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1、Lesson 4 Everyday Use,2,About Alice Walker and her works,Alice Walker(1944-),poet,novelist and essayist.one of the most prominent writers in American literature and a most forceful representative of womens literature and black literature.,3,About Alice Walker,She was born into a poor rural family in
2、 Georgia,as the eighth child of sharecropper 交租耕种农parents.She grew up in the midst of violent racism and poverty which influence her later writings.When she went to Sarah Lawrence College in New York on scholarships in the early 60s,the civil rights movement was in full swing.She was actively involv
3、ed in the movement.She graduated in 1965,having the BA.,4,About Alice Walker,After her junior year at the college,she won a scholarship as an exchange student to Uganda,and Kenya.This most probably helped her to understand the African culture.After experiencing the political movement she became a te
4、acher of creative writing and black literature,lecturing at Jackson State College,Yale and university of California at Berkeley.,5,About Alice Walker,Her works:The Third Life of Grange Copeland(1970);Meridian(1976);In Love and Trouble:Stories of Black Women(1973);The Temple of My Familiar(1989);The
5、Color Purple(1982),6,About Alice Walker,A theme throughout Walkers work is the preservation of black culture or“heritage”,and her women characters forge important links to maintain continuity in both personal relationships and communities.Walkers women characters display strength,endurance,and resou
6、rcefulness机敏 in confronting and overcoming oppression(racism and sexism)in their lives.Black women are called the mule of the world,because they have been handed the burdens that everyone else refused to carry-Alice Walker,I.Background,1.Alice Walkers Early Life Date of Birth:February 9,1944Birthpla
7、ce:Eatonton,Georgia Parents:Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker,who were sharecroppers Marriage:Mel Leventhal,a Jewish Civil Rights activist/lawyer Child:Rebecca born in 19692.Education:1961-1963Spelman,a college for black women in Atlanta1963-1965BA from Sarah Lawrence College in New York(once t
8、raveled to Africa as an exchange student),I.Background,3.Career1983 received the Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple(1982)1984 started her own publishing company,Wild Trees Press4.Points of Viewthe Civil Rights Movement the Womens Movementthe Anti-apartheid Movement,The Color Purple,Based on Alice W
9、alkers Pulitzer Prize-winning novel,The Color Purple is the richly textured不平的,decades-spanning story of Celie,an uneducated woman living in the rural American south.Forced to marry a brutal man she calls“Mr.,”Celie turns inward and shares her grief only with God.But she is transformed by the friend
10、ship of two remarkable women,acquiring self-worth.and the strength to forgive.The film launched the Hollywood careers of Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey and gleaned 拾11 Oscar nominations including Best Picture.,II.Discourse Analysis,Elements of NarrativeTime:unknownVenue:HomeCharacters:“I”,Maggie,
11、Dee(Wangero)Asalamalakim,Big Dee,Grandma DeePlot:Maggie and I are ready to have Dee backThe Relationship between Dee and IThe Contrast between Dee and MaggieThe Climax:Grandmas QuiltsTheme:The Heirloom Quilts:Display VS Everyday Use,II.Discourse Analysis,StructurePara 1 2:Maggie and I Are waiting fo
12、r Someone ImportantPara 3 16:The Relationship among Dee,Maggie and“I”“I”:a large,big-boned woman with rough,man-working hands Dee:“No”is a word the world never learned to say to herMaggie:a homely,weak and shy girlPara 17 82 Meeting with Dee Para 17-20Dee came with her new boyfriend and new name Par
13、a 21-43The Name:Dee Para 44-82The Argument on Grandmas Quilts,Setting,Everyday Use”is set in the late 60s or early 70s.This was a time when African-Americans were struggling to define their personal identities in cultural terms.The term“Negro”had been recently removed from the vocabulary,and had bee
14、n replaced with“Black.”There was“Black Power,”“Black Nationalism,”and“Black Pride.”Many blacks wanted to rediscover their African roots,and were ready to reject and deny their American heritage,which was filled with stories of pain and injustice.,Setting,In“Everyday Use,”Alice Walker argues that an
15、African-American is both African and American,and to deny the American side of ones heritage is disrespectful of ones ancestors and,consequently,harmful to ones self.She uses the principal characters of Mama,Dee(Wangero),and Maggie to clarify this theme.,Plot,At the first,mother and Maggie are prepa
16、ring of receiving Dee,the other daughter of the heroine.And from the preparation they made we can see that the relationship between Mother and Dee is alienated疏远的;the relationship between the two sisters is unfriendly and tense.Then the author made some description about the three characters,especia
17、lly about mother and Dee.Then Dee and her boyfriends come,and she changed her name,and there is some information about her boyfriend.And at last she point out that she want the quilt that grandma left to Maggie At last Dee leaves without the quilt,and when she leave both mother and Maggie feel relie
