关于高英 everyday use的人物分析.doc

Character Analysis in Alice Walker's Everyday UseMamaMama, the narrator of the story, who is strong, hardworking as well as stern, she has many good qualities of the traditional black women. Unlike her young daughter, Maggie, she has her own outlook on life and values, even though she is a black woman and doesnt have a good education. In the beginning of the article, we can see she also long for the meeting with her older daughter, because she and Dee sweep the yard so clean and wavy to wait for Dee. She even imagines that one day she and Dee could go for a popular TV show before she sees Dee, it tells us that she expects that Dee could respect and love her like other girls who show to their mothers. In the climax of the essay, Dee wants to rob the family heirloom, the quilts, which she had promised to give Maggie as her dowry. This time, she doesnt meet the demand of Dee. As a mother, she is fair to her two daughters, even Dee and Maggie is as different as heaven and earth. At last, she even get angry with Dee, she couldnt understand why Dee is so greedy and peacockish. In conclusion, Mama is a uneducated but practical character, she standing for the traditional black women in that stage.Dee Dee is the object of jealousy, awe, and agitation among her family members, while as an individual she searches for personal meaning and a stronger sense of self. She get a good education. She is arrogant and always feels that she should enter into the white world, so she leaves her country and keeps on her pursuit in the big city. Actually, Dee is a tragic character, she is an ambivalent syntheses. On one hand, indeed, she doesnt integrate into the white society. On the other hand, she has abandoned the old ideology and costumes of the traditional black people. Superficially, she own fashionable clothes and valuable jewelry, it seems that she has got the life what she has been pursuing for a long time. Actually, she couldnt get the sense of belonging and sense of security in the big city, so she want to rob the quilts to meet her vanity, she just want to show off the quilts to the people in the city and tell them that she is not a black woman who owns nothing. In conclusion, Dee standing for one kind of people in that period that they have abandoned their hometown and origins to pursue a better life in big cities, but they cant integrate into the white people either.Maggie Maggie, Nervous and maladjusted, she is a figure of purity, uncorrupted by selfishness or complex emotional needs. God is unfair to her, she has an excellent, beautiful sister, but she is ugly, clumsy and diffident. So she lives in her sisters shadow for a long time. She even never spares efforts to strive for her proper interests. When Dee says that she wants to take the quilts, Maggie doesnt say “no”. She lives at home and is protected by Mama, remaining virtually untouched by the outside world. She suffers from shyness and lack of education. She is also a tragic character. As a girl, she has ugly scars in her body and doesnt get a good education, because of this, Dee even doesnt think Maggie should have the right to inherit the heirloom. In the future, if the Mama passes away, it is a question whether Maggie could manage her life successfully or not. In contrast, Maggie is less sophisticated than her sister and less competent than her mother. In conclusion, Maggie standing for one kind of people in that society who still adhere to the past practices and they will inherit the tradition from generation to generation.