- Examine a literary work for characterization.
- Analyze narrator reliability in a work of fiction.
- Explore the connection between an author and her work.
Task:
- Read this website about the author, Alice Walker.
- Read the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker in your Perrine's text on pages 166-173.
- Complete a transaction guide as you read.
Assignment:
As a comment to the post, answer 2 of the three questions below:
1. Characterize the speaker and evaluate her reliability as a reporter and interpreter of events. Where does
she refrain from making judgments? Where does she present less than the full truth? Do these examples of
reticence undercut her reliability?
2. Does the mother's refusal to let Dee have the quilts indicate a permanent or temporary change of
character? What has she never done anything like it before? Why does she do it now? What details in the
story prepare for and foreshadow that refusal?
3. Is Dee wholly unsympathetic? Is the mother's victory over he altogether positive? What emotional
ambivalence is there in the final scene ween Maggie and her mother in the yard?