ALICE WALKER 作者 Everyday Use 课文简介
everyday use人物分析兼论其主题
everyday use人物分析兼论其主题《EverydayUse》是美国作家居伦米拉姆惠特曼（AliceWalker）于1973年发表的一篇小说，主要讲述了一个低收入乡村非洲裔美国家庭之间的非洲文化继承争议，也表达了作者对传统非洲文化的认可和尊重。
主要人物分析1.拉（Maggie）：米拉是小说的主人公，也是家庭中最小的孩子，由于生活条件的限制，没有接受过正规的教育，外表粗犷，性格简单，但是对家里的传统文化有着强烈的执着。
米拉有着自己良好的文化认知，理解着自家的传统文化价值，以自己家里的织物来保护和传承自家的文化遗产。
2.丽安（Mary Ann）：玛丽安是米拉的姐姐，也是家里最大的孩子，她曾经就读过大学，想要摆脱贫困，从而拥有更好的生活。
她比米拉更加注重审美，认为传统文化只是一种礼仪，应该只在特定的场合里展示，而不是用于日常生活。
3.安娜（Mama）：玛安娜是小说中的母亲，她友善善良，关心孩子们，有着较强的责任感。
作为家里最重要的人，她在米拉和玛丽安之间寻求平衡，希望两个孩子都能得到成就，又能继承家族的文化传统。
4.安娜（Dee）：戴安娜是米拉和玛丽安的姐姐，比两个孩子大了很多年的大姐，曾经就读过大学，拥有较强的文化认知，对家族的传统文化认可有限，她认为这些传统文化太过于粗俗，不够美观，最后把它们拿来当做收藏品展示在家里。
人物特征看，米拉在家庭有著最深厚的文化认知，追求著文化的承和煌；而玛丽安家族文化有度反感，希望能摆脱贫困，过上更好的生活。
玛安娜在米拉和玛丽安之，她既知道家族文化的重要性，也理解玛丽安改善生活的追求，於双方的力求公平，人都能得到尊重。
戴安娜於家族的传统文化有限的认可，而她想要把它们拿当做收藏品展示在家里，展示自家文化的象征性，也是於家族文化的致敬。
最，《Everyday Use》的主题是“文化继承”。
作者用家族中三名不同文化认知水平的主要人物来表现这个主题，讲述了家庭中个孩子在文化继承上的分歧。
艾丽斯·沃克作品《Everyday Use》赏析
In 1961, Walker went to Spelman College in Atlanta on a full scholarship and later transferred to Sarah Lawrence College near New York City, graduating in 1965. In early 1960s,Walker met Martin Luther King Jr. when she was a student at Spelman College in Atlanta. Walker credits King for her decision to return to the American South as an activist for the civil rights movement. She marched with hundreds of thousands in August in the 1963 March on Washington. As a young adult, she volunteered to register black voters in Georgia and Mississippi.
Because the family had no car, the Walkers could not take their daughter to a hospital for immediate treatment. By the time they reached a doctor a week later, she had become permanently blind in that eye.
Lesson
4
Everyday Use
everyday use
Everyday use by Alice walke rAlice Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia, the youngest of eight children, to Willie Lee Walker and Minnie Lou Tallulah Grant. She grew up in the midst of violent racismand poverty which influenced her later writings. Growing up with an oral tradition, listening to stories from her grandfather (the model for the character of Mr. in The Color Purple), Walker began writing, very privately, when she was eight years old.In 1982, Walker published what has become her best-known work, the novel The Color Purple. About a young ugly black woman fighting her way through not only racist white culture but also patriarchal black culture, it was a resounding commercial success. The book became a bestseller and was subsequently adapted into a critically acclaimed 1985 movie as well as a 2005 Broadway musical.Walker has written several other novels, including T he Temple of My Familiar and Possessing the Secret of Joy. She has published a number of collections of short stories, poetry, and other published work.She expresses the struggles of blacks, particularly women, and their lives in a racist, sexist, and violent society. Her writings also focus on the role of women of color in culture and history. Walker is a respected figure in the liberal political community for her support of unconventional and unpopular views as a matter of principle.Her short stories, include the 1973 Everyday Use, in which she discusses feminism, racism against blacks, and the issues raised by young black people who leave home and lose respect for their parents' culture.Everyday Use is a widely studied and frequently anthologized short story by Alice Walker. It was first published in 1973 as part of Walker's short story collection, In Love and Trouble.The story is told in first person by the "Mama", an African American woman living in the Deep South with one of her two daughters. The story humorously illustrates the differences between Mrs. Johnson and her shy younger daughter Maggie, who still live traditionally in the rural South, and her educated, successful daughter Dee,or "Wangero" as she prefers to be called, who scorns her immediate roots in favor of a pretentious "native African" identity.The most incompatible conflict is their different views on the African culture. Mom and Maggie living a traditional way of the black clashed with Dee who praised the opinion of the white. Mom was a typical black woman, “large, big-boned, with rough, man-working hands” and little education. Doing very hard work like “knocking a bull calf straight in the brain with a sledge hammer” and “breaking ice to get water for washing”, she sustained the whole family laboriously. From her, we see the glittery virtue of hard working of the black women and the great love of a mother as well. Her little daughter Maggie was a shy and conservative girl inheriting the culture from her mom. While without the beauty and braveness, she knew the exact way of there life. However, Dee was very different from them. Accepting