Lesson 7: Everyday Use by Alice Walker
by Alice Walker
I. Background Knowledge
1. Walker, Alice (1944- ), American author and poet, most of whose writing portrays the lives of poor,
oppressed African American women in the early 1900s. Born Alice Malsenior Walker in Eatonton, Georgia, she
was educated at Spelman and Sarah Lawrence colleges. She wrote most of her first volume of poetry during a
single week in 1964; it was published in 1968 as Once. Walker's experiences during her senior year at Sarah
Lawrence, including undergoing an abortion and making a trip to Africa, provided many of the book's themes,
such as love, suicide, civil rights, and Africa. She won the American Book Award (see National Book Awards) and
the Pulitzer Prize for her best-known work, the novel The Color Purple (1982), which was praised for its strong
characterizations and the clear, musical quality of its colloquial language. The novel was made into a motion
picture in 1985, and Walker's book The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult (1996) contains her notes and
reflections on making the film.
Walker’s works:
Novels and short story collections
 The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970)
 Everyday Use (1973)
 In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women (1973)
 Roselily (1973)
 Meridian (1976)
 The Color Purple (1982)
 You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories (1982)
 Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self (1983)
 Am I Blue? (1986)
 To Hell With Dying (1988)
 The Temple of My Familiar (1989)
 Finding the Green Stone (1991)
 Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992)
 The Complete Stories (1994)
 By The Light of My Father's Smile (1998)
 The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart (2000)
 Now Is The Time to Open Your Heart (2005)
 Devil's My Enemy {2008}
Poetry collections
 Once (1968)
 Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems (1973)
 Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning (1979)
 Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful (1985)
 Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems (1991)
 Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth (2003)
 A Poem Traveled Down My Arm: Poems And Drawings (2003)
 Collected Poems (2005)
 Poem at Thirty-Nine
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
Expect nothing
Non-fiction
 In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983)
 Living by the Word (1988)
 Warrior Marks (1993)
 The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult (1996)
 Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism (1997)
 Go Girl!: The Black Woman's Book of Travel and Adventure (1997)
 Pema Chodron and Alice Walker in Conversation (1999)
 Sent By Earth: A Message from the Grandmother Spirit After the Bombing of the World Trade Center
and Pentagon (2001)
 Women
 We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For (2006)
 Mississippi Winter IV
In 1982, Walker would publish what has become her best-known work, the novel The Color Purple. The
story of a young black woman fighting her way through not only racist white culture but patriarchal black culture
was a resounding commercial success. The book became a bestseller and was subsequently adapted into a
critically acclaimed 1985 movie as well as a 2005 Broadway musical play.
Additionally, Walker has published several short stories, including the 1973 Everyday Use, in which she
discusses feminism, racism against blacks, and the issues raised by young black people who leave home and lose
respect for their parents' culture.
Her works typically focus on the struggles of blacks, particularly women, and their struggle against a racist,
sexist, and violent society. Her writings also focus on the role of women of color in culture and history. Walker is
at her best when portraying people living in the rural areas where the writer was born and grew up. As an African
American writer, Walker is particularly interested in examining relationships among African Americans. In many
of her works she depicts rural black women with sympathy and respect and gives them voices, for as a Southerner
she was aware if the ways in which Black Southern culture was thought of as backward by Northern Black Power
ideologies.
Walker is a respected figure in the liberal political community for her support of unconventional and
unpopular views as a matter of principle.
The Color Purple
The Color Purple (1982) has generated the most public attention as a book and as a major motion
picture, directed by Steven Spielberg in 1985. Narrated through the voice of Celie, The Color Purple is an
epistolary novel—a work structured through a series of letters. Celie writes about the misery of childhood
incest, physical abuse, and loneliness in her "letters to God." After being repeatedly raped by her stepfather,
Celie is forced to marry a widowed farmer with three children. Yet her deepest hopes are realized with the
help of a loving community of women, including her husband's mistress, Shug Avery, and Celie's sister,
Nettie. Celie gradually learns to see herself as a desirable woman, a healthy and valuable part of the
universe.
Set in rural Georgia during segregation, The Color Purple brings components of nineteenth-century
slave autobiography and sentimental fiction together with a confessional narrative of sexual awakening.
Walker's harshest critics have condemned her portrayal of black men in the novel as "male-bashing," but
others praise her forthright depiction of taboo subjects and her clear rendering of folk idiom and dialect.
1982 年是艾丽斯·沃克的事业巅峰期，她发表了小说《紫色》（The Color Purple）。《紫色》
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1983 年一举拿下代表美国文学最高荣誉的三大奖：普利策奖、美国国家图书奖、全国书评家协会
奖。1985 年著名导演斯皮尔伯格将其拍成电影，当电影在艾丽斯的家乡上演时，艾丽斯受到了家
乡人的盛大欢迎。《紫色》从此成为美国大学中黑人文学与妇女文学的必读作品。《紫色》全书由
94 封书信构成。主人公西丽亚写给上帝的信、西丽亚写给她妹妹内蒂的信（被退回）、内蒂写给西
丽亚的信、西丽亚所爱的女人莎格给西丽亚的信。故事的背景是艾 丽斯·沃克所熟悉的美国南方佐
治亚乡村，故事大约发生在二十世纪初。14 岁的黑女孩西丽亚被继父强奸，生下的两个孩子也被
继父送走，后来西丽亚的妈妈死了，继父再婚。西丽亚被嫁给一个已有四个孩子的鳏夫 X 先生，妹
妹内蒂被迫逃走，辗转到非洲。西丽亚受到 X 先生的百般虐待，但后来在 X 先生的情人莎格的爱与
帮助下，逐渐转变为一个有独立个性的人。在艺术手法上，《紫色》采用的是传统的书信体小说的
形式。但艾丽斯·沃克突破了以往书信体的基本构思和创作原则，并不注重细节、真实，而是着力
夸张、变形的手法，具有强烈的超现实性和诗意。
自七十年代中期之后，美国许多重要的女作家都开始尝试具有实验性的对女性自我的建构和解
构的小说形式，如莫里森（Toni Morrison）的《最蓝色的眼睛》（1970）、马丽安娜·赫瑟的《说
话的房子》
（1975），这些作品的出现，标志着她们对以男性为主的叙述方式（在很多方面都不能充
分表现妇女生活的特征）的传统，以及传统的女权主义小说的可贵反省与大胆更新。
《紫色》在叙事技巧上的独到之处还体现在艾丽斯·沃克对语言在叙事策略中的作用的充分把
握，西丽亚特有的南方乡村黑人方言（她唯一知道的语言）制造了一种直接的真实效果，但同时 又
将读者与叙述者的环境有意拉开了距离——他们是局外人、陌生人，说的是另外的一种语言。通过
强调西丽亚与内蒂所使用的不同的语言（内蒂受过教育的、来自外面的遥远的世界的语言）强调叙
述者的转换，因而内蒂的信的出现也就使西丽亚有了对话的可能，使故事继续发展下去，而且使西
丽亚与上帝的对话顺利地转换到西丽亚与人的直接对话。伴随着西丽亚的成长，西丽亚的语言和思
想也越来越成熟起来。
2. African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)
The African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) refers to the reform movements in the United
States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring Suffrage in Southern
states. By 1966, the emergence of the Black Power Movement, which lasted roughly from 1966 to 1975, enlarged
the aims of the Civil Rights Movement to include racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency, and
freedom from oppression by whites.
Noted legislative achievements during this phase of the Civil Rights Movement were passage of Civil Rights
Act of 1964, that banned discrimination in employment practices and public accommodations; the Voting Rights
Act of 1965, that restored and protected voting rights; the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965,
that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups; and the Civil
Rights Act of 1968, that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. African Americans re-entered
politics in the South, and across the country young people were inspired to action.
African-American history
African-American history is the portion of American history that specifically discusses the African
American or Black American ethnic group in the United States. Most African Americans are the descendants of
captive Africans held in the United States from 1619 to 1865. Blacks from the Caribbean whose ancestors
immigrated, or who themselves immigrated to the U.S., also traditionally have been considered African American,
as they share a common history of predominantly West African or Central African roots, the Middle Passage and
slavery. It is these peoples, who in the past were referred to and self-identified collectively as the American Negro,
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who now generally consider themselves African-Americans. It is these peoples whose history is celebrated and
highlighted annually in the United States during February, designated as Black History Month, and it is their
history that is the focus of this article.
Others who sometimes are referred to as African Americans, and who are so labeled by the US government,
include relatively recent Black immigrants from Africa, South America and elsewhere who self-identify as being
of African descent.
African-American culture in the United States refers to the cultural contributions of Americans of African
descent to the culture of the United States, either as part of or distinct from American culture. The distinct identity
of African American culture is rooted in the historical experience of the African American people, including the
Middle Passage, and thus the culture retains a distinct identity while at the same time it is enormously influential
to American culture as a whole.
African American culture is rooted in Africa. It is a blend of chiefly sub-Saharan African and Sahelean
cultures. Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of Americans of African descent to practice their cultural
traditions, many practices, values, and beliefs survived and over time have modified or blended with European
American culture. There are some facets of African American culture that were accentuated by the slavery period.
The result is a unique and dynamic culture that has had and continues to have a profound impact on mainstream
American culture, as well as the culture of the broader world.
After emancipation, unique African American traditions continued to flourish, as distinctive traditions or
radical innovations in music, art, literature, religion, cuisine, and other fields. While for some time sociologists,
such as Gunnar Myrdal and Patrick Moynihan, believed that African Americans had lost most cultural ties with
Africa, anthropological field research by Melville Herskovits and others demonstrated that there is a continuum of
African traditions among Africans of the Diaspora. The greatest influence of African cultural practices on
European culture is found below the Mason-Dixon in the American South.
For many years African American culture developed separately from mainstream American culture because
of the persistence of racial discrimination in America, as well as African American slave descendants' desire to
maintain their own traditions. Today, African American culture has become a significant part of American culture
and yet, at the same time, remains a distinct cultural body.
African-American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African
descent. The genre traces its origins to the works of such late 18th century writers as Phillis Wheatley and
Olaudah Equiano, reaching early high points with slave narratives and the Harlem Renaissance, and continuing
today with authors such as Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Walter Mosley being ranked among the top writers
in the United States. Among the themes and issues explored in African American literature are the role of African
Americans within the larger American society, African-American culture, racism, slavery, and equality. African
American writing has also tended to incorporate within itself oral forms such as spirituals, sermons, gospel music,
blues and rap. As African Americans' place in American society has changed over the centuries, so, too, have the
foci of African American literature. Before the American Civil War, African American literature primarily focused
on the issue of slavery, as indicated by the subgenre of slave narratives. At the turn of the 20th century, books by
authors such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington debated whether to confront or appease racist
attitudes in the United States. During the American Civil Rights movement, authors such as Richard Wright and
Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about issues of racial segregation and black nationalism. Today, African American
literature has become accepted as an integral part of American literature, with books such as Roots: The Saga of
an American Family by Alex Haley, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, and Beloved by Toni Morrison achieving
both best-selling and award-winning status.
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Toni Morrison (1931–)
Toni Morrison (born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931) is a Nobel Prize-winning American
author, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black
characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved, which won the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988.
Her work has been performed on stage and in film.
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was a prominent literary figure during the Harlem Renaissance.
Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891– January 28, 1960) was an American folklorist and author during
the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Of Hurston's four novels and more than 50 published short stories, plays, and
essays, she is best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Walker's appreciation for her matrilineal literary history is evidenced by the numerous reviews and articles
she has published to acquaint new generations of readers with writers like Zora Neale Hurston. The anthology she
edited, I Love Myself When I Am Laughing ... and Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora
Neale Hurston Reader (1979), was particularly instrumental in bringing Hurston's work back into print.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928) is an American autobiographer and poet who
has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer". She is best known for her series of six
autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adulthood experiences. The first, best-known,
and most highly acclaimed, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), focuses on the first seventeen years of her
life, brought her international recognition, and was nominated for a National Book Award.
Angelou has had a long and varied career, holding jobs such as fry cook, dancer, actress, journalist, educator,
television producer, and film director. Her books and poetry have covered themes such as identity, family, and
racism.
Walter Mosley
Walter Ellis Mosley (born January 12, 1952) is a prominent American novelist, most widely recognized for
his crime fiction. He has written a series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective
Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los
Angeles; it is perhaps his most popular work.
His father was African-American and his mother Jewish.
Alex Haley
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer. He is
best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and The Autobiography of Malcolm X
(written in collaboration with Malcolm X).
In 1976, Haley published Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a novel based loosely on his family's
history, starting with the story of Kunta Kinte, kidnapped in The Gambia in 1767 and transported to the Province
of Maryland to be sold as a slave. Haley claimed to be a seventh-generation descendant of Kunta Kinte, and
Haley's work on the novel involved ten years of research, intercontinental travel and writing.
II. Introduction about the text:
“Everyday Use” (1973) is included in the Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, 2nd edition, 1981. “Everyday
Use” is one of the best-written short stories by Alice Walker. The story is very simple. With the same theme of
Walker’s other works, “Everyday Use” is still focus on the relationship among black people. It describes three
women: the mother and her two daughters Dee and Maggie. The two daughters are in sharp contrast in every
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conceivable way: appearance, character, personal experiences, etc. The story reaches its climax at the moment
when Dee, the elder daughter, wants the two old quilts but is flatly refused by the mother, who intends to give
them to Maggie, the younger one. The old quilts, made from the pieces of clothes worn by grandparents and
great-grand-parents and stitched by Grandma’s hand, symbolize the heritage of the black people. Their different
feelings about the quilts reveal their different attitudes towards their heritage as blacks.
Ⅲ. Language points
Para. 25: “No, Mama,” she says. “Not ‘Dee,’ Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!”
She says, “No, Mama, I’m not Dee but Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!” The exclamation mark shows
emphasis.
Name changing is an important aspect in the story. During the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, many
African Americans, disappointed by the influence of integration, were attracted to the philosophy of cultural
nationalism as the means to achieve liberation. Many blacks affirmed their African roots by discarding their “slave
names” and adopting African names. Sometimes they didn’t know the meaning of their new names or how to spell
them correctly. They also wore African hair styles and African clothing to show their new identity. African hair is
usually frizzy and many women try to straighten their hoar to make it look western. So African hairstyles were a
rejection of the hair straightening many black women thought was forced on them by straight-haired whites.
According to some critics, Alice Walker held a rather negative opinion about name changing. She thought an
African name was not related to the recent past of the black American people’s experience.
