Alice Walker’s story “Everyday Use” is about families (310-315).
Ms. Walker uses the Johnson family to show her readers what family means and how family members interact with one another. She shows how families fight ignorance, face change, find happiness, and feel love.
Ms. Walker shows that ignorance is something every family must face. In “Everyday Use,” Mama and Maggie lack knowledge of the world while Dee lacks understanding of her family. Dee read to her mother and sister of the outside world, “forcing words […] upon us two” making them “ignorant underneath her voice” (312).
Mama and Maggie did not need the knowledge of other places because they knew everything about the life they led; however, Dee was determined to make them learn. Dee’s lack of understanding towards her family is demonstrated several times, particularly in the way she views items from the house. She wanted to take pieces of the butter churn to use as decoration (315).
She wanted to take the hand-stitched quilts and hang them on the wall, rather than being “backward enough to put them to everyday use” (315).
In life, knowledge and understanding go hand in hand for most people; likewise, the lack of knowledge leads to lack of understanding. Different life experiences change the ways people see the world. Dee went away to school; she learned things that Mama and Maggie did not learn in their town. Likewise, Mama and Maggie knew things about the town and their family that Dee did not know or did not remember. The quilts Dee wanted so desperately came from pieces of her grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ clothing; the quilt-tops were hand-stitched by her grandmother, and the quilts finished by Mama and Big Dee (315).
The Term Paper on Lack Of Knowledge Thesis Examination
Lack of Knowledge Jay Stuckey "Knowledge is power." This is a famous phrase that has a lot of truth to it. What if the knowledge is incomplete? Is it still powerful or just a burden? Frankenstein and his creature are a prime example of the burden brought on one's life through incomplete knowledge. Frankenstein has a great grasp of knowledge of the physical world but lacks that grasp of knowledge ...
Dee wanted the quilts simply because they were hand-stitched, not because they were heirlooms. She did not want other family quilts because they were “stitched […] by machine” (315).
Ms. Walker also shows that change is a part of life in a family, although family members see the changes differently. Change seems to be Dee’s primary ambition, so that she forgets parts of herself; this loss affects how she sees herself as an adult. The contrast between Dee and her family is great. Mama and Maggie are relatively static; they do not see any reason to reinvent themselves as Dee does, and easily remember their family’s history. Maggie remembers that her Uncle Henry made the dasher Dee wanted and that “they called him Stash” (315).
Dee, the story’s only dynamic character, only remembers the things she chooses to, while Mama and Maggie remember almost everything about the family. Dee even says that Maggie has a memory “like an elephant’s” (315).
Change is a necessary part of life; every day brings something new, and the littlest detail might be the one to alter the course of a person’s life. Refusing to accept change will destroy a person, but it is reasonable for a person not to actively look for ways to change a life that is already enjoyable. Mama and Maggie do not have the same desire for advancement that drives Dee. The two are content with their lives; they do not need or want more money or knowledge than they have. Before Dee left, she told Maggie to “make something of [herself],” and Maggie just smiled (316).
Then she and Mama sat in their yard “just enjoying” (316).
Ms. Walker uses Dee’s need for advancement to demonstrate that family members may find happiness in different ways. Dee feels she must change her life dramatically in order to be happy; Mama and Maggie are capable of enjoying what they have instead of looking for more. Mama likes the house she and Maggie live in; she views the yard as an “extended living room” and calls it “comfortable” (310).
The Essay on Boned Woman Dee Family Maggie
... a man" (1). Mama, a round cahracter, lives a life that contradicts Dee's ideas. Mama contributes it mostly to her and Maggie's lack of academic intelligence. ... willing to understand another point of view, but wanting her family to change and bend to her ideas even after the short ... associated with her family, like she did not want to be associated with the house. Both were slow to change and confirm ...
She accepts her neighbors, the “beef-cattle peoples down the road,” and seems to respect their work ethic (314).
She takes her family at face value, and is content to be who she is. When Dee announced that she changed her name to Wangero, Mama insisted on learning how to pronounce it; she wanted to call Dee by the new name to show acceptance of Dee (314).
In most people’s lives, happiness isn’t a product of how much knowledge, money, or recognition the person has; an undereducated, poor farmer may be happier than a person who seems to have everything. Dee, however, is unable to be truly happy; she spends too much time pursuing another life to enjoy the one she was given. She hated the house of her childhood so much that when it burned, Mama wondered why Dee did not “dance around the ashes” (312).
She wanted to have fancy clothes and dress shoes (312), to live in a big city and have the things she thought city people had; she refused to let anything stand in her way. She did not know how to just be, like Mama and Maggie could, and she sacrificed the person she was in favor of the person she wanted to be.
Ms. Walker’s most important statement about families is that love binds people together. Although the characters in “Everyday Use” choose different lives, they still love one another. Mama wants her daughters to be happy, even if the daughters disagree with her and with one another about what the best may be. She also wishes she could be the way Dee wants her to be, although she knows that is not possible (311).
Maggie said that her sister could have the quilts, despite the fact that she wanted them herself, because she did not want her mother and sister to fight (316).
Dee wants Mama and Maggie to be happy, despite the fact that she thinks they have to follow her footsteps to be so. The family’s love is also apparent in the way Mama and Maggie remember other family members like Aunt Dicie and Grandma Dee (314, 315).
The Essay on The Artificial Family Toby Love Story
'The Artificial Love " In Anne Tyler's 'The Artificial Family,' the personality and character of three individuals are revealed: Toby, Mary and Samantha. The story has no real resolution and seems to end where it began. The characters learn and unlearn by the time the story is complete. There is no long introduction or development of the characters; the characters develop throughout the short ...
True families, whether in blood or in heart, always love one another although the members of the family might not understand one another. Love means trying to understand your family, even when you disagree. It is accepting change without forgetting who you are. It is trying to be happy yourself without denying another’s happiness. Love is the one thing that truly defines a family; there is no family without love.
AUTHOR’S NOTES:
Needs: longer intro, more quotations/paraphrases, works cited page
