Essay On The Use Of Symbols In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

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Symbols are intricately intertwined into all types of prose and can have very deep connections to it. Symbols are a method of repeating the theme or reflecting upon it from a different angle or view so that the theme or repeating ideas are more apparent and occurring in readers’ minds. Authors do not explicitly state all the information to the reader in any given prose in order for the reader to attain a sense of suspicion and to self – analyze the poem; therefore, in order for the audience to understand the entirety of a story, they must identify and interpret symbols to get a better understanding of the text. Likewise, author Alice Walker uses the quilt that was made by Mrs. Johnson’s ancestors make as a symbol of heritage and family in the short story “Everyday Use.”
Quilts are a very prominent type of art that have been …show more content…

The quilts contain pieces of clothes that people wore since the rise of African American culture, and the most important piece in the quilts mentioned is Great Grandpa Ezra’s uniform that he wore in the Civil War. Pieces of clothes like these represent the struggle that the narrator’s ancestors and African Americans in general had to undergo in order for the narrator to be able to live with freedom. It is a reminder that anything in life including freedom requires toiling and a resilient attitude. Not only does it represent the struggles, but it also represents the flourishing evolution of African American culture and lifestyle. The different pieces of clothes from different time periods display the evolution of clothing and art. Ever since the abolishment of slavery, African Americans have produced some of the greatest achievements in art, literature, music, and politics during the Harlem Renaissance, and the quilts are representative of all the successes of African American

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