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How Is The Diction Used In Everyday Use

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African Americans have always been discriminated in some way. In result, many still feel they are mistreated. Alice Walker’s short story Everyday Use shows many people that African Americans sometimes don’t even get a chance to speak about what they feel is right and just about their position in society. Society ranks people either for good or for bad. They show many people if they are cool or not. For example, pop and movie stars, new fashions, and other things that may set trends for other people around the world. They show people what they should and shouldn’t believe. If people don’t believe in what media says, than they are put as the outcasts in society. This is when Everyday Use comes into play. Alice Walker knows how to put into play …show more content…

Diction is how the story is told, what words they used to describe the happenings in the story. Many times society is based on a patriarchy, Everyday Use brakes this when they use the mom as the narrator. The mom as the narrator puts a shift on how the story is told. Another interesting fact is that the father of the family, isn’t even mentioned. This shows more of a matriarchy because he isn’t even mentioned throughout the entire story. The diction or speech of the story is also centered around how the mother feels tension towards her daughters because they are trying to get her to make hard decisions. In the story they are trying to decide who gets some quilts that are sentimental to the mother, she states, “Dee (Wangero) moved back just enough so that I couldn't reach the quilts.” Even though this decision doesn’t look like a tough one, it is for her because the quilts are the mothers grandmother’s and she doesn’t want her handicapped daughter to ruin them. The mother, in this African American family, is usually in control, but here it shows that the daughter is because she makes sure that Maggie gets one or more of the quilts that her mother’s grandmother gave to her. They are of sentimental value to her and she really values them. They way she uses her words here, really show her matriarchy. They show that she is in charge, even though her daughter got the best of her with the

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