the education and culture of the white people, she knew little about her culture, despisedthe black and even hated her identity. She hated their house very much and she did not want to bring her friends to her mom and sister. Her mother tolerated her, raised the money to send her to school and felt proud of her. But she returned this love by detesting and leaving the family. The great virtue and the bitter experience of the black could not evoke her respect and understanding, but the anger and shame instead. The infection of the white's culture made her ignoring the love and beauty of her family and her race.However, Dee had a big change later. Influenced by the Black Power Movement, she got interested in her own culture. The house, the bench, the churn and the quilt, all these things that were used to make her disgusted delighted her then. Following the “fashion” of the movement, she intangibly and surprisingly found the “value” of her family. But it is a pity that Dee only formed a shallow view on her culture. She said the language of the East Africa “a-su-so-tean-o” to her mother, knowing little that they came to America from West Africa. Neglecting the history and the love of the everyday use, she just wanted to keep them as ornaments to make a parade. Maggie, to the opposite, had a different view on the culture. Though did not realize the “value” of the everyday use, she knew everything's history--- who made it, how to use it and how to make it. The typical representative of their culture is the quilt made from pieces of dresses. Through the skillful hands and united work, the old pieces turned into beautiful quilts, with lone star pattern and the picture of walk around the mountain. These quilts are not only the reflection of the wisdom and diligence of the black women, but also impregnated with the love of the family members. Different from Dee’s opinion of “hanging them”, Maggie considered them to be a souvenir of the grandma Dee and she knew how to quilt herself. She would use them as quilts, as the way the black should do. In her hand, the quilts could hold that family-love and pass down from generation to generation, with the traditional living way of black people. Comparing with Dee, the real value of quilts could show only in Maggie’s hands. And that was why mom gave the quilts to Maggie at last.Through the title of her short story, Alice Walker conceptually expresses her wariness of the Black Power Movement. During the mid-1960’s, young black African Americans proclaimed they would not no longer be oppressed by their current lifestyle and began to celebrate African culture by exploiting it for exotic names and ethnic appeal. However, by discarding their southern United States roots, they adopted a culture that does not belong to them, thus abandoning the unique and defining aspects of their own culture. Through a family’s interactions, Alice Walker conveys that the purest and most sincere way to celebrate one’s heritage is by treating it not as a topic of study but rather as a way of life.The title presents us with the central conflict of the story: as a society evolves in sophistication should they honor their heritage by placing their cultural relics on a shelf to be admired, or honor their culture by putting these objects to everyday use?Through the conflicts between the characters, the story reflects the conflict of the society to us.Dee is a black girl trying to enter the mainstream of America, namely the white world, well-educated but knowing little about her culture. Maggie is capable to passdown the precious culture, but she pays the price of living in a less-open environment and giving up high education. And that is the problem. Living in America, being educated in America and attempting to succeed in America inevitably force black people accept the opinions and living way of the white world, possibly make them forgetting or despising or abounding their culture. The disdaining and banishing to the black culture from the white world is the main reason of that. That is Dee who is typical of the conflict between the black and the white world. Through the conflict, we see clearly the plight of furious collision between the two cultures and also the writer’s hope of preserving the blacks’ culture.This novel takes we to think about the western culture’s influence on our traditional Chinese culture. The Mighty Wave of Western Culture expresses itself in many aspects.Young generation eat at any one of the 600 McDonald's or 1,000 KFCs in China, flock to NBA League and Italian Soccer League matches and watch Hollywood rather than domestically produced films. In addition, the youthful preference for Western leisure pursuits extends to holiday celebrations. Of