Everyday Use by Alice Walker vs A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner (Essay Sample)

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Analytical Essay: "Everyday Use," by Alice Walker vs A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner
Introduction
It is not easy to justify why people behave the way they do. People tend to behave differently based on certain circumstances in the society, in the process of finding their true identity. This essay analyzes two stories; Everyday Use, by Alice Walker and A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner, looking at the different characters in the stories, the plot, and the story settings to show a thematic connection between two stories, where the themes of discrimination, change and cultural inclination resonate.
Background.
In the story Everyday Use by Alice Walker, The Johnson family lives in a poor, rural section of Georgia, in the early 1970s. Mrs. Johnson is the head of the family who is portrayed as a self-sufficient person who takes up men work. She lives a modest life with her two daughters Maggie and Dee, both of them, having different characters as Dee eventually accomplishing a lot in life compared to Maggie. Dee struggles to search for her true identity, in the process adopting a culture that does not represent the family’s true heritage. However, to maintain their cultural heritage Mrs. Johnson prefers giving the heirloom to Maggie because she is going to use it for its intended purpose compared to Dee, who has disowned her culture (Santosh 4).
Similarly, a Rose for Emily is a story about a young woman named Emily Grierson that took place in the early nineties in the Southern part of America in Mississippi. She grew up during the Civil War with her father being the only family member. As much as Emily Grierson was admired by the community, she is at a loss when it comes to dealing with her emotions. As a result, the writer refers to Emily as a fallen monument because she acts differently compared to how people highly regarded her owing to the fact that she came from a well-off family. Emily’s death unearths several mysteries the town people have not been able to solve when she was alive. Furthermore, her death is the starting point of the story where various themes are illustrated based on the writer view of the south during the 19th century (Getty 5).
The background of the two stories explains how racial discrimination affected women back in the 19th century. In Everyday Use, by Alice Walker, Dee struggles getting to know her true culture background in a racist society. On the other hand, the story, A Rose for Emily, portrays a racist southern part of the town highlighting some of the racial discrimination faced by black people. The tow authors wrote the stories during the period when African Americans were struggling to know their true identity after long period of discrimination. To embrace their Cultural heritage. In Everyday Use, by Alice Walker, Dee after being exposed to other cultures according to writer “She uses the African greeting “Wa-su-zo-Tean-o!” and begs not be called Dee, but Wangero” (Ziya 2).
As compared to the story Arose for Emily racial discrimination is portrays in several instances where the servant is referred to as Negro, a term that was considered to be offensive to black people. In the story the servant was never referred to by his real name. For example when Emily died most town people were surprised and stated that “We did not even know she was sick; we had long since given up trying to get any information from the Negro” (Zijiao,6).
What shows similarities in the two stories is that both stories use black women as their main characters to highlight the conflict experienced after the Civil Right Movement. Both writers use women to reiterate the role black women played and how their roles affected their families during and after the Civil Right Movement in US. In addition to this, the writers also show the readers how black women struggled to maintain their tradition, while embracing the new freedom that existed by then. In story Arose for Emily, the writer refers to Emily as “a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist” (Zijiao, 6). It portrays the attitude of the town people against women. Compared to Everyday Use, by Alice Walker she uses Mama and Maggie, to illustrate how hard working women were. She raises her two daughters single handedly and struggles to ensure that they achieve the best in life.
Similarly the two stories highlight gender roles from different perspectives , in Everyday Use, the story illustrates how women emerged to fight gender differences as they took up some roles meant for men in a society where women were belittled yet they contributed a lot in the society back then. Both stories use women even as minor characters to explain the levels of gender discrimination that affected women and how society viewed women. Women were mainly discriminated by being limited to specific duties related to families, but not finances. Most women during that time could not access good education for instance, Dee, which according to them, is a dream for the family. However, Mrs. Johnson’s family rises above the perception that women could not be better than men, by performing work meant for men and also manages to raise her daughters alone.
Such similarity can be pointed out in, A Rose for Emily also brings out Emily’s strong character of being able to live by herself and be in charge of her father’s property after the death of her father. In the story, A Rose for Emily, the role of women has been reduced to that of gossiping compared to men who are highly appreciated. During Emily’s funeral, the writer explains that men attended out of respect and affection for Miss Emily, but for women, it was out of curiosity. Traditionally women were not taken seriously in many communities because the society was male dominated one. In this regard, the two stories are examples of how women struggle to find space and compete with men in a society where men were highly appreciated than women despite their critical roles (Zijiao, 7).
Both characters in the story struggle with changes in their lives in different ways. In the story, Every Day Use, Dee’s life in greatly transformed in the process of searching for her true identity. She eventually turns away from her roots. Dee embraced a culture that did not truly represent her true identity, according to the family tradition. Dee, like many African-Americans did not want to be associated with foreign lifestyles, therefore, she wanted to adopt an African culture. This brought confusion as to what was the true African culture. On the other hand, Emily never liked to make changes as she always feared the unknown. This is seen on several occasions when she refuses to let the personnel from the mayor’s office pin a plate on the house, meaning that she never liked the idea of change. Besides, she refused to let go of the body of her father for burial until the town people had to intervene for her to accept the situation. Emily alleged killed Homer, her lover, because she was either afraid of being left alone, meaning that she feared adjusting to a situation where she was to be left alone again especially after finding love. Due to fear of change, Emily goes to an extent of killing to maintain the status quo (Zijiao,7).
Some of the similarities in the stories are how social, cultural and historical circumstances of the two different places is presented within the same period. The stories look at the different perspectives to portray the role these communities played and their expectations. For example, in the story, A Rose for Emily, Emily is a strong woman admired by the people, although she displays characters that do not depict this description. People expect her to behave in certain ways, but she acts contrary to this, including killing, sleeping with a dead body among other mysterious behavior the story portrays. The story illustrates how society shaped people’s characters because people were expected to live by the society’s expectations. In addition, the role of families in both stories is influential to the main characters in the two stories because later on the different characters display behaviors based on how they were brought up. For example, in Every Day Use, Mama and Maggie portrays how heritage travels from one generation to another through experience and learning. In the story the writer states that “quilts formed an important part of their family tradition and that Mrs. Johnson has promised to give Maggie when she marries are highly symbolic, representing the Johnsons’ traditions and cultural heritage” (Santosh 6).
Family influence can also be indentified in the story A Rose for Emily; her father greatly influenced her life. The writer portrays Emily as a quiet person and preferred to stay away from the public, isolating herself from people based on how her father had treated her in the past. Emily’s father chased away young boys who wanted to interact with her. Therefore, most of her life was private as she lived in seclusion avoiding any interaction with people. Emily’s father controlled most of what she did. When her father died, Emily could not cope with life. This affected Emily because she could not find a suitor for quite some time. This was based on assu...