A Purpose for Everyday Use essays

A Purpose for Everyday Use essays Alice Walkers Everyday Use is a story with great examples of the literary devices. Two of the most prominent literary devices include theme and vivid characters. The characters tie in very closely with the theme. The theme of the story starts to be revealed when Wangero asks for the butter churn top and is most fully developed when she again asks for her mothers quilts. Mama, Dee and Maggie are round characters, but only Mama is dynamic. Dee and Maggie remain static and relatively unchanged throughout the entire story. While Mama is the only dynamic character in the story, it is the unchanging of her daughters that produce her epiphany. Mama is very content with her meager rural life. She is very proper, however, in the fact that she wants to keep her small house in a presentable fashion. When she receives news that her daughter is coming to visit she starts preparing for her arrival. A yard like this...inside the house. (para. 1) Mama is very concerned by how her daughter will react whenever she comes back home. She sometimes dream a dream...tears in her eyes. (para. 4) She yearns to have Dee love her and wants the whole world to know it. When Dee arrives, Mama is startled to find that she is no longer Dee, but another incarnation of her daughter named Wangero. David White described the time period in which this story took place as a time when Many blacks wanted to rediscover their African roots, and were ready to reject and deny their American heritage, which was filled with stories o f pain and injustice. (White 24) Dee had changed her name in an effort to cut all ties with those who had oppressed her and her ancestors. Mama is a bit surprised to find out this information, but maintains her emotion of necessary love from her daughter by saying If thats what you want us to call you, well call ...