18、ved.,Theme,In“Everyday Use”Alice Walker reveals a conflict between a mother,Mrs.Johnson,and her two daughters.The author also shows a unique heritage of African-Americans.The central theme of the story is the way in which family members of the same African American family honor their heritage.,Point
19、 of View,In this short story,the author uses the first person point of view.Here mother is the story teller,and she makes very vivid description of herself and her two daughters,Dee and Maggie.,Characterization,Mama is an uneducated,yet practical character.Mama loves and respects her ancestors,as is
20、 understood in her description and treatment of the quilts:They had been pieced together by Grandma Dee and then Big Dee and me had hung them on the quilt frames on the front porch and quilted them.in both of them were Grandpa Jarrells paisley shirts.And one teeny faded blue piece.that was from Grea
21、t Grandpa Ezras uniform that he wore in the Civil War The quilts are important to Mama as a direct connection between herself and those before her.,Walker also uses the butter churn as a source for Mamas inherent understanding of heritage:I took it for a moment in my hands.you could see where thumbs
22、 and fingers had sunk into the wood.It was beautiful light yellow wood,from a tree that grew in the yard where Big Dee and Stash had lived As White explains,When Mama takes the dasher handle in her hands,she is symbolically touching the hands of all those who used it before her.Her practical nature
23、and appreciation for heritage distinguishes her from her two daughters,and represents the complex,historical importance of the African-American culture.,Dee,Dee is a selfish and egotistical character with a superficial understanding of her inheritance.She characterizes the confusion and misguidance
24、of young African Americans in the late 60s and 70s.This is apparent in her interactions with her mother and sister.As Sexton notes,Dee“considers herself as cultured,and beyond the abased低微的 quality of the lives lived by her mother and sister).She makes her feelings clear when she attempts to take th
25、e quilts Mama had promised to Maggie:Maggie cant appreciate these quilts.shed probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.,Not only is she conforming to the worst of American ideals,but she is rejecting and disrespecting her own cultural heritage-all under the pretenses of preserving it.
26、It is in this sense that she is the embodiment of the struggle for a unifying identity,because she has not yet come to understand her place in society as both an African and an American.,Maggie,Maggie is a simplistic and good-hearted person.She understands the true meaning of heritage.Just as her si
27、ster asserts,Maggie is backward enough to put the quilts to everyday use.But what Dee fails to recognize is that in doing so Maggie is preserving the ancestral importance of the quilts-that is,utilitarian necessity.,Walker reinforces the cultural significance of Maggies character when Mama refuses t
28、o allow Dee to have her way:“I did something that I never had done before:hugged Maggie to me,then dragger her on into the room,snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangeros Dees hands and dumped them into Maggies lap”This is,as Baker and Pierce-Baker indicated,her mothers“conferral of an ancestral bless
29、ing”(164).Maggie wants to maintain a lasting connection with her heritage,and both Mama and the reader recognize this.She represents those among the African-American community that seek to pass on their heritage without diminution减少 between generations.,23,Cultural Context,Black Power MovementAlice
30、Walkers answer in Everyday Use,24,Black Power MovementThe movement for Black Power in the U.S.came during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.This was a time when African-Americans were struggling to define their personal identities in cultural terms.African Americans were trying to gain racial e
31、quality and called for self-determination and racial dignity.,25,They were seeking their cultural roots in Africa,the slogan Black is beautiful and a renewal of interest and pride in African heritage arose.Many blacks wanted to rediscover their African roots,and were ready to reject and deny their A
32、merican heritage,which was filled with stories of pain and injustice.,26,Alice Walkers answer in Everyday Use-challenges the Black Power movement,and black people in general,to acknowledge and respect their American heritage.The history of Africans in America is filled with stories of pain,injustice
33、,and humiliation.It is not as pleasing as a colorful African heritage that can be fabricated.It is a real heritage that is comprised of real people:people who are deserving of respect and admiration.,27,-shows that culture is neither name changes nor speaking a foreign tongue.Ones culture and herita
34、ge are taught,from one generation to the next,not suddenly picked up or acquired.A person who possesses real heritage and culture make use of it every day of their life.,28,Text analysis(Para.3-4),These programs:National Broadcasting Company(NBC)s television show“This is Your Life,”with Ralph Edward
35、s as producer and master of ceremonies,in which people were publicly and tearfully reunited with friends,relatives,and teachers they had not seen in years.The program aired from 1952 to 1961 and 1970 to 1973.,29,Johnny Carson:Johnny Carson,in full John William Carson(born Oct.23,1925,Corning,Iowa,U.
