Essie Mae Everyday Use Analysis

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In the short stories Coming of Age in Mississippi and “Everyday Use”, Anne Moody known as Essie Mae, and Mrs. Johnson otherwise known as Momma, share similar characteristics in the way they are alienated by their actions in the two short stories. Essie Mae and Momma are both strong, independent black women who live in the time period of segregation and intense animosity between the black and white races. Furthermore, they are both experiencing conflicts of interest among their family members closest to them and their selves throughout the entirety of the two stories. Nevertheless, Essie Mae from the Coming of Age in Mississippi and Momma from “Everyday Use” possess the modern condition because of the way Essie Mae and Momma are alienated from particular members of their families and their behavioral actions to their surroundings.
In the short story “Everyday Use”, the modern condition is shown when Momma faces isolation from the outside world by the lifestyle she has chosen to live and the conflict she has with her daughter Dee. She and her youngest daughter, Maggie, live in a shack in the middle of a cow pasture away from society. Momma does most of the grueling work such as slaughtering the animals to provide food on the table and other tasks considered back then to be a man’s job. She did
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Aspects such as, in “Everyday Use”, Mammas alienation from the way she lives in seclusion with Maggie, and not understanding the fast changing pace of modern society. Lastly the modern condition in Coming of Age in Mississippi is shown through Essie Mae’s isolation from her family, race, and the friends she acquired while tutoring also, from her inability to understand why violent actions were being oppressed upon her and her

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