《Lesson 7 Everyday use for your grandmama》.ppt

Lesson IV Everyday Use for Your Grandmama Background Information The author wrote quite a number of novels, among them were The Color Purple which won the Pulitzer Prize of Fiction （普利策小说奖） and The American Book Award（美国图书奖）. In 1985, the Color Purple was made into a movie which won great fame. About “Everyday Use” It is a short story in Alice Walker’s collection of short stories In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women (1973), in which the author portrays African-American women’s experience. “Everyday Use” was singled out for praise by several critics, and has become a much studied and anthologized story. The story is set in the rural South in the 1960s. It is narrated in the first person by Mrs. Johnson, a rural African –American woman. The story begins with Mrs. Johnson waiting with her young daughter Maggie for the arrival of her elder daughter Dee from college. While waiting, Mrs. Johnson imagined a TV show in which successful Dee meets her. The imagination is to meet Dee’s expectation, contrary to the real life. Then she recalled how her first house was burnt and how Maggie was hurt. Dee went to the college while Maggie stayed at home with Mama. Dee arrived with her boyfriend. She was wearing an African-style long dress. She greeted Mama in some strange African-sounding language. And her boyfriend uttered an Arabic-Islam greeting. Detailed study of the text: 1. wavy: having regular curves A wavy line has a series of regular curves along it. The wavy lines are meant to represent water. Here in the text the word describes the marks in wavy patterns on the clay ground left by the broom. Then Dee declared that she was not Dee anymore, but Wangero Leewanika kemanjo. Dee’s reason for the name change is “ I can’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.” Mom was confused for the name came down from the maternal ancestors in the family. Detailed study of the text: 2. groove: a long narrow path or track made in a surface, esp. to g