In the short story Everyday Use, by Alice Walker, the author portrays two very different lifestyles. Through the eyes of two daughters, Maggie and Dee, who have chosen to live their lives in very different manners, the readers can choose which character to identify most with by deciding which characters values suits them best. Dee, who goes out to make a name for herself while leaving her past behind, in comparison to Maggie, who stays back with her Mama and makes the most of the surroundings…
A Fearless Girl Who Only Cares About Her Heritage “Everyday use” text is about a short story written by Alice Walker in the 1970s. As, “Everyday use” a film version by Bruce Schwartz released in 2005. In the “Everyday Use” text Mama is telling a short story about a single mother with two daughters. In the text Mama explains, that her two daughters are quite different from each other. Dee a young wild woman who is willing to search and make a vivid image of her heritage. Maggie a shy,…
The novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young African American girl in Ohio who faces great adversity as a result of her race, gender, and age. She wants nothing more than to have blue eyes, believing that they would make her beautiful and improve her quality of life. She lives in a small house with her mother Pauline, her father Cholly, and her brother Sammy. In an excerpt titled “Battle Royal” from Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the narrator faces…
engaged. In her Article Transgression as Poesis in The Bluest Eye Shelley Wong’s starts by saying how Morrison passage “rendered in the style of the Dick and Jane series of primers, and how the novel lays bare the syntax of static isolation at the center of our cultural texts. It then goes on by describing what society should be in the eyes of minorities. In Wong’s article the main idea was what Morrison commented in her interview that she had "used the primer, with its picture of a happy…
Growing up in Harlem in 1972 is not easy as an African American, not to mention a woman as well. “The Lesson” is a short story written by Toni Bambara that retells her adolescent years of growing up in Harlem and spending her summers learning from Miss Moore, the only woman to attend college in the neighborhood. Because Miss Moore attended college, the parents of the children see it fit for her to watch over them during the summer. She teaches the children an array of subjects, but in the story…
Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, is a writer,and she is known for many auto-biographical novels and she also writes poetry and essays. She also loved to study music, dance,and drama. From 1963 to 1966 Angelou was involved in the black civil rights movement. Maya Angelou wrote this specific poem called; “Phenomenal Women”. Angelou has a very creative way of saying things throughout her poem. Angelou talks about a woman in the poem that talks about herself a lot she repeats the…
Starting in the short story, “Thank You, Ma’am,” by Langston Hughes, Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones is one of the protagonists. In the beginning, she almost gets her purse stolen by Roger, a kid who wanted blue suede shoes. Eventually, Mrs. Jones forgives and starts to care for Roger. Throughout the story, Mrs. Jones has done acts of honesty and honor. Therefore, I believe that that Mrs. Jones is upright all throughout the story from the beginning, middle, and end. In the light of…
According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, something you desire is something you long or hope for. Desire is this hole that you ache to fill. In “Remnants of a Carnival”, Clarice Lispector expresses the desire she had as a child to experience carnival and finally feel like an individual, by escaping the demands of her family. Through perceivable increases in her desires to be a part of carnival and to feel like a woman, and by showing that she was in a position that warranted escape, Lispector…
In the play “Ruined” by Lynn Nottage, Mama Nadi serves the life of many women living in the Congo during the war. Her desires offer conflict with each other causing problems to appear for her and others. Her strategy of self-isolation helps her deal with many conflicts in order to self-achieve satisfaction. While her strategy does help her in many occasions it also creates self-obstacles she has to deal with on her own. She is unable to create relationships with other becomes a consequence of…
The theme of Sacrifices between the families is portrayed in the texts. Written text ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ by Jodi Picoult and short story ‘The Gift of the Magi’ by O’ Henry. Media text ‘Mamma Mia’ directed by Phyllida Lloyd and Script ‘Billy Elliot’ by Stephen Daldry. These texts introduce a range of sacrifice that can occur in family relationship; married couple, mother and child, father and child and between siblings. All of these texts are connected sacrificing their most valuable. The Gift…