In “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker stitches a rich tapestry of African-American heritage, exploring the deep-seated nuances between genders and the legacy passed down from ancestors. Through the lens of a simple yet profound family story, Walker weaves the intricate themes of art, identity, and women’s culture with the metaphor of quilting, crafting a narrative that delves into the essence of self and heritage. This analysis seeks to bridge Walker’s narrative with the broader themes presented in “An Introduction to Fiction, 11th Edition” by X.J. Kennedy, unraveling the threads that tie individual identity to cultural legacy.
In comparing the two books, the works presented by the eleventh edition of anthology, it illustrates a well-discussed literary devices and useful writing tips applicable to Alice Walker’s “Everyday use” is one of the finest authors selected in the “Introduction to Fiction”. Selected from Latin America, where writers are still new to fiction, Walter uses quilting to illustrate that the world view of a person is made up of circumstances, events and influences that determine our perception and response to the world around us. In her fiction story, a mother who is referred to in the story as Mama is used to bring out the two quite different worlds which her two daughters embody. This story is therefore comparable to the works enlisted by the book “An Introduction to Fiction” which enable readers to read, analyze and even write about those stories.
X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia bring about human perceptive and warmth which is normally very characteristic of fiction stories such as “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. This fictionist uses questions such as “What would they do if parent and child came on the show only to curse out and insult each other?” and expressions such as “my skin like an uncooked barley pancake”. With many other examples, the author’s short story uses fiction to explain some differences between black men and women. Fiction is closely associated with using names other than the actor’s actual names as can be seen in Kennedy and Dana’s book. This is particularly related to the common practice of the African-Americans of the late 1960s of re-appropriating their African traditions and customs, giving names of their people and religious beliefs which had been long lost (Child, n.d). For instance, Dee, one of the daughters of Mama, has likely been swept by the 1960s’ movements and calls for cultural emancipation and black power to drop the name to her by her mother and acquires and African name.
The two books contrast in various areas such as some critics have pronounced her a feminist since she uses only women as her main characters in the and one of them is despised for claiming to be “large and big-boned woman, man-working hands”. Although the story uses imaginary characters, it is based on events that actually took place in history and the circumstances that promoted discrimination of women as well as other forms of plight facing them in the 1960’s. There are those African Americans, who decided to go for their ancestors’ traditions in the lands from which their ancestors were removed many generations before. Also, “An introduction to Fiction” is not a short story but a collection and analysis of ten short stories which are new three masterworks, casebooks, chapters on writing which have been expanded and revised and a new design. The stories are however mostly based on fiction.
The anthology “An introduction to Fiction” by edition X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia is closely associated with the Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” fiction story since it has a rich collection of fiction where Walker’s “Everyday Use” is one of them. It also targets to identify authors with contagious enthusiasm such as Alice Walker. Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” is different since it only focuses only one fiction story unlike the anthology with several fiction stories written by different authors as well as other works such as masterwork casebooks.