China's numerous traditional festivals, only Spring Festival is unanimously observed by both young and old. Others, such as the Lantern Festival and Dragonboat Festival, are overshadowed by Father's Day, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and Christmas.Everyone in China, young and old, acknowledges that Western culture has indeed influenced the lifestyle and values of the younger generation.Many researches about the influence of the western culture indicate that Chinese youth is interested in Western products but not in being assimilated into the culture from which they emanate. We are glad to know that today's young Chinese have a more rational stance over Western culture. They do not unconditionally accept Western concepts, nor do they regard Western culture as the be all and end all of civilization; today's young Chinese people absorb elements of both the East and the West.Although the entry of Western culture into China is a challenge, we should not shun Western culture as it contains so many essential attributes that we still need to absorb. The thing we need to do now is to cherish our traditional culture and crave more attention on these excellent heritages. We should use the dynamic vision to deal with our traditional heritage. We should take many practical measures to protect our civilization. And in the same time, we could not be narrow-minded. We can absorb the good elements in the western culture and make contributions to our traditional culture.。
everyday use
• 每年的7月30日为非洲妇女日，同三。八国 际妇女节一样，设立非洲妇女节的目的也 是为了维护妇女的合法权益，保证妇女的 平等权利不受侵犯。
谢谢观看
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谢谢观看
• 《紫色》（The Color Purple)是一部优秀的 张扬黑人女权主义的代表作,在1983年获得 小说类普利策奖。小说描述了一位受旧思 想束缚的黑人妇女的转变和成长过程，充 分展现了黑人女性深受性别和种族双重压 迫的政治状况和生活境遇，以及对这种双 重压迫的反抗和对完善自我及完美生活的 渴望与追求，深刻反映了作者的妇女主义 思想。《紫色》还深刻地揭示了妇女主义 思想的内涵和对黑人妇女求解放、求平等 的积极意义。
• “妇女主义者”这个词最早是由艾丽斯· 沃 克（Alice Walker）在她的论文集《寻找我 们母亲的花园：妇女主义散文》（in search of our mother's gardens:womanist prose)中提出的（1983）。沃克在她的论 文集的前言中对妇女主义者下了定义，她 指出妇女主义是黑人母亲民间使用的词语， 用于训诫其女儿行为不要太“女里女气 了”，而沃克对这一形容词的解释是“不 受拘束的、敢于冒险的、勇敢的或任性的 行为。想要更深入地了解一般人认为足够 了的事情”。
lesson four Everyday Use
目录
作者简介 代表作品 妇女主义的概念 非洲黑人现状
作者简介
• 艾丽斯· 沃克1944年2月9日出生于南方佐治 亚州的一个佃农家庭，父母的祖先是奴隶 和印度安人，艾丽斯是家里八个孩子中最 小的一个。1961年艾丽斯获奖学金入亚特 兰大的斯帕尔曼大学学习，正赶上美国民 权运动的高涨时期，她即投身于这场争取 种族平等的政治运动。1962年，艾丽斯· 沃 克被邀请到马丁· 路德· 金的家里做客。1963 年艾丽斯到华盛顿参加了那次著名的游行， 与万千黑人一同聆听马丁· 路德· 金“我有一 个梦想”的讲演。
Everyday use
Alice walker
About the author
• Alice Walker(1944- ), American author and poet, Pulitzer prize winner， most of whose writing portrays the lives of poor, oppressed African American women in the early 1900s. • 美国作家、诗人、普利策奖得主，大部 分的作品描写了20世纪初穷人的生活和 受压迫的非洲裔美国女性
Characters
• Maggie - The younger daughter who stays with Mama while Dee is away at school. Though described by her mother as unintelligent and unattractive, Maggie is a very innocent and humble character. She leads a simple life with her mother and has a traditionally Southern life.
• Mama - Acts as narrator of the story. She is also known as Mrs. Johnson. She is a middleaged or older African-American woman living with her younger daughter, Maggie. Although poor, she is strong and independent as shown by how she interacts with her children, and takes great pride in her way of life. Her appearance is described as someone who is overweight, and someone who has a body that is more like a man's than a woman's. She has strong hands that are worn from a lifetime of work.
everyday use 汉语母版
艾丽丝・沃克，美国妇女文学和黑人文学的最杰出代表，也是美国文学史上最杰出的作家之一。
其主要作品有《格兰奇・科普兰的第三次生命》，《子午线》，《寻找我们母亲的家园》，《爱与困惑的交织：黑人妇女的故事》等。
其重要的作品是《紫色》，该小说获美国图书界三项大奖———普利策文学图书奖，国家优秀图书奖和全国图书评论奖。
二《日用家当》中主要有三女性。
一是小说的叙述者母亲，母亲没有受过多少教育，吃苦耐劳却有一定的头脑；二是大女儿迪伊，她漂亮、聪敏，受过大学教育；三是小女儿麦姬，她丑陋笨拙、性格懦弱、自卑内向。
两个姐妹在外表、性格和生活经历等方面天壤之别并形成鲜明对照。
故事围绕着几件日用家当展开。
在这篇短篇小说中，沃克使用了象征、对比、隐喻和明喻等修辞手法，揭示了由白人强势文化冲击所造成的黑人心灵文化迷失的现象，生动准确地反映了黑人在强势文化冲击下的不同态度。
所谓“象征”，是指用一个具体的事物形象暗示某种不确定的、抽象的意义。
这本来是文学写作中的一种修辞技巧。
象征主义者把它普遍应用于文学创作中去，从而使它成为一种具有原则性质的创作方法。
象征主义者试图通过一种由含混的隐喻来描述结构复杂的联想，传达独特的个人感受。
它有两个重要的意义：一是用看得见的符号来表示看不见的事物"二是符号和意义之间的联想性和相关性。
象征可以激发读者的联想和想象，增强作品的感染力，引导读者加深对作品的深层次的理解。
而在这篇小说中，作者通过赋予三位女性不同的象征意义，向读者揭示了这样一个主题：美国黑人应该用发自肺腑的真诚来接受和继承非洲文化与非裔美国黑人文化。
（一）迪伊———黑人文化民族主义运动的象征。
２０世纪初，新黑人文化运动诞生。
新黑人文化运动利用第一次世界大战后的有利形势，以复兴黑人民间文化遗产、表现种族自我、反对种族歧视和振兴美国黑人文化为主要内容，在保持黑人尊严和个性的前提下以融入美国主流社会为宗旨的文化思想启蒙运动。
在这种背景下，６０年代黑人文化民族文化运动应运而生。
美国黑人女性文学
African American short stories of this period often dealt with problematic issues like separation, integration and redefinition of the African American past. Black people were seeking their cultural roots in Africa, the slogan “Black is beautiful” and the Afro hair-style arose. “Everyday Use” is Alice Walker’s answer to the social discourse of that time, especially concerning the African American concept of heritage and identity.