Para. 44: “I accept some of their doctrine…”
Hakim-a-barber accepted some of the Muslim doctrines. Like name changing conversion to Islam was also
part of many African Americans’ search for a new identity by accepting doctrines of Islam which is a common
religious faith among some African peoples.
The meaning of the title and subtitle:
The story is centered on the conflicting understanding of cultural heritage. As we have mentioned above,
Dee/Wangero saw quilts, churn tops, etc. as thing that can be displayed for appreciation from a distance while
Mama and Maggie carried on the cultural tradition by learning how to make quilts form their maternal ancestors
and using the churn. For then, cultural traditions are rooted in everyday use and life. The title reveals the author’s
stand on this issue. Further, she dedicates the story to all African American grandmothers, the bearers of their
cultural heritage.
IV. Text analysis:
The style of “Everyday Use for Your Grandma” is a short story. The following analysis is to focus the main
factors of the short story: plot, characters, point of view, setting, climax, theme and the methods to develop the
theme.
1. Plot: Dee’s coming back to fetch Grandma’s everyday use (especially the old quilts) and her changed attitude
toward them.
2. Characters:
1) Dee — a round character
—fashionable, rebellious, strong-minded and ill-temped, a sense of vanity
— a symbol of the modern black women
— superficial love of black tradition
2) Maggie — a flat character
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— docile, timid, shy, good-temped, kind-hearted and unselfish, a strong sense of inferiority
— inherence of black culture, genuine love of black tradition
— a symbol of the tradition black weak women
3) “I” — a flat character
— uneducated but sensible
— physically strong but spiritually weak, a sense of inferiority
— cherish “grandma’s everyday use”
— a symbol of the black working women: the majority of black women
4) Asalamalakim — a flat character
— a black Muslem boy
— a symbol of another kind of African culture
3. Point of view: the first-person narrator
4. Setting:
Place —“my courtyard” (the American South, specifically in Mrs. Johnson’s house in a pasture)
Time —in the middle of 1960s
5. climax —Dee wanted to take away the old quilts but “I” took them back and gave them to Maggie
6. Theme: — the relationship among the three blacks women and their different attitude towards the old
quilts How to deal with the black traditional culture.
7. Methods: flashback, foreshadowing, contrast
The structure of this story:
The role of the first two paragraphs:
The first paragraph describes the place where the story takes place, and the second paragraph introduces the
narrator’s two daughters. So in the first two paragraphs we have met all the three main characters. In a few words
the narrator makes a contrast between the two sisters: One is nervous, homely and ashamed of her burn scars and
the other one has a firm control of her life and can always get what she wants.
Paragraph 3 -16:
This section is what we call exposition, providing background and preparing for the main action, which is
what happens during Dee’s visit.
Paragraphs. 22 to 44: This section is mainly about Dee’s change of name. Dee, now Wangero, stated that she
couldn’t bear being named after the people who oppressed her. Mama Johnson couldn’t understand this because
the name Dee came down from the maternal ancestors in the family. For her the new name sounded strange and
was difficult to pronounce, let alone having any relation to the family past. Around the issue of names a conflict is
being developed as part of the rising action.
Paragraph 55: After dinner Dee (Wangero) went to the trunk … rifling through it.
Dee (Wangero) had got the butter dish, churn top, and the dasher. But that was not enough and she wanted
more. She searched through the trunk as if she was ransacking and robbing the house. Her action indicated the
conflict is intensified.
Paragraph 75:
In this paragraph the action reaches the highest point, namely the climax. Mama did something she had
never done before by hugging Maggie to her bosom, snatching the quilts from Dee/Wangero’s hands and putting
them on Maggie’s lap forcefully. Once the climax or crisis is reached, the tension subsides and the plot moves
toward its conclusion.
Paragraph 80: “Your heritage…”
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“Heritage” is a key word. Dee/Wangero understood that old quilts represented heritage but her
interpretation of it was superficial as she only saw it as a thing for showing off. Unlike Maggie who was closely
involved in carrying on the heritage by making them, Dee/Wangero was actually detached from her cultural roots,
only appreciating them from a distance, or if they could be used to impress people.
The last paragraph:
This paragraph contains the final section of the plot-resolution; it records the out come of the conflict and
establishes some new stability. This story ends with Mama and Maggie sitting in the yard, just enjoying a dip of
snuff, undisturbed.
Reading a short story by using “Everyday Use” as an example
“Everyday Use,”, generally considered to be the best short story written by Alice Walker, and one of the best
in American literature, is included in The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction (2nd Edition, 1981). Such a story
deserves a close reading.
The setting of the story is in the American South, specifically in Mrs. Johnson’s house in a pasture, in the
1960’s.
In reading a short story, the first question is probably what happened in the story. If you ask this question,
you’re talking about the plot of the story. A plot is the deliberately arranged sequence of interrelated events that
constitute the basic narrative structure of a story. Very often a plot starts from a significant conflict. In “Everyday
Use,” while awaiting Dee’s arrival, the narrator Mama Johnson imagines a TV program scene (“Sometimes I
dream a dream in which Dee and are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort.”) But she realizes
this will not happen in real life. She describes herself as “a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working
hands,” and one who “never had an education.” But on TV she must appear to be someone her daughter wanted
her to be: “I am the way my daughter would want me to be: A hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked
barley pancake.” Clearly a gap exists between the rural working-class mother and the well-educated daughter. And
“Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes.” All these descriptions point to a hidden conflict.
The conflict in a story sets the plot in motion. It retains the reader’s attention, builds the suspense of the work
and arouses expectation for the events that are to follow. The plot of the traditional short story contains three parts:
beginning, middle and end. It often moves through five stages: exposition, rising action, crisis (climax), falling
action and resolution. The exposition is the beginning section in which the author provides necessary
background information. In the second stage, the conflict is developed gradually and intensified. The crisis, also
referred to as the climax, is that moment at which the plot reaches its point of greatest emotional intensity. Once
the climax or crisis is reached, the tension subsides and the plot moves toward its conclusion. The final section of
the plot is its resolution; it records the outcome of the conflict and establishes some new stability. As we read
“Everyday Use” we will find this story is carefully structured, containing all the five stages of the plot.
After reading s story we often ask ourselves questions like “What is the story about?” “What does the story
mean?” or “What is the author trying to say?” Then we are considering the theme(s) of the story. The theme of a
story is different from the plot. While the plot tells what happens in the story, the theme shows what the story is
about. The theme of a story is the general meaning, the central and dominating idea that unifies and controls the
total work. Usually it is easier to summarize the events than to state the theme in one’s own words. Take the story
we are reading here as an example. Based on our first reading of the story we may retell the story in our words
without much difficulty, but to grasp the meaning and to state the theme we have to read the story closely and
think carefully. Toward the end of the story, Dee/Wangero criticizes her mother for not understanding her heritage.
A sensitive reader will realize “heritage” is a key word and that understanding of one’s heritage is the theme or
one of the major themes of the story. Meanwhile, we also come to see that the title “Everyday Use” and the
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subtitle or the dedication “for your grandmama” have special meanings.
