Everyday Use by Alice Walker

In this essay, the author

• Analyzes how the difference between the way dee (wangero) and maggie would use the quilts represents their two different ways of defining and treating their family’s heritage.
• Analyzes how the story of "everyday use" shows a dynamic picture of two sisters that see their family history and upbringing nearly opposite points of view.
• Analyzes how dee's new beliefs are connected to disowning her heritage and her ancestors. she finds a desire in the quilts of her family’s past.

• Analyzes how the difference between the way dee (wangero) and maggie would use the quilts represents their two different ways of defining and treating their family’s heritage.
• Analyzes how the story of "everyday use" shows a dynamic picture of two sisters that see their family history and upbringing nearly opposite points of view.
• Analyzes how dee's new beliefs are connected to disowning her heritage and her ancestors. she finds a desire in the quilts of her family’s past.
• Analyzes how maggie's condescending attitude and request from dee leads her to feel ashamed of her life for a moment and she nearly gives the heirlooms away.
• Analyzes how the story pushes the reader to believe that this simple unmanipulated life is best and it was the right decision for the mama to keep the quilts for maggie.
• Analyzes how theodore roethke's poem, "my papa’s waltz," indicates that the boy is conflicted by his love for his father and his uneasiness over his drunken state of being.
• Analyzes how the poem, "we romped until the pan, slid from the kitchen shelf" and "then you waltzed me of bed" has a deep sense of fun and satisfaction.
• Analyzes the undertone of fear and confusion in the lighthearted fun of the father and son. the mother countenance is an indicator of something amiss.
• Analyzes how the son's mixed feelings come from the fondness he has with enjoying his father, and the fear that exists because of his rough man.
• Analyzes the meaning and significance of the last eight lines of philip levine's "starlight." the theme of "what is happiness?" lingers in the text and come to its symbolic answer in final lines.
• Analyzes how the beginning of the poem sets us in a place that we can all relate to and asks the reader to place themselves on porch with the beloved parent. the boy is stumped by the question and doesn't understand the meaning until the last eight lines.
• Analyzes how the image of a father revitalized by his happiness in that moment, under the stars with his son, is power for the speaker.
• Analyzes lorde's poem "black mother woman" as an interesting portrait of a woman and the "spirit" of her mother.
• Analyzes how the woman is able to truly define herself by stripping back the pain her mother inflicted on her to find the real woman that she was.
• Analyzes how the daughter alludes to the idea that her mother was judged harshly and made to feel ashamed. the daughter's ability to see through her mothers flaws and recognize that she was as wounded as the child is a sense of freedom for both.