“Everyday Use -- for your grandmamma”
The motif of quilting has become central to Alice Walker’s concerns, since it suggests the strength to be found in connecting with one’s roots and one’s past.
Maggie
⊙ Being homely (not goodlooking), like a lame animal with burn scars down her arms and legs ⊙ Being shy and timid ⊙ Eying her sister with the mixture of envy and awe ⊙ Being nervous when meeting Dee
高级英语课文Everyday Use
Detailed study of the text:
12. sledge hammer: large, heavy hammer for swinging with both hands, a large heavy hammer with a long handle, used for smashing concrete • 13. barley: 大麦
Detailed study of the text:
• 4. awe: Awe is the feeling of respect and amazement that you have when you are faced with sth. wonderful, frightening or completely unknown. • The child stared at him in silent awe.
Detailed study of the text
• With one foot raised in flight…with my head turned in whichever way is farthest from them: Indirect speech act meaning ready to escape,
Detailed study of the text
curse: If you curse, you use rude or offensive language,usu. because you are angry about sth. insult: If sb. insults you, they say sth. rude to you or offend you by doing or saying sth. which shows they have a low opinion of you.
Everyday Use for Grandma (Alice Walker)
At the start of the novel, Celie views God as completely separate from her world. She writes to God because she has no other way to express her feelings. Celie's writing to God thrusts her into a rich symbolic life which results in her repudiation of the life she has been assigned and a desire for a more expansive daily existence.Her faith is strong, but it’s dependent on only what other people have revealed to her about God. Later she tells Shug that she sees God as a white man. She has this belief because everyone she knows has said God is white and a male. Later, Shug tells her God has no race or gender. This enables Celie to see God in a different way. She realizes that you cannot place qualities on God because God is a part of the unknown. Her faith is now based on her interpretation of God, not one she learned from someone else. Even though Shug helped her with this realization, Celie only used this knowledge to shape her faith. Shug was a huge influence on Celie’s faith, but Celie was the one that had to choose how she would express it.
everyday use by alice walker译文
everyday use by alice walker译文以下是为您生成的译文：《艾丽斯·沃克的<日常使用>》原文这篇东西讲的呢，就是一些日常生活里的事儿。
咱一点点来掰扯掰扯。
先说这家人，有个老妈，还有俩闺女。
大闺女呢，叫迪伊，跑到大城市去混了，觉着自己可了不起，学了一堆花里胡哨的东西。
小闺女呢，叫麦姬，就在家里老老实实呆着，跟着老妈过日子。
有一天，迪伊回来了，打扮得那叫一个花枝招展，还带了个男朋友。
她一回来就瞅着家里这也不顺眼，那也不顺眼，觉得老妈和麦姬太土气。
老妈呢，一直守着家里的老物件，像什么被子啦，搅乳器啦。
迪伊就想要这些东西，说这是传统，是文化，要拿回去当宝贝供着。
可老妈心里清楚，这些东西真正的用处不是摆在那好看，而是日常使用。
麦姬呢，因为小时候被火烧伤过，有点自卑，也不咋说话。
但她心里明白家里这些东西的价值。
迪伊非要拿那些被子，老妈就不干，说这被子得留着日常用。
迪伊还不高兴了，觉得老妈不懂她的心思。
其实啊，老妈心里跟明镜似的，知道啥是真正的过日子，啥是表面的花架子。
最后老妈还是把被子给了麦姬，因为她知道麦姬会像一直以来那样，踏踏实实地用这些东西。
这故事说的就是，有时候咱别光追求那些看着高大上的东西，真正的生活还是平平常常、实实在在的好。
就像家里那些老物件，能用在日常生活里，那才有价值，光摆着好看有啥用？咱过日子得脚踏实地，别整那些虚头巴脑的。
这故事出自艾丽斯·沃克的手笔，她写这故事就是想让咱明白，生活的真谛就在那些日常的点点滴滴里，别瞎折腾，别光追求表面的光鲜。
咱得实实在在地过日子，珍惜身边那些普普通通却又实实在在的东西。
Alice walker everyday use
Activism
Alice Walker met Martin Luther King Jr. when she was a student at Spelman College in Atlanta in the early 1960s. Walker credits King for her decision to return to the American South as an activist for the Civil Rights Movement. She attended the famous 1963March on Washington. As a young adult she volunteered her time registering voters in Georgia and Mississippi On March 8, 2003, International Women's Day, on the eve of the Iraq War, Alice Walker was arrested along with 24 others for crossing a police line during an anti-war protest rally outside the White House. Walker wrote about the experience in her essay "We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For.― In November 2008, Alice Walker wrote "An Open Letter to Barack Obama" that was published on The root. Com. Walker address the newly elected President as ―Brother Obama‖
Everyday-Use原文+译文
Everyday UseAlice WalkerI will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yester day afternoon. A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just a yard. It is like an extended living room. When the hard clay is swept clean as a floor and the fine sand around the edges lined with tiny, irregular grooves, anyone can come and sit and look up into the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never come inside the house.Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that "no" is a word the world never learned to say to her.You've no doubt seen those TV shows where the child who has "made it" is confronted, as a surprise, by her own mother and father, tottering in weakly from backstage. (A Pleasant surprise, of course: What would they do if parent and child came on the show only to curse out and insult each other?) On TV mother and child embrace and smile into each other's face. Sometimes the mother and father weep, the child wraps them in her arms and leans across the table to tell how she would not have made it without their help. I have seen these programs.Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort. Out of a cark and soft-seated limousine I am ushered into a bright room filled with many people. There I meet a smiling, gray, sporty man like Johnny Carson who shakes my hand and tells me what a fine girl I have. Then we are on the stage and Dee is embracing me with tear s in her eyes. She pins on my dress a large orchid, even though she has told me once that she thinks or chides are tacky flowers.In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. My fat keeps me hot in zero weather. I can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing; I can eat pork liver cooked over the open tire minutes after it comes steaming from the hog. One winter I knocked a bull calf straight in the brain between the eyes with a sledge hammer and had the meat hung up to chill be-fore nightfall. But of course all this does not show on television. I am the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pan-cake. My hair glistens in the hot bright lights. Johnny Car –son has much to do to keep up with my quick and witty tongue.But that is a mistake. I know even before I wake up. Who ever knew a Johnson with a quick tongue? Who can even imagine me looking a strange white man in the eye? It seems to me I have talked to them always with one toot raised in flight, with my head turned in whichever way is farthest from them. Dee, though. She would always look anyone in the eye. Hesitation was no part of her nature."How do I look, Mama?" Maggie says, showing just enough of her thin body enveloped in pink skirt and red blouse for me to know she's there, almost hidden by the door."Come out into the yard," I say.Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind of him? That is the way my Maggie walks. She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground.Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure. She's a woman now, though sometimes I forget. How long ago was it that the other house burned? Ten, twelve years? Sometimes I can still hear the flames and feel Maggie's arms sticking to me, her hair smoking and her dress falling off her in little black papery flakes. Her eyes seemed stretched open, blazed open by the flames reflect-ed in them. And Dee. I see her standing off under the sweet gum tree she used to dig gum out of;a look at concentration on her face as she watched the last dingy gray board of the house tall in toward the red-hot brick chimney. Why don't you do a dance around the ashes? I'd wanted to ask her. She had hated the house that much.I used to think she hated Maggie, too. But that was before we raised the money, the church and me, to send her to Augusta to school. She used to read to us without pity, forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice. She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn't necessarily need to know. Pressed us to her with the serious way she read, to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits, we seemed about to understand.Dee wanted nice things. A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit she'd made from an old suit somebody gave me. She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts. Her eyelids would not flicker for minutes at a time. Often I fought off the temptation to shake her. At sixteen she had a style of her own' and knew what style was.回答人的补充 2009-09-30 18:43I never had an education myself. After second grade the school was closed down. Don't ask me why. in 1927 colored asked fewer questions than they do now. Sometimes Maggie reads to me. She stumbles along good-naturedly but can't see well. She knows she is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passed her by. She will marry John Thomas (who has mossy teeth in an earnest face) and then I'll be free to sit here and I guess just sing church songs to myself. Although I never was a good singer. Never could carry a tune. I was always better at a man's job. 1 used to love to milk till I was hooked in the side in '49. Cows are soothing and slow and don't bother you, unless you try to milk them the wrong way.I have deliberately turned my back on the house. It is three rooms, just like the one that burned, except the roof is tin: they don't make shingle roofs any more. There are no real windows, just some holes cut in the sides, like the portholes in a ship, butnot round and not square, with rawhide holding the shutter s up on the outside. This house is in a pasture, too, like the other one. No doubt when Dee sees it she will want to tear it down. She wrote me once that no matter where we "choose" to live, she will manage to come see us. But she will never bring her friends. Maggie and I thought about this and Maggie asked me, Mama, when did Dee ever have any friends?"She had a few. Furtive boys in pink shirts hanging about on washday after school. Nervous girls who never laughed. Impressed with her they worshiped the well-turned phrase, the cute shape, the scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in lye. She read to them.When she was courting Jimmy T she didn't have much time to pay to us, but turned all her faultfinding power on him. He flew to marry a cheap city girl from a family of ignorant flashy people. She hardly had time to recompose herself.When she comes I will meet -- but there they are!Maggie attempts to make a dash for the house, in her shuffling way, but I stay her with my hand. "Come back here," I say. And she stops and tries to dig a well in the sand with her toe.It is hard to see them clearly through the strong sun. But even the first glimpse of leg out of the car tells me it is Dee. Her feet were always neat-looking, as it God himself had shaped them with a certain style. From the other side of the car comes a short, stocky man. Hair is all over his head a foot long and hanging from his chin like a kinky mule tail. I hear Maggie suck in her breath. "Uhnnnh," is what it sounds like. Like when you see the wriggling end of a snake just in front of your toot on the road. "Uhnnnh."Dee next. A dress down to the ground, in this hot weather. A dress so loud it hurts my eyes. There are yel-lows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun. I feel my whole face warming from the heat waves it throws out. Earrings gold, too, and hanging down to her shoulders. Bracelets dangling and making noises when she moves her arm up to shake the folds of the dress out of her armpits. The dress is loose and flows, and as she walks closer, I like it. I hear Maggie go "Uhnnnh" again. It is her sister's hair. It stands straight up like the wool on a sheep. It is black as night and around the edges are two long pigtails that