One of the first things readers notice when reading a story is who tells the story. Then we are talking about
narration or narrative voice. A story ban be told from the first or the third person – the limited third person
narration or the omniscient third person narration (as in “Blackmail’). When the first-person narration is used, the
story is told by “I.” In “Everyday Use” the first-person narration is employed and the story is told by Mama
Johnson. Mama is a rural working woman without much formal education. Her narrative style is personal,
informal, and even conversational when she talks directly to readers (“You’ve no doubt seen those TV shows…”
“Have you ever seen a lame animal…”“After second grade the school was closed down. Don’t ask me why…”
etc.) She uses lots of colloquial and slangy words and expressions. Sometimes her language is ungrammatical. She
likes to use animals in similes and metaphors (“two long pigtails that rope about like small lizards”, “Like when
you see the wriggling end of a snake just in front of your foot on the road”, “Maggie’s hand is as limp as a fish”,
etc.). This fits a woman working on the land, close to nature. We may ask this question: “Why does the author use
first-person narration?” As the first-person narrator is part of the story, they can moves freely within the fictional
world and approach other fictional characters. The firs-person narrator addresses the reader directly. The
immediate and compelling quality of the first-person narration enables the author to capture the moment as if it
were taking place this very instant and right here. The first-person is either a participant or an eyewitness of the
events. So there is authority in the first-person narration. However, the first-person narration has its restrictions. It
is tightly controlled and limited in its access to information. In this story, the author chooses Mama Johnson
deliberately to give voices to the rural Black woman who had been long neglected or even silences. The author
thinks it’s essential for readers to listen to their stories.
Another major element in fiction is characterization, the portrayal of characters in fiction. In the story we
are reading there are three main characters, all female: Mama and her two daughters Dee/Wangero and Maggie.
Characters are portrayed through their looks, the way they are dressed, their speech, behavior, values, etc. Mama
is a working woman without much education, but not without intelligence or perception. The two daughters form
a sharp contrast, etc. The interrelationships, the contrast and conflict among them make the story interesting and
meaningful.
V. Effective Writing Skills
1. Successful portrayal of characters
2. Using many elliptical and short, simple sentences to achieve certain effect
3. Using languages which suit the background of characters
VI. Rhetorical Devices
1. Simile
2. Metaphor
3. Symbolism
The theme is shown in the symbolism used. This story not only contains symbolism but is about symbolism
itself. The quilts are the chief symbols, and they stand for the ties of heritage/family. What would Dee do with the
quilts? "'Hang them,' she said. As if that was the only thing you could do with them" (Walker) Dee says that
Maggie cannot understand her heritage and cannot appreciate these quilts, but she does when she "can 'member
Grandma Dee with the quilts." (Walker) Magnanimously, Maggie agrees that Dee can have them so as not to start
a conflict. She says, "I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts." (Walker) Maggie is appreciating her
heritage every time she uses them, with heritage meaning the people she came from. Dee thinks that connecting
with a person's roots is a new thing. The Aunt Dee was named after made these quilts by hand, and yet, that has
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nothing to do with the reason why she wants them. In addition, Dee thinks her name is a symbol of those who
oppressed her, so she comes up with a new name that has nothing to do with her family ties.
Obviously the theme of the importance of heritage is shown in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use." While
Maggie and Mama may be uneducated and "backwards," they do understand the meaning of family heritage. Dee
has all the education and sophistication of the world, and she just plain "doesn't get it. The reader wonders
whether Dee personifies a part of Alice Walker herself.
VII. Special Difficulties
1. Understanding the underlying meaning conveyed by simple language
2. Understanding and paraphrasing the colloquial, non-standard English words or sentences
VIII. Questions
1. In real life what kind of woman is the mother?
2. What kind of woman would Dee like her mother to be?
3. What kind of girl is Maggie?
4. What is the mother’s feeling toward Dee? How is it changed in the course of the story?
补充材料：
《外国文学欣赏与批评》 黄源深 周立人 上海外语教育出版社
小说欣赏
小说（fiction）一词的本义是“散文式的虚构故事”。J. A.柯登所编的《文学术语词典》和伊恩. P>瓦
特的《小说的兴起》都对小说作了这样的界定。不论这种界定是否准确，它至少反映了小说的两个特点。
一是散文对小说的发展起了一定的作用；二是小说作为一种文学形式，是借助小说家的想象力来完成叙事
这一艺术创作工程的。
同诗歌、戏剧这些古老的文学形式相比，小说在西方文学中是 18 世纪后期才正式定名的文学形式。
小说按篇幅的长度可以分为长篇小说、中篇小说、短篇小说和小小说（又名微型小说）
。
在 19 世纪的美国，短篇小说发展得最为迅速、也显得最繁荣。爱伦·坡 1842 年在对霍桑《故事新编》
的评论中，指出了短篇小说扼要精当，令人信服等特点。在他的推动下，批评界给短篇小说规定了明确的
结果和技巧。后来，在 19 世纪末，又增添了欧·亨利的结构严谨的“结尾技巧，出人意料“的短篇小说，
于是短篇小说逐渐公式化，形成变化有限，几乎千篇一律的模式。
与此同时，19 世纪末和 20 世纪初，现实主义的冲击和自然主义的出现，加之契科夫确立栩栩如生地
反映生活侧面的短篇小说的范例，打破了短篇小说原有公式化框框，更多的优秀作家开始用这种形式创作。
英国的毛姆、凯瑟琳·曼斯菲尔德，美国的海明威、舍伍德·安德森等写出一篇篇反映生活本质、臻于完
美的短篇小说。
短篇小说一般比较简单，篇幅在 2000 至 15000 字之间。短篇小说有确定的、条理分明的发展线索，
相对稳定的结构，在人物、情节、风格和主题等方面往往显示出较高的统一性。它高度概括作品中人物的
性格和任务的处境，从而揭示具有“启示”性质的意义，乔伊斯称其为“顿悟”。
一般说来，小说具有以下一些基本特点：
