The Importance of Home
The place where you hang your hat, where the heart is, is a link to the past, and through its door one walks into the future: home can be many things t one person. To many Georgians, home is the place where they come from, the place where the famiy line can be traced from memories and keepasakes. In "Everyday Use", Alice Walker explores the importance of home to a family of three women in Georgia. This story is told from the eyes of Mama, Dee and Maggie's mother. Walker uses Mama to characterize her daughters and herself in an unbiased light that only a mother could love or know. Mam is a "large, big boned woman wit rough, man working hands", "who can kill and clean a hog as mersilessly as 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 academis intelligence. She usually allows Dee to receive what she wants because of this difference. By the end of this short story, Mama puts her foot down. Mama describes Maggied, a dynamic character, with a tone of pity. "She knows she is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passed her buy"(3). Maaggies is accustomed to being pushed aside. Maggie is characterized in this s
Dee did not desire to be associated with her family, like she did not want to be associated with the house. But of course all this does not show on television. Dee saw the quilt only as art that was temporily valuable. Irony or contradictions between ideas and reality, can be seen in what Dee would like her family to be and what really is. Waiting for Dee's arrival, her mother co;ntemplates that difference: "In real life,I am a large, big boned woman, with man working hands. Both were slow to change and confirm to the actions of the world outside of her family's own tight circle. She returns home unahnged, not willing to understand another point of view, but wanting her family to change and bend to her ideas even after the short story concludes. Dee felt she was different from the rest of her family.
Common topics in this essay:
Dee Maggie,
Walker Mama,
Waiting Dee's,
,
Alice Walker,
short story,
Dee Maggie's,
heritage dee's,
boned woman,
pushed aside,
maggie house,
sullen attitude,
seen dee,
world outside,
dee maggie,
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Acceptance Essays