rope about like small lizards disappearing behind her ears."Wa-su-zo-Tean-o!" she says, coming on in that gliding way the dress makes her move. The short stocky fellow with the hair to his navel is all grinning and he follows up with "Asalamalakim, my mother and sister!" He moves to hug Maggie but she falls back, right up against the back of my chair. I feel her trembling there and when I look up I see the perspiration falling off her chin."Don't get up," says Dee. Since I am stout it takes something of a push. You can see me trying to move a second or two before I make it. She turns, showing white heels through her sandals, and goes back to the car. Out she peeks next with a Polaroid. She stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me. She never takes a shot without making sure the house is included. When a cow comes nibbling around theedge of the yard she snaps it and me and Maggie and the house. Then she puts the Polaroid in the back seat of the car, and comes up and kisses me on the forehead.Meanwhile Asalamalakim is going through motions with Maggie's hand. Maggie's hand is as limp as a fish, and probably as cold, despite the sweat, and she keeps trying to pull it back. It looks like Asalamalakim wants to shake hands but wants to do it fancy. Or maybe he don't know how people shake hands. Anyhow, he soon gives up on Maggie."Well," I say. "Dee.""No, Mama," she says. "Not 'Dee', Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!""What happened to 'Dee'?" I wanted to know."She's dead," Wangero said. "I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.""You know as well as me you was named after your aunt Dicle," I said. Dicie is my sister. She named Dee. We called her "Big Dee" after Dee was born."But who was she named after?" asked Wangero."I guess after Grandma Dee," I said."And who was she named after?" asked Wangero."Her mother," I said, and saw Wangero was getting tired. "That's about as far back as I can trace it," I said.Though, in fact, I probably could have carried it back beyond the Civil War through the branches."Well," said Asalamalakim, "there you are.""Uhnnnh," I heard Maggie say."There I was not," I said, before 'Dicie' cropped up in our family, so why should I try to trace it that far back?"He just stood there grinning, looking down on me like somebody inspecting a Model A car. Every once in a while he and Wangero sent eye signals over my head."How do you pronounce this name?" I asked."You don't have to call me by it if you don't want to," said Wangero."Why shouldn't I?" I asked. "If that's what you want us to call you, we'll call you. ""I know it might sound awkward at first," said Wangero."I'll get used to it," I said. "Ream it out again."Well, soon we got the name out of the way. Asalamalakim had a name twice as long and three times as hard. After I tripped over it two or three times he told me to just call him Hakim-a-barber. I wanted to ask him was he a barber, but I didn't really think he was, so I don't ask."You must belong to those beet-cattle peoples down the road," I said. They said "Asalamalakirn" when they met you too, but they didn't Shake hands. Always too busy feeding the cattle, fixing the fences, putting up salt-lick shelters, throwing down hay. When the white folks poisoned some of the herd the men stayed up all night with rifles in their hands. I walked a mile and a half just to see the sight.Hakim-a-barber said, "I accept some of their doctrines, but farming and raising cattle is not my style." (They didn't tell me, and I didn't ask, whether Wangero (Dee)had really gone and married him.)We sat down to eat and right away he said he didn't eat collards and pork was unclean. Wangero, though, went on through the chitlins and corn bread, the greens and every-thing else. She talked a blue streak over the sweet potatoes. Everything delighted her. Even the fact that we still used the benches her daddy made for the table when we couldn't afford to buy chairs."Oh, Mama!" she cried. Then turned to Hakim-a-barber. "I never knew how lovely these benches are. You can feel the rump prints," she said, running her hands underneath her and along the bench. Then she gave a sigh and her hand closed over Grandma Dee's butter dish. "That's it!" she said. "I knew there was something I wanted to ask you if I could have." She jumped up from the table and went over in the corner where the churn stood, the milk in it clabber by now. She looked at the churn and looked at it."This churn top is what I need," she said. "Didn't Uncle Buddy whittle it out of a tree you all used to have?""Yes," I said."Uh huh, " she said happily. "And I want the dasher,too.""Uncle Buddy whittle that, too?" asked the barber.Dee (Wangero) looked up at me."Aunt Dee's first husband whittled the dash," said Maggie so low you almost couldn't hear her. "His name was Henry, but they called him Stash.""Maggie's brain is like an elephants," Wanglero said, laughing. "I can use the churn top as a center piece for the alcove table,”she said, sliding a plate over the churn, "and I'll think of something artistic to do with the dasher."回答人的补充 2009-09-30 18:56When she finished wrapping the dasher the handle stuck out. I took it for a moment in my hands. You didn't even have to look close to see where hands pushing the dasher up and down to make butter had left a kind of sink in the wood. In fact, there were a lot of small sinks; you could see where thumbs 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.After dinner Dee (Wangero) went to the trunk at the foot of my bed and started rifling through it. Maggie hung back in the kitchen over the dishpan. Out came Wangero with two quilts. They had been pieced by Grandma Dee and then Big Dee and me had hung them on the quilt frames on the front porch and quilted them. One was in the Lone Star pattern. The other was Walk Around the Mountain. In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bit sand pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War."Mama," Wangero said sweet as a bird. "Can I have these old quilts?"I heard something fall in the kitchen, and a minute later the kitchen door slammed."Why don't you take one or two of the others?” 