首先，小说具有戏剧性。小说家们通过故事情节、人物对话、形象塑造等艺术手段创造了一个又一个
戏剧性场面。
其次，小说是虚构的叙事作品。尽管有些小说侧重于人物和景观的描写或者运用象征的手法表示某种
抽象的概念，但大部分小说是通过具体情节的展开来塑造人物的。
再次，现当代小说更多地从诗歌和戏剧中汲取养料，以丰富自己的艺术表现力。
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小说的构成要素
小说的构成要素一般为背景、氛围和基调、情节和结构，以及人物塑造，叙事角度等几个方面。
1）背景
背景(setting)通常指小说中故事发生的时间和地点。它既是物质的，也是精神的现实环境。一部小说地
点和范围和时间的跨度一般是根据小说的类型、题材、主题等因素来决定的。背景还可以当做一种象征，
暗喻人物的心态。
2）氛围和基调
氛围(atmosphere)指作品中的情调或情境，特别是指由背景所建立起来的情感、情绪和信念等。读者对
小说情节和故事结果的某种期待和态度往往通过小说的氛围而产生。
基调(mood)在小说的创作中是指作者对作品的主题所持的感情式的或感情加理智式的态度。
3）情节和结构
情节(plot)指作品中事件的排列和组合方式。小说故事的情节可以按事件发生的先后顺序来排列组合，
也可以打破事件发生的先后顺序，采取倒叙(flashback)的方法。
情节的各个组成部分可以充满着冲突和张力，也可以是平铺直叙，舒缓自然。冲突又分为人物与外界
的冲突（包括人与他人、人与自然、人与社会的冲突）和人物的内在冲突。许多现实主义和自然主义小说
以描写人与外界的冲突为主；而现代派作家则更多的是将笔触伸向人物的灵魂深处，揭示他们矛盾的情绪
和对立的想法，呈现人物的“内心图景”
。
以情节为主而且情节比较严谨的传统小说往往套用戏剧的结构模式：矛盾纠葛(complication)
渐强
剧情(rising action)
高潮(climax)
渐弱剧情(falling action)
情节的解决(resolution)。小说家在作
品中的情节设置具有较大的可塑性、多变性，情节中往往有一些不定点，以便给读者留下更多的想象空间。
结构(structure)一般指作品事先设计好的构架，用来生动地最大限度地表现作品的意义和主题。寻找小
说的结构式是小说赏析的一个重要的环节，但往往并不容易。而且，对同一部作品，不同的读者会对其结
构有不同的理解。
4）人物塑造
人物塑造(characterization)是指作品中对人物的形象（包括其言行、性格、情感、思想等）的具体描绘。
对小说中人物塑造手法的理解直接关系到对小说本身的理解。人物带动情节，人物塑造展示主题。
人物在小说中一般是虚构的，但有时又是以现实生活中的人为原型的。
一部小说往往有主要人物和次要人物组成。主要人物往往具有性格复杂、多变的特点，他们的动态发
展和命运结局构成了小说的主旋律。次要人物相对来说花的笔墨较少，在小说中的作用是衬托主要人物，
使故事更加丰富，更加生动，更贴近生活。
从小说的语言表述层面来看，有三种主要的人物塑造方法：
（1）作家通过直接的描述来作明确的介绍、说明和分析，使读者对人物的个性、心态等有一个比较
准确、迅速的了解。其做法往往是采用一长段集中的交代。这种方法称为“解说性方法”(expository method)，
一般适用于作品中的次要人物，或者非同一般的人物。
（2）通过描写人物的言行进行人物介绍。作者很少给予明确的评价，或不作任何评价，也不闯入人
物的内心世界。其目的是希望读者从有关人物言行的客观描述中自己去分析和推断人物的性格和特点。这
种方法称为“戏剧性方法”(dramatic method)。
（3）从人物的内心活动（如内心独白，意识流等）来描写人物的情感、感受和思想。作者对这种内
心活动不予解释或分析，让读者自己去理解。
运用“意识流”方法的现代派小说，主要是为了在作品中表现苦闷、失望、病态的人物性格，表现 20
世纪初信仰淡化、人类面临精神危机的时代特征。意识流小说的主要代表性作家有法国的普鲁斯特，爱尔
兰的乔伊斯，英国的伍尔芙和美国的福克纳。
5）叙述角度
叙述角度(point of view)指作者在叙述一个故事时确立的一种视角。作者总是通过一定的角度来想读者
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展示一部虚构作品中构成故事叙述成分的人物、情节、背景和事件。
小说家们发明了许多不同的方法来讲叙故事。传统理论中对叙述类型的分类方法比较简单，但是颇为
实用，因此被广泛地接受。这种分类方法把叙述类型大体分为第三人称叙事体和第一人称叙事体两大类。
在第三人称叙事体中，叙述者可以是站在故事外面得某个人，他叙述故事，凡是提到所有的人物时，都用
名字来称呼，或称“他”
、
“她”
、
“他们”和“她们”
。
第三人称叙述体有包括两种叙述角度。第一种是全知全能的角度。叙述者像上帝一样君临一切，无所
不知，他可以随心所欲地在时间与空间中移动，从一个人物走向另一个人物，有选择地报告（或隐匿）他
们的言行和行动；在了解他们的外表言行的同时，他还具有接近和进入人物内心的思想、感情和动机的特
权。在这种模式中，这个能自由进入人物内心世界的叙述者不但描述，而且还可以分析、评论有关人物。
一般说来，所有全知全能的叙述者的报告和判断都被看成是权威性的。
第二种是有限角度。叙述者以第三人称讲述故事，但只是自己局限于故事中一个或几个人物所经历、
思考和感受的范围。
第一人称叙事体的特点是：叙述者以第一人称，即“我”的身份来说话，叙述者本人是故事中的一个
人物，扮演着其中的一个角色。
第一人称叙述者“我”可以分为几种。一种“我”作为所叙述的事件的一个偶然的目击者；另一种“我”
是故事中的一个次要人物或表面上的参与者；还有一种“我”是故事的核心人物。
《英美小说要素解析》 林六晨
上海外语教育出版社
文学有许多形式，但就体裁(genre)而言，诗歌、小说和戏剧是主要的三个文学类型。小说由于大多具
有故事情节，语言丰富且较接近日常生活，写作方式上既有描写、叙事、抒情，又有对话、论说，为学习
语言提供了较全面的素材，易于为初学者接受。
构成小说的要素很多，而且小说家们和评论家们对小说有哪些要素，意见也并不统一，但是，一般认
为情节、人物、背景、视角、文体、语气、象征、寓言、主题等位主要的要素。
1. Plot: a sequence of interrelated actions or events
A plot is a plan or groundwork for a story, based on conflicting human motivations, with the actions resulting
from believable and realistic human response.
Conflict in plot: Fictional human responses are brought out to their highest degree in the development of a
conflict.
Types of conflict:
External conflict: external conflict may take the form of a basic opposition between man and nature, or
between man and society, or between man and man.
Internal conflict: internal conflict focuses on two or more elements contesting within the protagonist’s own
character.
Five stages of plot: Exposition, Complication, Crisis (climax), Falling action, Resolution
The order of plot: Chronological plotting; Flashback
2. Characters: The people in fiction
Types of characters:
Protagonist & Antagonist: The major, or central, character of the plot is the protagonist; his opponent, the
character against whom the protagonist struggles or contends, is the antagonist.
Methods of characterization:
One method is telling, which relies on exposition and direct commentary by the author. The other method is
the indirect, dramatic method of showing, which involves the author’s stepping aside, as it were, to allow the
characters to reveal themselves directly through their dialogue and their actions.
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3. Setting: Place and objects in fiction
The stage against which the story unfolds we call the setting. In its narrowest sense, setting is the place and
time of the narration, but eventually it encompasses the total environment of the word. As a basic function, setting
helps the reader visualize the action of the work and thus adds credibility and an air of authenticity to the
characters.
Types of setting: Natural: the setting for a great number of stories is the out-of-doors. Nature, in short, is one
of the major forces governing the circumstances of characters who go about facing the conflicts on which the plots
of stories depend.
Manufactured: manufactured things always reflect the people who made them.
The functions of setting:
1) Setting as a background for action
2) Setting as antagonist
3) Setting as a means of creating appropriate atmosphere
4) Setting as a means of revealing character
5) Setting as a means of reinforcing theme
4. Point of view: The narrative voice
A story must also have a story teller: a narrative voice, real or implied, that presents the story to the reader.
When we talk about narrative voice, we are talking about point of view, the method of narration that determines
the position, or angle of vision, from which the story is told.
Various points of view:
First person: The choice of point of view is the choice of who is to tell the story, who talks to the reader.
Perhaps the first choice might be, “let the protagonist tell his or her own story.” In making this choice, the author
decides to employ the first person point of view.
