AML4 class 3

AML4 class 3

1

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AML4 class 3

Created

Class

AML4

Type

Class

Reading 1

Alice Walker - "Everyday Use"

Reading 2 Nikki Giovanni - "A Poem of Friendship"

Readings:

Alice Walker - “Everyday Useˮ

mum and her two daughter  Maggie (younger) and Dee (older)

mother - alone, self-made, fat, working a lot (manually)

they are waiting for Dee to arrive

thinking about their previous house that was set on fire  Maggie
burned? and Dee despised their house

Dee - sent to school in Augusta, reading a lot x Maggie reads only
partially (not good), mother was not allowed to finish school because of
her race

mother is looking forward to marrying Maggie to John Thomas so she
could live a peaceful life

Dee arrives with her boyfriend Hakim-a-barber (name arabic, but he is
probably african american, shows his interest in arabic radicalism), she
looks different, motherʼs disapproval

Dee changes her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo (african name)
to protest being named after the people who have oppressed her (but
mother explains that she was named after her aunt and grandma)

September 26, 2023 155 PM

AML4 class 3

2

then - fights about family quilts, mother wants to give them to Maggie,
Dee criticises that she wonʼt be able to cherish them as their family
heritage

Dee - has the appreciation, knows the value for the quilt (but she is
arrogant, pretentious)

conflict  Dee does not want her name because of her culture x wants
the quilt

quilt - material object which contains family history, heritage

the quilt should go to Maggie - it was promised for marrying, also
maybe for not receiving education, also because she is the one who
knows the know-how and will give it to the next generation

Dee - antagonist?

themes: family heritage, divisive power of education, history
(inscribed in the quilt, past is present in them), identity, religion, inter
and intraracial relationships

the mother - characterized by her actions, not by a name

heritage should be used, not just displayed!! the quilts (used as a
symbol, throughout all her works/other authorʼs works, such as
Morrison)

religious community helps Dee to go to school, at the end, mother sees
the presence of god in her daughter because of her humbleness

living x performing identity (mother x Dee)

Dee - ashamed from being from primitive background, but somehow
distancing from it and sees it not as home, but as a tourist atraction
(takes a photo of her “homeˮ)

who is more womanist: old mother or the progressive Dee?

Nikki Giovanni - "A Poem of Friendship"

their love is a state of being, not expressed through actions, but their
presence, connection

being together, the bad experiences are not present, they are spared
suffering

AML4 class 3

3

Class Notes:

3. AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE:

FEMALE WRITERSMaya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, Terry McMillan, Gayl
Jones