Mariyam Butt Prof. Camila Alvarez ENC 1102 MW 8:00-9:15 AM 26 September 2015 899 Words Essay 1 Characterization: Without a Second Thought Culture, tradition, and values: Does a baby learn about heritage from a mother’s womb? The knowledge of heritage initially develops as a person becomes aware of the family importance. More or less, “heritage” does play a significant role in shaping one’s personality; nevertheless, life does not always revolve around it. The fancy desires and colorful world leads to materialism. Thus, the environmental influences add a lot more to it.…
For my response, I chose the article “Woman: The Tool Maker”, written by Steven A. Brandt and Kathryn Weedman. The article is about an ethnic group in Ethiopia called the Konso- but more specifically it is about an elderly woman named Sokate. The article focuses on Sokate, an energetic 70 year-old Konso woman who is a hide worker, which is what most people consider to be a “man’s job”. As stated, Sokate is part of an Ethiopian ethnic group called the Konso. The Konso group grow several crops on their land, and raise livestock that provide the skins for the hide workers (Brandt).…
Linda Hogan’s poem “Heritage” is an insight into all the things the speaker feels they inherited from their family. As I was reading “Heritage”, I was thinking about my family and everything I inherited from them. This poem made me think not just about the concrete things I inherited like hair color, but also the behaviors and emotions I learned from growing up with family. This poem talks about how the speaker inherited certain traits from his parents, uncle, and grandparents. This made me think of all the things I inherited and learned from all parts of my family.…
Colson Whitehead's novel, Zone One, draws attention to the issue of consumer capitalism through a post-apocalyptic plot line. Leif Sorensen draws on at this point by discussing how Zone One feeds into his claim that “capitalism insists that the future will be an endless repetition of its cycles of creative destruction” (562). My essay builds and extend this claim by focusing on an overlooked aspect of the novel, the stragglers’ role of attempting to cling to the past. By concentrating on the pursuit of the past, I highlight Whitehead’s assertion that people “have this consumer memory that’s very hard-wired” (“Colson Whitehead on Zombies”). I argue that Zone One emphasizes that the human instinct to cleave to the past is a result of consumerism. Whitehead’s inclusion of nostalgia throughout Zone One shows the powerful influence of the past and consumer society, consistently observed through the actions of the stragglers.…
By making this list, it is made apparent that Cash is a practical person who likes order. Only an organized person would make a list-and an extensive one at that- of reasons why he is doing something. Cash’s list supports the fact that he is the practical one of the family. This list also shows that Cash is an excellent carpenter. Nearly all of his reasons are scientific reasons for beveling the coffin, which shows that he is well educated in his craft.…
In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”, Walker dramatizes the “use and misuse of the concept of heritage”. (Christian). The three main characters each have their own meaning of what heritage means to them. Some individuals embrace and build upon their heritage. However, others may choose to preserve it and move in a different direction.…
Many works of literature present the idea that past events can affect the present actions, values, and attitudes of a character. This past event can greatly affect how they act and go about their lives on a daily basis. In August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson”, the character Berniece is affected by the history of the piano in connection with her family, which reveals the idea of the importance of embracing and remembering your origins.…
“Everyday Use” is a short story by Alice Walker that tells the story of a mother and two sisters who are finally together after being apart for a long time. Walker describes two characters who were both born and raised together, but they go separate ways and therefore manifest a different understanding of heritage. One of the sisters, Dee, is described as a very selfish and materialistic woman who allows other people’s opinions and her “understanding” affect her views on heritage. On the contrary, Maggie is a traditional woman who has a robust understanding of what heritage really is. Though these characters were born and raised the same, there is a disparity between their views on whether or not material items are a necessity to recollect…
Thousands of years worth of history passed down generation to generation through culture is not easy to maintain with the evolving world around us, but being close to the roots of your heritage is a priceless and unique aspect of everyone's life varying between families either greatly or only a tiny bit. In "Everyday Use", Alice Walker creates a short story telling of a mother and her two daughter's contradicting interpretations of heritage. In "Everyday Use", Walker uses point of view, symbolism, and characterization to portray how people should be connected to their deepest roots of heritage every day.…
Good morning/afternoon, my name is Mark Baker, and today, I’d like to share with you my understanding as both a composer and responder, not only of history and memory, but their representation, and the plethora of challenges this presents. As demonstrated in my own work The Fiftieth Gate, in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Blind Assassin, and in Michael Gondry’s film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, representing history and memory is a process beset by the inherent bias of the composer’s purpose, the provocation of multiple ethical dilemmas, and the ultimately inadequate nature of these two divergent yet intrinsically linked ways of understanding the past.…
"Our everyday is humdrum, often even absurd," Burton explained. "Nostalgia can lend us much-needed context, perspective and direction, reminding and reassuring us that our life is not as banal as it may seem. It also tells us that there have been -- and will once again be -- meaningful moments and experiences."…
What is tradition? How do we classify tradition in this modern day? Better yet, how do we continue a tradition passed down from generation to generation through the family tree? To explore these thought provoking questions, Alice Walker’s “ Everyday Use”, Torsney and Elsley’s “Quilt Culture: Tracing the Pattern”, and “Heritage and Deracination” by David Cohort analyze the historical context of quilting in the 20th Century. I will be using excerpts from my personal narrative, various scholarly papers and Alice Walker’s works herself. I intend to provide textual evidence of what the quilt signifies and the struggles of their family during the…
Heritage is important to most families because it is a value that is inherited, passed down from generations to generations. It includes inherited traditions, objects, culture, customs and practices. In the short story “Everyday Use”, Alice Walker explores this aspect of heritage with emphasize on the value of cultural heritage in the African American community in the late 1960s and in the early 1970s. The setting of “Everyday Use” took place in post-civil era when the African Americans were trying to find their own identity, which resulted to the formation of The Black Power Movement. The Black Power Movement was not only formed for social, economic and political change among African Americans but also to empower them to shun away from slavery…
Glessing 1 The Passing Down of Tools Inheriting tools allows my family to pass on generations of hard work, detail, and precision.…
Simple moments such as gravitational loss can help us discover happiness in the present. Ordinary may have different meanings to different individuals. Some ordinary flashes of nostalgia have helped people renew connections of the past to the present. The descriptiveness of Frank Gaspar’s Swing Valley shows the readers how much a nostalgic…