In selecting such a vantage point to present the action, the writer enjoys a number of advantages. First, he
creates an immediate sense of reality. Second, the writer has a readymade principle of selection. A story told in the
first person is necessarily limited to what the narrator has seen, heard, or surmised.
Third person: If the narrator is not introduced as a character, and if everything in the work is described in the
third person (that is, he, she, it, they), the author is using the third-person point of view. There are three variants:
omniscient, limited omniscient, and objective or dramatic.
Authors wish to be the all-knowing narrator, not limited by time, place, or character, but free to roam and
comment at will. Such a point of view is called third-person omniscient. The author, evidently the author, sees all,
knows all, and presumably, tells all.
The author who does not wish to sacrifice omniscience but who still hopes for greater reader identification
with the protagonist may elect to tell the story from the limited-omniscient point of view.
One further method of telling the story should be mentioned here – the objective point of view. In this
technique the author, like camera, records in the third person what is taking place, but does not enter into the
minds of the characters.
5. Theme: The meaning and the message in fiction
What the author has to say is the theme, the central idea or statement about life that unifies and controls the
total work. Theme is not the issue, or problem, or subject with which the word deals, but rather the comment or
statement the author makes about that issue, problem or subject.
Theme in literature, whether it takes the forms of a brief and meaningful insight or a comprehensive vision of
life, is the author’s way of communicating and sharing ideas, perceptions, and feelings with his readers or, as is
often the case, of probing and exploring with them the puzzling questions of humane existence, most of which do
13
not veiled neat, tidy, or universally acceptable answers.
6. Style: The words that tell the story
The word style, derived from the Latin word stilus (a writing instrument), is understood to mean the way in
which writers assemble words to tell story, develop the argument, dramatize the play, or compose the poem.
Style is also highly individualistic. It is a matter of the way in which specific authors put words together
under specific conditions in specific works.
In its most general sense, style consists of diction (the individual words an author chooses) and syntax (the
arrangement of those words and phrases, clauses, and sentences), as well as such devices as rhythm and sound,
allusion, ambiguity, irony, paradox, and figurative language.
Diction: choice of words
The analysis of diction includes the following considerations: the denotative (or dictionary) meaning of
words, ad opposed to their connotative meaning (the ideas associated or suggested by them); their degreed of
concreteness or abstractness; their degree of allusiveness; the parts of speech they represent; their length and
construction; the level of usage they reflect (standard or nonstandard; formal, informal, or colloquial); the imagery
(details of sensory experience) they contain; the figurative devices (simile, metaphor, personification) they
embody; their rhythm and sound patterns (alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia).
Syntax: construction of sentences
When we examine style at the level of syntax, we are attempting to analyze the ways the author arranges
words into phrases, clause, and finally whole sentences to achieve particular effects. In looking at an author’s
syntax we want to know how the words have been arranged and particularly how they deviate from the usual and
expected.
Style can be used as an aid to characterization, the creation of setting and atmosphere, and as a means of
reinforcing theme.
7. Tone: Attitude and control in fiction
Tone refers to the methods by which writers convey attitudes, although the discussion of tone sometimes
becomes focused on the attitudes themselves. Tone refers not to attitudes but to those techniques and modes of
presentation that reveal or create these attitudes.
Tone in fiction is frequently a guide to an author’s attitude toward the subject or audience and to his or her
intention and meaning. The author’s tone can be inferred by the choices he or she makes in the process of ordering
and presenting the material; by what is included and emphasized and what, by contrast, is omitted.
Types of irony: Irony is a mode of ambiguous or indirect expression; it is natural to human beings who are
aware of the possibilities and complexities in life. The major types of irony are verbal, situational, and dramatic.
Verbal irony is a statement in which one thing is said and another is meant.
Situational irony, or irony of situation, refers to conditions that are measured against forces that transcend
and overpower human capacities. These forces may be psychological, social, political, or environmental. Such
kind of situational irony connected with a pessimistic of fatalistic view of life is sometimes also called irony of
fate or cosmic irony.
Dramatic irony is a special kind of situational irony; it applies when a character perceives a situation in a
limited way while the audience, including other characters, may see it in greater perspective. The character
therefore is able to understand things in only one way while the larger audience can perceive two.
8. Symbolism: A key to extended meaning
A symbol, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is “something that stands for something else by reason of
relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance… a visible sign of something invisible.” Symbol,
in this sense, are with us all the time, for there are few woes or object that do not evoke, at least in certain contexts,
14
a wide range of associated meanings and feelings.
In literature, symbols – in the form of words, images, objects, settings, events and characters – are often used
deliberately to suggest and reinforce meaning, to provide enrichment by enlarging and clarifying the experience of
the work, and to help to organize and unify the whole. Although symbols exist first as something literal and
concrete within the work itself, they also have the capacity to call to mind a range of invisible and abstract
associations, both intellectual and emotional, that transcend the literal and concrete and extend their meaning.
Types of symbols
Universal or cultural symbols
Universal or cultural symbols are those whose associations are the common property of a society or culture
and are so widely recognized and accepted that can be said to be almost universal. These types of symbols are
sometimes also called traditional symbols. They embody ideas or emotions that the writer and the reader share in
common as a result of their social and cultural heritage.
Contextual, authorial, or private symbols
Contextual, authorial, or private symbols are those whose associations are neither immediate nor traditional;
instead, they derive their meaning, largely if not exclusively, from the context of the work in which they are used.
Symbolism enhances fiction through helping readers to organize and enlarge their experience of the work. It
is to say that symbolism, when employed as an integral and organic part of the language and structure of a work of
fiction, can stimulate and release the imagination – which is, after all, one of the major goals of any form of art.
9. Allegory: A key to extended meaning
Allegory （讽喻）is like symbolism in that both use thing to refer to something else. The term is derived from
the Greek word allegrein, which means “to speak so as to imply other than what is said”. Allegory tends to be
more complex and sustained than symbolism.
The most famous sustained allegory in the English language is John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Fable, parable, and myth
A fable is a short story, often featuring animals with human traits, to which writers and editors attach
“morals” or explanation.
A parable （
（道德或宗教）说教性寓言（故事）
（尤其指圣经中耶稣讲道德故事）
）is really a short, simple
allegory. In Christian cultures, parables are usually associated with Jesus, who used them in his teaching to
embody religious insights and truth.
A myth is a story which is associated with the religion, philosophy, and collective psychology of various
groups of cultures. Myths sometimes embody scientific truths for pre-scientific societies; they codify the social
and cultural values of the civilization in which they were composed.
