Description
Alice Walker “Everyday use” Louise Erdrich “Red convertible” Write in response to the following prompts about the imagery and the point of view in “Everyday Use” and “The Red Convertible.” Save your responses on a WORD DOC or PDF , and submit them to me no later than 11:59 pm on Friday (3/5). 1. In “Everyday Use,” the quilts represent something different to Dee than they do to Mama and Maggie. What sort of use would Maggie make of them? What would her sister do with them? What differences between the characters and their attitudes do the quilts symbolize? 2. How about the red convertible? Why is it red? Why a convertible? What does it represent to Lyman and Henry? Does its meaning change after Henry returns from Vietnam? What about other images in the story? What do you make of the image of Henry with Susy on his shoulders with “her hair reached down to his waist, and he . . . twirling, this way and that, so her hair was flung out from side to side” (Erdrich 465) or the photograph Bonita takes of the brothers and their car after Henry fixes it up (468)? 3. How reliable is Mama as a first-person narrator? Are there reasons to distrust her descriptions of her daughters? Do you agree with her decision to give the quilts to Maggie? What motives appear to lie behind her decision? How about Lyman? Why does he choose to give the red convertible up to the river? Here is the 2 story names and please look up for the story because I could get the pdf format of them. Also I include my work but didn’t get the grade that I wanted. If you want you can simply check his comments and correct my mistakes or just redo the assignment. I actually prefer to do it all over professionally. Thanks in advance. If you have any concerns, please feel free to contact me.
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Farangiz Hojalieva
David Shimkin
Eng 102
03/04/2021
Notebook Entry #5
In the story “Everyday Use” the quilt represents the skills, creativity and tradition of African American women. The quilts are pieces of fabric that chronicle the lives of their generations and the trials, such as war and poverty that they faced. In this case the quilts represented the Jonsons family’s legacy. The women of the Johnson family have a history of making something out of nothing, bringing comfort and beauty to daily life through their skills. Mama already promised the quilts to her daughter Maggie because she sees them as living objects as everyday use and knows how to quilt or use her hands for traditional work. However, Dee wanted the quilt for wall decor as piece of art as last piece from her grandma. Which means Dee sees quilt as antique art for wall decoration. However, Maggie gives them a value and sees the bond with her grandma and several generations of the family who have contributed the quilts.
The red convertible represents both brothers Henry and Lyman youthful, innocence and freedom as they face the realities of adulthood. When they first see the convertible for sale, they got excited by it remembering all the excitement automobiles brought to him in his youth. Also, the color of it seemed to them alive and glamorous. The red convertible represents the bond between them. Henry and Lyman spend a summer traveling together in the red convertible before Henry gets drafted to Vietnam. In Vietnam, Henry becomes a prisoner of war and when he was released, he was traumatized. He is now uninterested in the car, which shows his distance from the freedom, youth and innocence as it symbolized. Now the brothers have trouble connecting. Lyman
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tries to get Henry interested in the car again and damages the car in an attempting to get Henry to fix it. For a while, this seems to work Henry repairing the car and he seems in better spirits, and he even invites Lyman on a ride to the river once the car is fixed. The photograph Bonita takes picture of the brothers and their car after Henry fixes it up. Lyman cherishes this photograph and hangs it on his wall, thinking that it reminds him of “good” times with Henry when they were close.
In the story of “Everyday Use” Mama is the first-person narrator. She is very reliable and trustworthy. As single mother she has shown her hard work and strength in raising her daughters during a tough time. Mama describes herself as “a big-boned” woman with hands that are rough from years of “physical labor”. Poor and uneducated Mama was not given the opportunity to break out of her rural life. Certainly, she does seem to have some hard feelings toward Dee, but these feelings seem for a reason considering the past and present events as she describes. She barely describes shy, withering Maggie’s limitations due to her burns, and Dee aggravate even more pointed evaluation. Mama resents the education, civilized, and air of superiority that Dee has acquired over the years. Mama has a strong understanding of her heritage and won’t allow Dee to take the family quilts. I agree with Mama to give the quilts to Maggie because Dee rejecting their heritage by wanting to use it as unique art. For Maggie, family history isn’t something to be used as decoration, but heritage is very much alive for them in the present. When Lyman and Henry made a trip to the Red River, Lyman thought this trip would bring them close together as old times. When Lyman cannot save him, he pushes the car into the river destroying it in the same way that his own freedom and innocence have been destroyed by his brother’s death.
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