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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page research paper that first briefly discusses biographical background on author Alice Walker and then discusses the themes and characterization used in her short story “Everyday Use.” Bibliography lists 4 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khawuse2.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
as the poverty of her childhood and suffering an accident when she was eight that left her scarred and blind in one eye, Walker went on to become "one of
the most prolific (and) controversial African American novelists of the latter half of the twentieth century" (Danielle, 1999). First published in 1973 as part of a collection of short stories,
Walkers short story "Everyday Use" has garnered a great deal of critical attention and acclaim (Whitsitt, 2000). The story is set during a time (late 60s/early 70s) when African Americans
were struggling to define their ethnic identity on their own terms and many blacks attempted to rediscover their African roots," while also rejecting and denying their "American heritage" (White, 2001).
"Everyday Use" explores the way in which a mother comes to perceive her own personal heritage, which rejects the superficiality of her oldest daughters values. A principal feature of
"Everyday Use" is Walkers excellent use of characterization, as Mrs. Johnson and her daughters, Dee and Maggie, come across to the reader as being thorough real and true-to-life. Mrs. Johnson
is the narrator and the story opens with Mrs. Johnson waiting with her daughter Maggie for her oldest daughter, Dee, to arrive home for a visit. As she waits, Mrs.
Johnson muses about the past and, in so doing, tells the reader a great deal about both herself and her daughters. Mrs. Johnson describes herself as a "large, big-boned
woman with rough, man-working hands" (Walker, n.d.). She realizes that Dee would rather have her mother "a hundred pounds lighter" and with skin "like an uncooked barley pancake" (in other
words, a light-skinned black), but Mrs. Johnson also realizes the advantages to her size and strength, as she describes how she once "knocked a bull calf straight in the brain
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