一、语言分析
（一）形象与象征
1. 小说的语言属于文学语言，是形象化的语言，艺术的语言。
文学语言的一个基本特征和根本特征是借助形象思维来表达内容，要描写场景，传达印象。作家应对
一个关键性的场景和事件作具体、细致的描绘，从而给读者造成一种身临其境的感觉。
文学要用具体有形的事物所引发的启迪和联想来表现生活，就自然地要运用形象(image)、象征(symbol)
和各种比喻的手段，以具体表现抽象，以有形表现无形，以有限的语言表达丰富的涵义。
象征也是一种有限的语言表现丰富涵义的文学手段。它并不明确或绝对地代表某一观念或思想，而同
样是以启发、暗示的方式激发想象，其特点在于它具有无限丰富的言外之意和弦外之音。
2. 讽刺与幽默
讽刺诱使读者从字面意义的反面去领会作者的意图。讽刺（更确切地说是“反语讽刺”，irony）是指
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说的是一回事而意思是另一回事，讽刺的戏剧性来自字面意义和含蓄意义的对立。
3. 句法结构
句法结构的安排，在文学作品中师作家揭示主题思想和追求某种艺术效果的主要手段，文学作品也许
比其它任何功能文体更讲究对语言材料的剪裁和对句子的组织。句法结构的变化多样和丰富多彩，对句子
艺术效果的追求，是文学语言的又一个重要特点。
不同的句法结构可能造成不同的效果。
句子长度的适当安排也是烘托气氛、刻画人物的一个有效手段。
在现代小说里，句子结构的安排也成了表现潜意识和无意识活动的手段。现代心理学认为，人的潜意
识活动具有不符合逻辑和不合理性的特点。文学作品要原原本本地展现人的心理结构，它的语言也应该是
不合逻辑的。乔伊斯（爱尔兰作家 James Joyce （1881-1941）
：意识流大作《尤利西斯》Ulysses, 代表作，
作品多用意识流手法，语言隐晦。
）
（二）角度与观点
所谓角度或观点(point of view) 是指从什么人的感受和观点来叙述故事，这是本世纪初以来的现代小说
所探讨的问题。十九世纪及十九世纪以前的传统小说基本上采用两种叙述角度，一种叫“作者无所不知式
的叙述”或“全知叙述”，即叙述者了解所有角色及所有细节的发展；另一种叫自传体第一人称式叙述，
即用第一人称按“我”的观察进行叙述。现代小说从亨利·詹姆斯起对叙述的角度和观察点进行了大量试
验，创造了从作品中的某一人物（主要人物和次要人物）的视角叙述故事的技巧，即让作品中的一切叙述
描写都从这个角色的观察和认识出发。在实际创作中，作者常常可以自由地从一个人物的意识流转入另一
个人物的意识。 （James, Henry (1843-1916), 美国小说家、评论家，晚年加入英国籍，主要作品有《一位
妇女的画像》
、
《鸽翼》
，文学评论《小说的艺术》等）
语言的选择和使用对表明叙述角度有密切的关系。
选择与作品人物的年龄、生活特点相适应和语言和思维方式来再现这个人物的内心世界和意识活动。
语言是一种社会指示剂，能反映说话者的籍贯、出生、教育、社会、经济等方面的背景情况。
叙述的人称与叙述或描写的角度是密切相关的。
一般说来，小说中的“叙述者”(the narrator)可以采用第一人称(the first person: I, we)，也可采用第三人
称(the third person: he, she, it, they)。以第一人称叙述时，作者往往采用以小说中的主要或次要人物出现。
运用第一人称方法叙事可以缩短作者与读者之间的距离，而且能使笔调显得亲切，易被读者接受。
时态：叙事句中采用所谓的叙事现在时态(narrative present tense) 主要是为了创造紧迫感和紧张气氛，
同时表示叙述者与其所叙述的事件有关系，或暗示叙述者参与了叙述中的动作。此时态可见于文学作品、
笑话、关于个人经历和口头叙述、体育运动的报道等叙事中。
Exercises:
Read, Think and Comment
In this passage we learn that Alice Walker’s mother had many children. She was a hard-working, caring and
loving mother, seldom inpatient with her children but she got angry when the white landlord suggested her
children did not need to go to school. She took good care of her children by making clothes and quilts, and
canning vegetables and fruits for them. She worked in the fields as hard and fast as a man just like Mama Johnson
in “Everyday Use.” Walker believed that her mother – and many Black mothers – had a vibrant creative spirit
which was suppressed and mutilated. In order to search for this creative spirit, people have to look high-and-low
rather than just high, meaning only in the fields of high culture like literature, painting, etc. For instance, in the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D,C., Walker was deeply impressed by an extremely beautifully-made
quilt telling the story of the Crucifixion in an unknown quilt-making pattern. It was a priceless work of art, and it
was make by “an anonymous Black woman in Alabama, a hundred years ago.” Walker suggests that this
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anonymous Black woman could be any Black grandmother, who created art with the limited materials she could
afford and in a way her low social position allowed her. Walker suggests that given opportunities for education,
many of the Black women could have been great artists such as writers or poets. This discovery inspired Walker to
search in her mother’s garden. To her delight she found that her mother grew beautiful gardens which everybody
who saw them admired. Her fame as a grower of flower spread over three counties. In her mother’s gardens,
Walker found a creative spirit. Her mother was ordering the universe in the image of her personal conception of
Beauty when working with her flowers. Art was a legacy and gift her mother left her. Guided by her heritage of a
love of beauty and a respect for strength, Walker found her own creative spirit and strength to be a writer.
补充：
Everyday Use (film)
Everyday Use" is a widely studied and frequently anthologized short story by Alice Walker. It was first
published in 1973 as part of Walker's short story collection, In Love and Trouble.
The story is told in first person by the "Mama" (Mrs Johnson), a black woman living in the Deep South with
one of her two daughters. The story humorously illustrates the differences between Mrs Johnson and her shy
younger daughter Maggie, who still live traditionally in the rural South, and her educated, successful daughter
Dee (or "Wangero", as she prefers to be called), who scorns her immediate roots in favor of a pretentious "native
African" identity.
A film version was released in 2003.
Plot
The story concerns a rare visit Dee pays to her mother and sister, after a long absence. As she waits for her
daughter, Mrs. Johnson reflects on how much Dee hated her home life when she was a child--so much that the
author hints that she set fire to the house, nearly killing Maggie and physically scarring her for life. After the fire,
Mrs. Johnson raised money through the local church to send Dee away to school. Maggie, however, remained at
home and learned traditional skills from her family. At the time of the story, she is preparing to marry a local
farmer.
Dee arrives wearing a gorgeous wrapper and accompanied by a young American Muslim man whose name
Mrs. Johnson can't pronounce. Dee offers an African phrase of greeting, and then, like a tourist, she immediately
starts snapping polaroids of her mother, sister, and their house.
The main purpose of the visit is to appropriate some of the family's belongings, which Dee wants to turn into
museum pieces. First, she claims the top of the butter churn, still full of clabber, saying she's going to make the
top of it into a centerpiece and do "something artistic" with the dasher. Maggie winces at this because she loves
the churn and knows its whole history, but she barely protests.
Dee, however, is not finished yet; next, she asks for her grandmother's old patchwork quilts. Mrs. Johnson
demurs, saying she has already promised the quilts to Maggie as a wedding gift. Dee angrily protests that Maggie
will ruin the quilts by spreading them on beds--by putting them to "everyday use." Puzzled, the mother wonders
what else people would do with quilts. Dee replies that they should be hung. Maggie tells Dee that she can take
them because Maggie is used to never getting what she wants anyway, so this was not anything different.
However, Maggie is really sad about giving the quilts away to Dee because Maggie actually cared about the
quilts. Maggie's mother helped her grandmother to make them.
Mrs. Johnson looks at Maggie standing in the doorway, miserable but already resigned to her loss. In a
sudden rush of almost religious feeling, she snatches the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie.
Dee snaps, absurdly, "Your problem is you don't understand...your heritage!" and leaves. Maggie and her
mother, relieved, spend the rest of the day dipping snuff and enjoying each other's company.
