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A gendered perspective in Everyday Use by Alice Walker
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Society Rules Archetypes in the short story, “Everyday Use”, demonstrates the author, Alice Walker’s, purpose to express the need for people to step outside society’s rules. Hence the archetype of the unhealable wound, shown by Walker through the character Maggie. As a young girl, Maggie was burned in a house fire, leaving her with scars across her body. As a result of this incident, “she has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle” (1). Furthermore, the incident of the fire left Maggie with a lasting impression of self doubt and a lack of confidence as she lives in the shadows of those around her. These thoughts have been put upon her by society’s expectations and succumbs the little confidence Maggie had. At the
Willow, an action adventure that premiered in May 1988, is an action adventure movie that creatively displays real life situations through fantasy and reality. In the beginning of the movie willow is plowing his field and tells his children to go play but no to go too close to the river. Willow Ufgood's (Warwick Davis) children find a baby after hearing it cry and Willow reluctantly takes it in. Willow and his family end up falling in love with the baby but are required to take the baby. After they are attacked by the queen’s pigs, Willow sets out on an adventure, along with several other adventurers, to take the baby to the first human they see. By showing archetypes and heroism, Willow relates to American culture and accurately displays
Flannery O’ Conner’s short story, “A good man is hard to find”, explains emotional reactions, betrayal, and violence. The misfit is an example of a devil figure. This character archetype is best seen when we see the misfit’s true colors shine as he murders the grandmother and her family. O’ Conner uses setting archetypes best when she uses a clear bright sky or an open dirt road, which can mean a variety of outcomes. This helps understand the many plot twists in the story. We best see symbolic archetypes as the three bandits including the misfit. They represent a mock of the holy trinity and represent evil. “The fall” is a good archetype that shows the misfit’s lack of innocence when he betrays the grandmother. This best explains the whole
When analyzing literature from an archetypal perspective, one does not simply look at the character’s behavior in that literary piece. Rather, when using the archetypal theory, one connects the traits and actions of the characters in the literary work, the settings, the surroundings, and the situations to a familiar type of literary character. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the characters Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Reverend Hale exhibit common archetypal behavior and fit into a certain archetypal figure.
“We meet ourselves time and time again in a thousand disguises on the path of life” (Jung). Writer’s usually have archetypes in their stories to engage the reader's understanding. Throughout the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed, she encounters several archetypes both positive and negative. She was impacted by the people, which made her accomplish her journey hiking the Pacific Crest Trail alone and getting herself back together. There are various archetypes that play a big role in Cheryl's physical and emotional journey. The archetypes make her who she is today and without them she wouldn't be able to transform.
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.
What’s that in the sky? A bird? A plane? No, it’s the sidekick! Wait, something is wrong with this situation. It should be the hero who is getting recognition and hype from curious spectators while the sidekick is ignored, but this is not how it should be. The importance of the loyal retainer is so great that without them, the hero would not be the person with such power and nobility. They should not be ignored completely, and authors, directors, and creators have come to this realization that a loyal retainer makes for a great story. This realization has created an archetype used in many pieces of literature across time and cultures everywhere. A loyal retainer has the task of showing a hero’s power and nobility; therefore, this character
Literary tropes are used by authors as a means of figurative language in literature, i.e. they are a figure of speech in which words are used with a nonliteral meaning (“Trope” 1). With this in mind, readers come across the utilization of literary tropes in certain works of American literature. Specifically, readers encounter tropes in the short stories, “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, and “A Distant Episode” by Paul Bowles. Within these stories, disability is the literary trope that is explicated. In the literal sense, disability, in most cases, is a physical “restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being” (Lefers 1). However, in reference to the mentioned exemplars of literary trope, the authors of these works indicate that disability is not always physical. Rather, it can be mental, that is to say, one who is “disabled” cannot comprehend a particular conception. In the midst of disability in these stories, a sense of superiority is expressed by the main characters and each has a self-realization of some sort that extinguishes their feeling of arrogance.
Elements of characterization summarizes each character and the role played. It’s the combination of the way the author shows the readers what a person in a literary situation is like. Elements of characterization include some of the following; protagonist, antagonist, flat, round, static, dynamic character and so forth. After viewing the film “The Help”, there was many different types of characters, but only a few stood out from the rest. Within my essay I will discuss the characters that stood out the most to me.
An archetype in literature is defined as a typical example of a certain type of person. A character in a poem or play can be placed into many different archetype categories. Archetypes help a reader to gain a better understanding of who a character in the work is on the inside. This deeper insight into the character allows the reader to follow the flow of the story easier and more effectively. There are many different archetypes that can help to advance the story. One of the most useful in advancing this story is the typical powerful character. Whether it be supernatural or cunningness this character always comes out on top in the situation and holds the most control over others and their actions. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”,
Glasspell, Susan Trifles. Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing 4th Ed.
are characters that can be defined by their traits as certain archetypes. All novels and films contain archetypes that allow their audience to understand and relate more to
The fairy tales that we have become so familiar with are embedded with love, imagination and enchantment. In truth, these are just common archetypes; originally fairy tales had a much darker backdrop. They were once symbols of sexualisation and brutality as not everything ended happily ever after. Deriving from promiscuous and overlooked on goings from the 19th century (such as molestation), these ideas were later suppressed when they became children’s tales. John Updike described traditional fairy tales as ‘The pornography of their day’, hence they contained elements of wish-fulfilment and gratification such as rape, pleasure and attainment. This is true to a certain extent but they also consisted of violence, mutiny and injustice. An exploration
Author Alice Walker, displays the importance of personal identity and the significance of one’s heritage. These subjects are being addressed through the characterization of each character. In the story “Everyday Use”, the mother shows how their daughters are in completely two different worlds. One of her daughter, Maggie, is shy and jealous of her sister Dee and thought her sister had it easy with her life. She is the type that would stay around with her mother and be excluded from the outside world. Dee on the other hand, grew to be more outgoing and exposed to the real, modern world. The story shows how the two girls from different views of life co-exist and have a relationship with each other in the family. Maggie had always felt that Mama, her mother, showed more love and care to Dee over her. It is until the end of the story where we find out Mama cares more about Maggie through the quilt her mother gave to her. Showing that even though Dee is successful and have a more modern life, Maggie herself is just as successful in her own way through her love for her traditions and old w...
Archetypes are everywhere, both in real life and in literature around the world, and humans know them all. American Gods is a fantasy novel written by Neil Gaiman in 2001. The book revolves around the premise that every god that has been believed in has manifested into human form and has traveled to America through the minds of immigrants. Shadow Moon is the main character in this novel, which follows his adventure with the American gods. Wednesday, Odin, is Shadow’s boss and also the strongest advocate for fighting the new gods: internet, plastic, and TV. Laura is Shadow’s wife, who died in a car accident at the beginning of the novel, and is staying alive with the help of a magical golden coin. Other characters that
The movie The Purple Heart, was based on a real-life situation in Japan when some US soldiers were captured and tortured by the Japanese. In the movie, the way the American soldiers are treated is inhumane. The article by Keen describes how countries perceive their enemies. The aim of this paper is to discuss the movie The Purple Heart, linking the events to the related Keen archetypes.