1 asked. "These old things was just done by me and Big Dee from some tops your grandma pieced before she died.""No," said Wangero. "I don't want those. They are stitched around the borders by machine.""That'll make them last better," I said."That's not the point," said Wanglero. "These are all pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear. She did all this stitching by hand. Imagine!" She held the quilts securely in her arms, stroking them."Some of the pieces, like those lavender ones, come from old clothes her mother handed down to her,” I said, movi ng up to touch the quilts. Dee (Wangero) moved back just enough so that I couldn't reach the quilts. They already belonged to her. "Imagine!" she breathed again, clutching them closely to her bosom."The truth is," I said, "I promised to give them quilts to Maggie, for when she marries John Thomas."She gasped like a bee had stung her."Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" she said. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.""I reckon she would," I said. "God knows I been sav age ’em for long enough with nobody using 'em. I hope she will! ” I didn't want to bring up how I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they were old-fashioned, out of style."But they're priceless!" she was saying now, furiously, for she has a temper. "Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they'd be in rags. Less than that!" "She can always make some more,” I said. "Maggie knows how to quilt. "Dee (Wangero) looked at me with hatred. "You just will not understand. The point is these quilts, these quilts!""Well," I said,, stumped. "What would you do with them?""Hang them," she said. As it that was the only thing you could do with quilts.Maggie by now was standing in the door. I could almost hear the sound her feet made as they scraped over each other."She can have them, Mama,” she said like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her. "I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts."I looked at her hard. She had filled her bottom lip with checkerberry snuff and it gave her face a kind of dopey, hangdog look. It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught her how to quilt herself. She stood there with her scarred hands hidden in the folds of her skirt. She looked at her sister with something like fear but she wasn't mad at her. This was Maggie's portion. This was the way she knew God to work.When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet. Just like when I'm in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout. I did something I never had done before: hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero's hands and dumped them into Maggie's lap. Maggie just sat there on my bed with her mouth open."Take one or two of the others," I said to Dee.But she turned without a word and went out to Hakim-a-barber."You just don't understand," she said, as Maggie and I came out to the car."What don't I under stand?" I wanted to know."Your heritage," she said. And then she turned to Maggie, kissed her, and said, "You ought to try to make some-thing of yourself, too, Maggie. It's really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it."She put on some sunglasses that hid everything above the tip of her nose and her chin.Maggie smiled; maybe at the sunglasses. But a real mile, not scared. After we watched the car dust settle I asked Maggie to bring me a dip of snuff. And then the two of us sat there just enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go to bed. NOTES1) Alice Walker: born 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia, America and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College. Her books include The Third Life of Grange Copeland ( 1970 ), Meridian ( 1976 ), The Color Purple(1982), etc.2)"made it": to become a success, to succeed, either in specific endeavor or in general3) Johnny Carson: a man who runs a late night talk show4)hooked: injured by the horn of the cow being milked5) Jimmy T: 'T' is the initial of the surname of the boy Dee was courting.6)"Wa-su-zo-Tean-o!": phonetic rendering of an African dialect salutation7) "Asalamalakim": phonetic rendering of a Muslim greeting8) Polaroid: a camera that produces instant pictures9) the Civil War: the war between the North and the South in the U. S.(1861-1865)10) branches: branches or divisions of a family descending from a common ancestor11) Ream it out again: "Ream" is perhaps an African dialect word meaning: "unfold, display". Hence the phrase may mean "repeat" or "say it once again"12) pork was unclean: Muslims are forbidden by their religion to eat pork because it is considered to be unclean.13) Chitlins: also chitlings or chitterlings, the small intestines of pigs, used for food, a common dish in Afro-American households14) rump prints: depressions in the benches made by constant sitting15) sink: depressions in the wood of the handle left by the thumbs and fingers外婆的日用家当艾丽斯•沃克尔我就在这院子里等候她的到来。
高级英语 Everyday Use 背景资料
南美 北美 其他
期
期
纪
前
后
世
世
纪
前
期
17
17
世
纪
12
Negro
With the political consciousness that emerged from the political and social ferment of the late 1960s and early 1970s, blacks no longer approved of the term Negro. They believed it had suggestions of a moderate, accommodationism (迁就主义), even ―Uncle Tom―(逆来顺受的美国黑人) connotation. In this period, a growing number of blacks in the United States, particularly African American youth, celebrated their blackness and their historical and cultural ties with the African continent.
