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Alice Walker's birth
Alice Walker was born on February 9th, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia. -
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Alice Walker
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The Fire
Around eleven years before the day the story takes place, the family's previous house burned down. It was the start of the family's divergence. -
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Everyday Use
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Dee and School
The story never gave a date for the major events like when Dee went to school or even when the present was. However, Dee did go to school a few years before the setting of the main conflict. Mama got the money to send her to Augusta from her church. -
Highschool
Alice Walker graduated from highschool as valedictorian and prom queen. -
Graduation
Alice Walker graduated Sarah Lawrence College in New York City in 1965. This was the same year that she published her first story. -
Johnny Carson
The story included an allusion. Mama spent a view minutes daydreaming of being a part of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where Dee would jump up on stage and thank her for all the things she has done for her, and that she never could have gotten to where she was without her help. Mama came to her sense though and realized that Dee would never do something like that. -
The Visit
This is when the majoriy of the story happens. In the exposition, it is just Mama's thoughts about Maggie and Dee while she is standing in the garden. Then comes the start of a very long rising action. Dee comes to visit from school and brings along an unknown man whose name was to long for Mama to learn. She just called him Hakim.a.barber. She spends the night talking down to her mother and sister about all the things she's learned and why she changed her name to Wangero. -
The Lame Dog
Before Dee got to their house, Mama stood in the garden thinking about Maggie using a simile. She said she was like "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." -
The Visit
The falling action just consists of Dee saying goodbye and wishing Maggie a good life. It's the conclusion that is the most interesing. While Dee is getting into her car with the man that she brought, Maggie, the depressed lame dog quietly sitting in the corner, accepting of her small lot in life, smiles. -
The Visit
After dinner, Dee tries to take the quilts that Mama and her sister made out of their mother's dresses. Mama was supposed to give them to Maggie. At last comes the climax. Maggie gives the quilts to Dee but Mama forces them upon Maggie in a fit of anger. Dee is insulted and exclaims that Maggie will use the quilts for 'everyday use' when they should be hung up and kept nice because of their priceless-ness. Mama disagreed. -
Everyday Use
During the year 1973, Alice walker published a few stories part of the collection "In Love and Trouble:Stories of Black Women" of which Everyday Use was a part of. -
John Thomas
Maggie had been severely burned during the fire, so her mother expected that she would be left to marry John Thomas with the bad teeth. -
The Color Purple
In this year, Alice Walker publised her most wellknown book, "The Color Purple." -
Evaluation of the Story
The story, narrated by Mama, definetly had a very stressed tone, like everybody was just ready to snap and the only thing keeping them was a forced politeness. Other than the tension riddled throughout, it was full on references to the family's almost dysfuction. None of them, not Mama, Maggie, or Dee, could relate to each other in any way. This also brought attention to the devisive power of education. Dee, who has been to school and has a thirst fo knowledge, came across very arrogant. -
Evaluation of the Story
This added distance to the mile already between her and Mama. This distance was the main conflict, while Maggie sat off to the side trying not to be noticed. I beleive that Maggie symbolized the result of the lack of understanding; this, unemotional, acceptance of a could-be-better relationship. Besides Maggie, another major symbol was the quilt. The quilt was the entire heritage of the family, the only thing they had in common, and also the only thing that seperated them. -
Evaluation of the Story
That irony is sewn into the crevices of the conflict.
Also, Maggie's smile had meaning. Not only did it show Maggie's growth in her participation in the family, but it sybolized the fact that the entire family had grown into a better one. The one thing that had seperated them, their heritage, had been confronted, and the first step to solving any problem, is admitting that you have a problem.
Finally, the theme of the story is to accept who you are and where you come from. -
Evaluation of the Software Program
I loved Timetoast. It was the easiest of them all and easiest to use. At least for me it was, and it actually worked on my computer so i guess that's a plus too. -
Evaluation of the Story
Your family is your history, and you cannot change that despite your efforts to. Even changing your name won't change who you are.
Overall, I didn't quite enjoy reading the short story, but i did enjoy the message that it conveyed.