Reading an Object
“Reading an Object: The Cultural Artifact”
- How would to define “artifact” in your own words.
An object is an object made by human beings that has a rich culture or history and is of great significance to the people who make it.
- What do you think the writer means when she says “objects are readable”?
I think the writer feels that objects are readable because they contain so much information than what a person sees at face value. To obtain that information, one is required to dig deeper and be able to understand the historical background of that object.
4What can we “read” from an object? One can read the surface value of an object, research its history, or learn about the rules and the rituals of the people using and making the object.
“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
- Who is telling the story in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”? The person who is telling the story is Mama. All along, there is the use of the first-person pronoun up until Dee (Wangero) asks for quilts that were made by her grandmother. There, everything is put into perspective.
“Mama,” Wangero said sweet as a bird, “Can I have these old quilts?”
I heard something fall in the kitchen, and a minute later, the kitchen door slammed.
“Why don’t you take one or two of the others,” I asked. “These old things was just done by me and Big Dee from some tops your grandma pieced before she died.”
“No,” said Wangero, “I don’t want those. They are stitched around the borders by machine.”
- How is Dee different from her mother and her sister Maggie?
Dee was lighter than Maggie with nicer hair and a fuller figure. She really loved nice things for herself, making her selfish. When she was sent to school, she became so full of herself. Dee used to read to Maggie and Mama without pity that they were not as knowledgeable as she was considering that Mama had not gone to school. She was not a straightforward person as she was unkind; she forced lies and words on Maggie and Mama. She repeatedly made a fool out of Mama and Maggie were laid back, chilled, and reserved persons who wanted nothing but peace and goodwill for everyone around them.
- Dee wants to take two quilts made by her grandmother, but her mother wants to give them to Maggie. What is different in the ways that Maggie and Dee would use the quilts?
Dee wanted to hang the quilts, but her mother thought hanging them was not sufficient reason for her to be given the quilts. Dee claimed that Maggie was not in a position to appreciate the quilts, and she’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use. Mama responded to the sentiments by saying that she reckoned Maggie would put the quilts to everyday use because she had been saving them for long enough with nobody using them. She, therefore, hoped that Maggie would use them. Dee proceeded to say that Maggie would put them on the bed, and in five years, they’d be in rags; less than that, to which her Mama responded that Maggie can always make more because she knows how to make them.
- What do the quilts symbolize? Why does the narrator give the quilts to Maggie?
One could tell the way God knew to work through the quilts, which is why Mama felt that Maggie needed and deserved the quilts more than D. “When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet. Just like when I’m in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout.” The narrator feels something stronger than her willpower assure her that indeed those quilts belonged to Maggie from Maggie’s reaction when Dee was demanding for the quilts and to how she continues feeling ashamed of her scarred hands that she hides them in the folds of her skirt and how she looks at her sister with fear but is not even made at her.