(1955-1968)
2
Story Background
The short story ―Everyday Use‖, from the collection In Love and Trouble published in 1973, was written during the heyday of the Black Power movement, when African-Americans were trying to gain racial equality and called for self-determination and racial dignity. African-American short stories of this period often dealt with problematic issues like separation, integration and redefinition of the African American past. Blacks were seeking their cultural roots in Africa, the slogan “Black is beautiful” and the Afro hair style arose. Everyday Use is Alice Walker’s answer to the social discourse of that time, especially concerning the African American concept of heritage and identity.
everyday use主题,主要人物,背景,作者
In this short story, walker reveals the phenomenon of black people's spiritual and cultural loss caused by the strong culture shock of white people and reflects the different attitudes of black people under the strong culture shock vividly and accurately.
thank you
In the early 20th century, the New Negro Cultural Movement was born. It took advantage of the favorable situation after the first world war to revive the black folk cultural heritage, express racial self-identity, oppose racial discrimination and revitalize the American black culture as its main content, and intended to integrate into the mainstream American society on the premise of maintaining the dignity and individuality of the black people. Many blacks have embarked on their own journey to find their roots and reject a culture of pain and denial. However, many black people who blindly seek for their roots have a superficial understanding of their national culture and heritage. They only pay attention to the external manifestation of culture and do not really understand the rich connotation of culture and heritage.
高级英语第一册Unit4 Everyday Use
to do it fancy: to do in an
ornamental, elaborate manner.
Phrases and expressions
blue steak: (colloquial) anything
regarded as like a streak of lightning in speed, vividness, etc. to talk a blue streak: to talk much and rapidly.
furtive: done or acting in a stealthy manner, as if to hinder observation; surreptitious, stealthy, sneaky.
New words
washday: a day, often the same day every week, when the clothes, linens, etc. of a household are washed.
Unit4 Everyday Use
Alice Walker
Alice Walker (1944-), poet, novelist and essayist, was born Into a poor rural family in Eatonton, Georgia. Her writing career began with the publication of a volume of poetry in 1968,with was followed by a number of novels, short stories critical essays and more poetry. Her works include The Life of Grange Copeland(1970), Meridian (1976), a biography of Langston Hughes (1973), a volume of poetry Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems (1973), a collection of short stories In Love and Troubles: Stories of Black Women (1973) and a recent novel The Temple of My Familiar (1989). Her most significant novel is The Color Purple, published in 1982.
Everyday use 外婆的日用家当
The theme of her works
• • • • • rape violence isolation troubled relationships multi-generational perspectives（多代的角 度） • sexism and racism
Major works
Alice Walker
February 9,1944-
General introduction
novelist, poet, essayist, educator.
biographer, editor, short-story writer. activist on environmental, feminist and womanist causes, issues of economic justice.
The Color Purple
The Color Pze
The National Book Awad
The National Book Critics Circle
• Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on female black life during the 1930s in the Southern United States, addressing the numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture. The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000-2009 at number seventeen because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence.
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Made by 少媚、瑞冰
Everyday Use
Biography
CHILDHOOD
born in Eatonton, Georgia , on February, 1944 youngest of eight children, grew up mostly with her 5 oldest brothers 1952-her brother shot her eye out with a BB gun blinding her one eye
Collision
Hope of preserving the black’s culture
✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Rape Sexism Racism Violence Isolation Troubled relationships Multi-generational perspectives
Walker’s publishing
1968 Once (poetry)
1970-The Third
Mom Maggie Dee
conflict
different views on the African culture
◈ narrator of the story ◈ a typical black woman
◈ little education, poor, strong ◈ hard-working, independent,
♦ short story, widely studied
♦ first published in 1973 as part of In Love and
Trouble
♦ about an Africa-American family’s daily life and their spiritual world ♦ reflecting embarrassed condition and cultural plight困境
Life of Grange Copeland (novel)
♣ 1973- In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women (short stories) ♣ 1981-You Can’t Keep Good Women Down (short stories)
College Years
valedictorian of her local school 1963-”dismissed” from Spelman & enrolled in Sarah Lawrence College on scholarships 1965-received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College graduating in 1965.
▶ interested in her own culture ▶ found the “value” of her family ▶ formed a shallow view on her culture ▶ keep them as ornaments
The black world
The hite world
of the black women ◎the love of the family
praised the opinion of the white Accepting the education and culture of the white people knew little about her culture despised the black and even hated her identity ignoring the love of her family and her race
❉ shy and conservative
❉ living in a traditional way of the black
❉ knowing the exact way of their life ❉ knowing everyday use's history
◎reflection of the wisdom and diligence