Everyday Use and The Lottery

Everyday Use- Alice Walker

1) The term "everyday use" means the use of daily things passed down from one generation to the other and finding other ways to use them, such as using the butter churn that was made from the tree or the quits that were made out of pieces of the grandmother's dress or the grandfather's old civil uniform. Walker chose this as a title to possibly give the reader an insight to the story or the ending without them reading first, such as Maggie would use the quilts for their intended purpose "everyday use", while Dee "Wangero" would put them on display and not use them for their true purpose.

2) Each character serves as a representation of various aspects of African American heritage. Dee having gained knowledge from going to school would like to preserve artifacts that symbolize her culture. Maggie having grown up learning the ways of her people sees it fit to honor them and keep them close by following tradition and using the things that her ancestors have used before her. Mama has an understanding of both Dee and Maggie's sides and defines heritage as using the artifacts but at the same time preserving them. This is shown with the quilts. The pieces used for the quilt were worn and used before but in order to preserve them they were made into a quilt. Walker wants us to see where each character is coming from but i think she wants her readers to side more with Mama

3) It is ironic that Dee changed her name to Wangero because when she was younger she was ashamed of her past because it was not considered the in thing. She now changes her name to Wangero a more African name to try to symbolize that she is down with culture and appreciate it because everyone else thinks it is cool now.

4) The story would have changed in the sense that if it was Dee narrating it would sound as if she had suddenly found that we need to preserve our culture by putting it on display and if it was Maggie it would seem as if she never gets anything for herself and the quilts were suppose to be her wedding gift. We would not get the real jest of the story if it was someone else narrating, it would be biased.

The Lottery- Shirley Jackson

Literally i think the lottery is an act in trying to control the population of the village. Figuratively, the lottery symbolizes the underlying evil, hypocrisy and weakness of human kind. The fate of the winner is not winning a prize, as i thought because of the title of the story, but death by family and friends. Evil is portrayed in a simple, ordinary, friendly atmosphere which could mean that people are not always as they appear to be. I think Jackson wrote this fiction piece as a way of shocking the public. I think it was a way of informing people that our world is consumed by hypocrisy and weakness and there are many things that we are hush hush about and refuse to acknowledge even if it is not ethical. The message of the story is that people are not what they seem. Hypocrisy is prevalent and so is weakness.