On February 9, 1944, in the small farming community of Eatonton and Minnie Grant gave birth to their eighth and final child, a girl, they named Alice. Prize novelist Alice Walker is best known for her stories about the life of African American women, their struggle with society for survival, racial, sexual and inexpensive equality and spiritual unity. ... Alice Walker used the story of Phillis to establish the understanding that indeed, African American women at that time were not allowed or didn't have the luxury of time to exercise their gifts, to hone their talents and abilities, and u...

• Word Count: 718
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The same idea as in Cathedral is weaved throughout Alice Walker's piece entitled Everyday Use. In letting a rural black woman with little education tell a story that affirms the value of her heritage, Walker articulates what has since become two central themes in her writing: the importance of the quilt in her work and the creation of African American Southern women as subjects in their own right. ... Johnson snatches her ancestors' quilts from her daughter Dee, who wants to hang them on a wall, and gives them to Maggie, Walker illuminates her life-long celebration of rural Southern ...

• Word Count: 905
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The sociological evaluation of Everyday Use by Alice Walker enlightens on issues that continue to plague American families in the present. ... In Everyday Use economic problems are abound in how Walker forms her characters. This story illustrates the economic ways that Walker's African American family is seeking fame and higher forms of living. ... Walker describes Dee in her flamboyant yearning for wealth and power: "Earrings gold, too, and hanging down her shoulders. ... Walker's argument in this story is clear that an African-American is both African and American in cultural persp...

• Word Count: 973
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate