of them through one characters point of view. It is also easy to misunderstand the characters because of the information the story reveals.
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different concepts and experiences. All communication is achieved through the use of symbols. Symbols take the form of words, sounds, gestures, ideas or visual images and are used to convey other ideas and beliefs. A symbol is an energy evoking, and directing, agent. Symbolism that is something that stands for another, it can be place, object, or a person. Human cultures use symbols to express specific ideologies and social structures and to represent
In the story “Everyday Use” Walker weaves us into the lives of Momma, Dee, and Maggie, an underprivileged family in rural Georgia. Momma is described as a loving, hard working woman who cares more about her family’s welfare than her appearance. The conflict comes along with Momma’s two daughters Dee and Maggie whose personalities are as different as night and day. Dee, the younger, is an attractive, full figured, light skinned young lady with ample creativity when it comes to getting what she wants and feels she needs. Maggie on the other hand, is darker skinned, homely and scarred from the fire that destroyed the family’s first house. Throughout the story we are told about Maggie’s timid and withdrawn behavior. Her own mother described her as “. . . a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car . . . That is the way my Maggie walks . . . chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire.” (Handout, Walker) She is constantly overpowered by her dominant sister who “held life in the palm of one hand, that “no” is a word the world never learned to say to her” (Handout, Walker). It seems as if Walker herself find Maggie inferior, seeing as how she is a minor character in the story. Things begin to turn around for Maggie towards the end when she receives the family’s...
In the commencement of "Everyday Use" Dee is styled as lively and Maggie as unclear by their own mother but towards the end of the story reader comes to know that Maggie has inner strength and a heartiest feelings for the people in her own family; whereas Dee appears quite uninformed and confuse about the real meaning of heritage and its worth. (Robins Elizabeth, 2010). The Mama character finds that the best way to protect the essence of the quilts is to end risks and confusions as depicted in Maggie’s eternal “care.” The mockery of this is not disagreeable but emotional which preserve the substances and take them out of everyday use because they consider it as disrespectful because it disrespects the objects’ intended. However the usage of heritage things in daily life is very important because it keeps the history of family
Right off the bat, Maggie’s actions start to illustrate her feelings towards Dee’s visit. Mama sees Maggie is nervous as she awaits Dee’s arrival. Mama knows that through out her eldest daughters visit; Maggie will “stand in corners homely and ashamed” (Walker 315). It is very clear by the way that Maggie attempts to run back inside the house when Dee pulls up; that she wasn’t looking forward to this visit. Her fleeing
Maggie lives with a poor and dysfunctional family and a hopeless future with only the small possibility of change. The environment and setting she grows up in do not support anything more than a dull, dreary and pathetic future for her. An old woman asks Maggie's brother Jimmy: "Eh, Gawd, child, what is it this time? Is yer fader beatin yer mudder, or yer mudder beatin yer fader? (Maggie, 10)" while he runs to Maggie's apartment one night. The lack of love and support of her family hinders Maggie's ability to live a happy and fulfilling life. Without knowing that someone loves her no matter what she does or how she acts Maggie may feel desperate enough to change her situation by any means she can, and without any useful guidance. Even without any positive influences Maggie grows up different from the low-life's living with and around her. Crane explains Maggie's uniqueness in the passage "None of the dirt of Rum Alley seemed to be in her veins. The philosophers up-stairs, down-stairs and on the same floor, puzzled over it" (Maggie 16). Maggie's uniqueness gives her the chance to improve her life, but only a slim chance. Even though Maggie differs from the people around her they remain sleazy, making it harder for her to change her life because she must go outside of her community for help.
First, Walker shows how Dee and Maggie confidence affect their relationship. Maggie lacks confidence, because she is shy, which calls her to hang in the background and not make eye contact when people are around. Her lack of confidence stems from her being a home body, isolated and under educated. Maggie will
Alice Walker is a renowned African American novelist and poet who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982. She is a Georgian, and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in New York in 1965. Everyday Use is one of her most widely read popular short stories in which she addresses how African Americans were struggling with their cultural terms and identities in this country. The background of the story is around late 60s to early 70s shortly after the onset of African American Civil Right Movement; according to the clues in the plot of the story such as the Lone Star pattern (Texas) on the rags (from Great Grandfather’s uniform in Civil War) stitched on the quilts, the story should take place in the southern United States. I will discuss the racial
In this story, Maggie is a lot like her mother. They both are uneducated, loving, caring, and allow Dee to run over them. Maggie has been through more things than her mother has though, because of the incident that happened. Maggie has scars like Emily, except Maggie’s scars are from a house fire (319). The house fire has impacted Maggie’s life tremendously, since she is very self-conscious and shy. Walker stated that Maggie is “ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs (318). The mother is protective of Maggie and will be there for her whenever she needs her too. Even though her mother knows all her struggles, she still supports her and pushes her to be better. I think that is one reason she pushes her to marry John Thomas, because she wants her to become her own person and to be strong (319). The mother of “Everyday Use” is opposite from the mother in “I Stand Here Ironing”, because she is there for her children no matter what their financial status
The differences in attitude that Dee and Maggie portray about their heritage are seen early in the story. When the family's house burned down ten or twelve years ago, Maggie was deeply affected by the tragedy of losing her home where she grew up. As her mother describes, "She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground" (409). Dee, on the other hand, had hated the house. Her mother had wanted to ask her, "Why don't you dance around the ashes?" (409). Dee did not hold any significance in the home where she had grown up. In her confusion about her heritage, it was just a house to her.
While Maggie is brown-skinned and dark-haired, Lucy, her cousin, is her contrary: "It was like the contrast between a rough, dark, overgrown puppy and a white kitten" (58). And the appearance influences the character: everybody is satisfied with Lucy and that is why Lucy is satisfied with herself. Maggie on the contrary is viewed as almost an idiot in her effort to be admired and loved.