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Characters
Maggie - Dee's sister. Youngest sister who was badly burned by a fire when she was young, she has low
self-confidence and becomes uncomfortable when Dee is around. Maggie contrasts Dee by showing a special
regard for her immediate family.
Mama - The narrator of the story. She is a middle-aged or older African-American woman living with her
younger daughter, Maggie. Although poor, she is strong and independent, and takes great pride in her way of life.
She is over weight, and built more like a man than a woman. She has strong hands that are worn from a lifetime of
work.
Dee - Mrs. Johnson's older daughter. She is attractive, sophisticated, and well-educated. She is also very
selfish, bold, and overly confident. When she returns home, she insists her family calls her Wangero because she
wants to be a bigger part of her culture. The only reason she wants this is because it's suddenly the new trend.
Hakim-a-Barber - An African American Muslim man who is dating Dee, he drives a nice car and lives up
north out of state. When he greets Mrs. Johnson with the traditional Muslim greeting, she mistakes it to be his
name and calls him "Asalamalakim" until he introduces himself with a name she hears as Hakim-a-barber.
Discussion
Dee and Maggie are opposite in character, especially in their attitudes toward family and cultural roots. The
worldly Dee is almost a caricature. She is educated, stylish, and selfish; she alternately patronizes and bullies her
mother and sister; and she seems determined to turn their culture into something suitable for hanging on a wall or
decorating a table. She has rejected that culture so completely, however, that she has even changed the name she
inherited from her grandmother to the fashionably African "Wangero."
The humble Maggie, with her shuffling gait and habit of cringing in corners, is a caricature of a different type.
However, although she lacks most of Dee's advantages, she is able to carry on family traditions and appreciate the
true meaning of the things Grandma Dee left behind.
Although Dee is portrayed in a negative light in the story, Walker based both sisters on aspects of her own
character. Like Maggie, she suffered an injury in childhood that left her partially disfigured and very
self-conscious. Like Dee, she rose from poverty, got an education, explored her African tribal ancestry, and
participated in the Civil Rights Movement. Walker also resembles the level-headed mother, who turns a slight
incident into a story, and who is able to show Maggie's hidden worth while casting a sardonic gaze on the
glamorous Dee.
Alice Walker grew up in the rural South, and "Everyday Use" pays homage to her sharecropper ancestors.
Another important theme is standing up for what's right – not just for yourself, but for others too. Mrs Johnson
stands up to Dee at the end by snatching the quilts from her and restoring them to Maggie. She understands how
much the quilts mean to Maggie; she also understands that Dee's reason for wanting the family's belongings is
because the new fashion is African, and Dee really wants to be popular, an "in" with the "in-crowd." That is why
she rejected the name her mother gave her and became "Wangero." In former days, she didn't even care about the
house or any of its contents; in fact, she hated it and may even have burned it down to get away from it.
Title Meaning
The meaning of the title requires the reader to read deeper within the short story. The phrase "Everyday Use"
brings about the question whether or not heritage should be preserved and displayed or integrated into everyday
life. "Everyday Use" pertains not only to the quilt, but more so to people's culture and heritage and how they
choose to honor it.
Walker develops a critique of postmodern ideals and the detachable nature of symbols. In hanging the quilts,
Dee would be effectively removing them from their "everyday" embedded contextual meaning and creating a
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symbol out of what was a storytelling device. Maggie, in opposing Dee's intentions, advocates the real African
tradition: the oral tradition.
Lost Heritage in Everyday Use
By contrasting the family characters in “Everyday Use”, Walker illustrates the mistake by some of placing
the significance of heritage solely in material objects. Walker presents Mama and Maggie, the younger daughter,
as an example that heritage in both knowledge and form passes from one generation to another through a learning
and experience connection. However, by a broken connection, Dee, the older daughter, represents a misconception
of heritage as material. During Dee’s visit to Mama and Maggie, the contrast of the characters becomes a conflict
because Dee misplaces the significance of heritage in her desire for racial heritage.
Mama and Maggie symbolize the connection between generations and the heritage that passed between them.
Mama and Maggie continue to live together in their humble home. Mama is a robust woman who does the needed
upkeep of the land, I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. In the winter, I wear overalls
during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. I can work outside all day. One winter I
knocked a bull calf straight in the brain with a sledge hammer and had the meat hung up to chill before nightfall.
(Walker 289) And Maggie is the daughter, “homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs,”
(Walker 288) who helps Mama by making “the yard so clean and wavy” (Walker 288) and washes dishes “in he
kitchen over the dishpan” (Walker 293). Neither Mama nor Maggie are ‘modernly’ educated persons; “I [Mama]
never had an education myself. Sometimes Maggie reads to me.
She stumbles along good-naturedly. She knows she is not bright” (Walker 290). However, by helping Mama,
Maggie uses the hand-made items in her life, experiences the life of her ancestors, and learns the history of both,
exemplified by Maggie's knowledge of the hand- made items and the people who made them--a knowledge which
Dee does not possess. Contrasting with Mama and Maggie, Dee seeks her heritage without understanding the
heritage itself.
Unlike Mama who is rough and man-like, and Maggie who is shy and scared, Dee is confident, where
“Hesitation is no part of her nature,” (Walker 289) and beautiful: “ first glimpse of leg out of the car tells me it is
Dee. Her feet were always neat-looking, as if God had shaped them Dee next. A dress down to the ground
Earrings gold, too (Walker 291) Also, Dee has a ‘modern’ education, having been sent “to a school in Augusta”
(Walker 290). Dee attempts to connect with her racial heritage by taking “picture after picture of me sitting there
in front of the house with Maggie. She never takes a shot without making sure the house is Included ”(Walker
291).
Dee takes another name without understanding her original name; neither does Dee try to learn. Also, Dee
takes some of the hand-made items of her mother's such as the churn top which she will use “as a centerpiece for
the alcove table” (Walker 293). Dee associates the items with her heritage now, but thought nothing of them in her
youth as when the first house burnt down. Dee's quest of her heritage is external, wishing to have these various
items in order to display them in her home. Dee wants the items because she perceives each to have value, as
shown in the dialog between Dee and Mama about the quilts after dinner.
Dee’s valuing of the quilt conflicts with Mama’s perception of the quilts. Dee considers the quilt priceless
because the quilt is hand-stitched, not machined, by saying, “There are all pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear.
She did all this stitching by hand. Imagine!” (Walker 294). Dee plans to display the quilts or “Hang them,”
(Walker 294) unlike Maggie who may “put them to everyday use” (Walker 294). However, Mama “promised to
give them quilts to Maggie, for when she marries” (Walker 294). Mama knows there exists a connection of
heritage in Maggie; Mama knows that “It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught [Maggie] how to quilt”
(Walker 294).
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Because of Maggie’s connection, Mama takes the quilts from Dee who “held the quilts securely in her arms,
stroking them clutching them closely to her bosom” (Walker 294) like sacred idols, and then gives them to Maggie.
After Mama gives Maggie the quilts, Dee says, “You just don’t understand Your heritage” (Walker 295). Dee
believes heritage to be the quilt on the wall or the churn in the alcove. Dee knows the items are hand-made but not
the knowledge and history behind the items. Yet, Mama does know the knowledge and history and knows that
Maggie does too. Ironically, Dee criticizes Mama for not understanding heritage when, in fact, Dee fails to really
understand heritage. Dee mistakenly places heritage wholly in what she owns, not what she knows.
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