Unit 4
Everyday U
-- for your grandmama
Pre-reading Tasks
♦How much do you know about the history of American black people?
♦Talk about women’s liberation movement in America.
♦Give a brief introduction to Alice Walker.
Background
Alice Walker (1944- ):
A 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, which was follo
伞怎么写wed by a number of novels, short stories, critical essays and more poetry. Now she is regarded as one of the most prominent writers in American literature and a most forceful reprentative of women’s literature and black literature.
Her works: The Third Life of Grange Copeland 精彩极了和糟糕透了(1970); Meridian (1976); a biography of Langston Hughes（1973). Her most significant novel is The Color Purple (1982), which won all the three major book awards in America--the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Award. The novel was an instant bestller and made into an equally successful movie in 1985. Alice Walker is at her best when portraying people living in the rural areas. As a black writer, she is particularly interested in examining the relationships among the blacks themlves.
About the Article
Everyday u was published early in Alice Walker’s writing career, appearing in her collection In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women in 1973. The work was enthusiastically reviewed upon publication, and Everyday U has since been called by s
ome critics the best of Walker’s short stories.
The Main Idea
The story begins with the narrator, a black woman, awaiting the homecoming of her daughter Dee, an educated woman who now lives in the city. Accompanying her is her younger daughter Maggie. As they wait, the narrator reveals details of the family history, specifically the relationship between her two daughters. To the mother’s surpri, Dee, who has been scornful of the black, is now delighted by the old way of life, and she is even more interested in the old handmade quilts pieced by Grandma. However, the quilts have already been promid to Maggie. Although Maggie is intimidated enough to surrender the beloved quilts to Dee, the mother snatches the quilts form Dee and offers her instead some of the machine-stitched ones, which Dee does not want.
“Everyday U” (1973) is included in the Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, 2nd Edition, 1981. As one of the best-written short stories by Alice Walker, it describes three women. The mother is a working woman without much education, but not without intellige
nce or perception. The two daughters form a sharp contrast in every conceivable way: appearance, character, personal experiences, etc. The story reaches its climax at the moment when Dee, the elder daughter, wants the old quilts only to be refud flatly by the mother, who intends to give them to Maggie, the younger one. The old quilts, made from pieces of clothes worn by grand-and great grand-parents and stitched by Grandma’s hand, are clearly a symbol of the cultural heritage of the black people电脑硬件有哪些. Their different feelings about the quilts reveal their different attitudes towards their heritage as blacks.
留学gpa
Text Stud
1. wavy: characteristic of waves, rembling waves. Here the word describes the marks in wavy patterns on the clay ground left by the broom.
2. an extended living room: an enlarged living room by a new addition to the original space. Extended means prolonged, continued; enlarged in influence, meaning, scope, etc.
e.g. extended care: nursing care provided for a limited time after a hospital stay
extended family: a group of relatives’ blood, marriage or adoption, often including a nuclear family, living together, esp. three generations are involved.
3. and the fine sand … groves: Before the word “lined.” The link verb “is” is omitted. fine “not coar, in small particles. e.g. fine cloth, fine sugar
4. “no” is a word the world never learned to say to her:
She could always have anything she wanted, and life was extremely generous to her.
5. a TV program of this sort: “This sort” carries a derogatory tone蟒蛇之灾, suggesting that the TV program is of poor or inferior kind.
6. In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough man working hands:
The phra “in real life” is transitional军训的作文, liking this paragraph and the one above, implying that tho TV programs are nothing but make-believe and the narrator is very skeptical of them. In reality she has the typical features of a black working woman.
7. overalls: loo-fitting trours of some strong cotton-cloth, often with a part extending up over the chest, worn, usually over other clothes, to protect against dirt and wear.
8. I am the way … an uncooked barley pancake: My daughter wishes me to have a slender figure and a fair complexion; like an uncooked barley pancake: a simile,e开头的英语单词 comparing the skin to barley dough which has a creamy, smooth texture.