36、S.died Jan.23,2005,Los Angeles,Calif.)U.S.television personality.He worked as a radio announcer and television comedy writer before hosting several television quiz shows(195562).As the long-standing host of The Tonight Show(196292),he was noted for his wry 幽默的monologues,comedy sketches,and genial 可亲
37、的banter轻松的谈话,and the program became a staple for a large and faithful late-night audience.,Johnny Carson,TheTonightShow has a long,successful history-and it shows no signs of cooling off.It started its run almost 50 years ago,back in 1954.SteveAllen was the first host.He was succeeded by Jack Paar i
38、n 1957,and JohnnyCarson took over the reins in 1962.Johnny was the King of Late Night for 30 years,until he retired in 1992.JayLeno has been the host since then.Over three million people have sat in the studio audience and enjoyed the show.,31,Black Muslims,Black Muslims is a widely used name for th
39、e adherents of an American black nationalist religious movement.The religious organization was founded in Detroit,Michigan,in 1930 by Wallace Fard.Fard argued that African Americans could obtain success through discipline,racial pride,knowledge of God,and physical separation from white society.doctr
40、ines:black self reliance and separation from the white society,even economically.,32,-He says that he accepts the doctrines of Mamas Muslim neighbors but he doesnt like the hard work of their everyday life.-He says that he does not eat collard greens and porktraditional African-American foods he sym
41、bolically denies his heritage despite his complicated African name.This superficiality,on the part of both Dee and Hakim-a-barber,is representative of the many blacks who jumped on the Black Power bandwagon with no real dedication to its root causes.,pigtail&ponytail,Model A car:,in 1909 Henry Ford
42、mass-produced 15 million Model T cars and thus made automobiles popular in the States.In 1928 the Model T was discontinued and replaced by a new design-the Model A-to meet the needs for growing competition in car manufacturing.Here he thinks she is quaint奇怪的,attractive because it is strange and some
43、thing rather old fashioned,Fords Model-T,Fords Model-A,37,Symbolism and Characterization in“Everyday Use”,“Everyday Use”is a poignant 深刻的narrative that describes the relationship between family members through creative symbolism and fine characterization.Through symbolism and characterization,Walker
44、 teaches a moral lesson about heritage,identity,and the role of the two in the lives of the characters and audience.The story asserts that family history should be a part of everyday life.,38,Symbolism,Symbolism,the association of a meaning or theme to an item,is used in this novel to give their rea
45、der a greater understanding of each characters inner thoughts.Walker linked these characters with the following symbols:,39,Of all of the symbols in the story,no one image is as strong as that of the quilts:QuiltsThe symbolism of the quilt conveys that the most genuine means of celebrating ones cult
46、ure is to practice its ideals on a daily basis rather than to admire its relics for aesthetic appeal.churn top and dasher,40,house As the house burns,each characters position around the house directly related to how they feel about their family background.Maggie felt that the house was a part of her
47、.For Maggie,the house held memories of her and her family.As her dress fell off her in little black papery flakes in the fire,parts of her were lost with the house.Dee,on the other hand,was far from the house,steadily concentrating on the burning house until it was completely destroyed.Dee did not d
48、esire to be associated with her family,like she did not want to be associated with the house.,41,Maggies scars are symbolic of the scars that all African-Americans carry as a result of the“fire”of slavery.Hakim-a barber is important to the story as a symbol of the new life that Dee has chosen.,42,“S
49、he Dee pins on my dress a large orchid,even though she has told me once that she thinks orchids are tacky flowers”(2377).It is interesting that by presenting Dees fraudulent 欺骗的 nature through the symbolism of the orchid pinning,she says nothing about refusing the flower.,43,Character,Round characte
50、rRound characters embody a number of qualities and traits,and are complex multidimensional characters with the capacity to grow and change.They have more depth and require more attention.Flat characterFlat characters are those who embody or represent a single characteristic,trait,or idea or at most
