Alice Walker wrote a short story called “Everyday Use,” based on her life as an African in early America. The story was made into a short film that followed the theme (African-American culture) of the story by keeping the plot, settings, conflict/climax, and characters the same. However, the story and short film differ in dialogue and point of view.
“Everyday Use,” short film was more story oriented as it showed what Mama only described in the text: “Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe.” (WALKER 120) Mama was explaining how Maggie would feel when Dee comes to visit. In the movie, viewers had to wait and see until Dee’s arrival to see Maggie’s reactions, it wasn’t told by Mama, but rather interpreted on screen by a moving image. This was done by changing the point of view from first person to third person. The movie did have a voice over by Mama as Maggie and herself raked the leaves before Dee’s arrival, but that was not the same as the story, as the dialog in the story starts on the day Dee arrives but talks about what they did the day before: “I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon.”(WALKER 120) Mama is talking about what she did the day before, but in the movie she was shown doing it.
The Essay on The Deserving Daughter Maggie Quilts Dee
Having a genuine understanding of the true meaning of heritage is sometimes expressed in simple ways. In Alice Walker s short story Everyday Use, makes a far more effective statement in painting out that authentic black culture becomes artificial when its artifacts are worshipped for their own sake and not used as they were intended (Callahan 402). In this short story, a woman is torn in the ...
The reason for such a perspective change only makes sense, for scenes such as Mama and Dee arguing while Maggie is listening in the kitchen: “Maggie is now standing in the door. I could almost hear the sound her feet made as they scraped over each other.”(WALKER 126) Mama realized that Maggie was listening in because she stood by the door. In the movie they show Maggie listening and getting more ticked off to the sounds of Dee’s harsh words. Obviously if Mama was telling the story from first person point of view, she would have no idea of what Maggie was doing in the kitchen. So changing this in the movie was essential to the story but more importantly to the viewers. It was essential to adjusting to the new point of view, by not only showing Mama’s events but more of the characters in the story. The viewers got to see the other half of the pie; it was more dramatic to see Maggie’s feeling actually being hurt, than just assuming she heard the whole argument.
While adjusting the point of view, another aspect had to be changed from the story, which was dialogue and scene structure. Dialogue had to be added just to replace many of Mama’s narration that was cut out. A major scene reconstruction was taking out the house being burnt down and replacing the time cut with a longer and in-depth dinner scene. During the interview with Alice Walker, it was shown that the director shot the house being burnt down, but decided to leave it out. Only two reasons could come to one’s mind, either he had a time limit on the film, and decided that the dinner scene was more important as it added vital information to each of the characters. The other reason is having the house burn down would be too graphic and confusing to the genre of the film. He wanted to keep the film to a specific genre without confusing the audience by thinking there’s more to the story than there really is. Another major change that may have affected the story’s genre is the character of Maggie. In the text, Maggie came off more simple than she did in the movie: “Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him?”(WALKER 121)
The Essay on City Girl Maggie Dee Mother
The way in which a parent raises their child has a direct impact on the way the child perceives itself as well as how siblings perceive each other. In addition, the social atmosphere surrounding the child and any major crisis's that happen in their life, contribute to this perception. In the story " Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, the daughters, "Dee" and "Maggie" are affected by all three ...
The way the text wrote it, as if Maggie came running next to her like a little 5 year old simple child or “dog,” as Alice Walker puts it. In the movie, Maggie just ran next to Mama as someone who was shy rather than simple. Her chin was not to her dress and she didn’t really run, just more of a hop in her walk. If Maggie in the movie was simpler, viewers may have assumed that the house fire is the reason for it, as they don’t have Mama’s narration to help guide them. The idea that Maggie is slow is still portrayed when Dee describes how careless she will be with the Grandma’s quilts, but that also just seems like she is uneducated rather than mentally challenged. A minor dialogue change was done during the dinner scene when Dee is explaining how Maggie is like an elephant: “‘Maggie’s brain is like an elephant’s,’ Wangero said laughing.” In the movie the line, “…’She can remember everything…’” was added, explaining to the viewers that an elephant has a great memory rather than an insult. Most of the dialogue change was similar to this, making it more understandable to a younger demographic of viewers.
Most dialogue added was during the dinner scene, such as Mama saying grace, or bringing up the fact that Dee wrote only 2 letters in 6 years. The director added these scenes to really give a pure sense of what type of character Dee was, and so the viewers would not feel as much sympathy for Dee in the end when she tried to take the quilts. Dee was the antagonist in this film, and the director made it clear by adding such dialogue. It was added more by not having that kiss between Dee and Maggie at the end; by showing Dee had no remorse toward Maggie. It would have been a challenge for the director and the actress that played Dee to portray such hate and love at the same time and for the viewers to understand what was going on.
The Essay on Alice Walker Dee Maggie Sister
Mama's Daughters In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use," tells us a story of two daughters', Dee and Maggie Johnson, with different ideas about their identities and values. Dee a young woman who, in the course of a visit to the rural home she thinks she has outgrown, attempts unsuccessfully to divert some fine old quilts, earmarked for the dowry of a sister, into her own hands. Dee is Mrs. ...
The Director had his reasons for doing what he did in adjusting the whole story but still having to retain the plot, theme, and basic character’s orientations. The things adjusted by the director were for the purpose of the film; by what he felt would make it more entertaining to viewers and acceptable by the film community (keeping the specific genre).
Overall, the movie and text gave a different perspective of the story, one being Mama’s view (the text), and the other being a spectator view (the film).
