Literary Analysis Comparing Three Stories - Lenin Vanderhorst
This three short stories: “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara, and “How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)” by Junot Diaz would make a good set for further study because each story has a strong message to the reader. “Everyday Use” teach us that we should appreciate our relatives equally. “The Lesson” show us the huge differences between people economically, and “How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)” show us that not all people are equal even if they have the same cultures or beliefs.
Literary Element 1: Theme:
The significant similarities between this three stories is the theme of appearance. Each story has a character that dont want that the others know about their culture or stand out from everyone else. “Everyday Use” and “The Lesson” are similar because one of the main themes that both stories have in common is the theme of appearance. In “Everyday Use”, Dee wants to be different from his family and in “The Lesson”, sylvia thinks that Miss. Moore is different from all the people around her. Also “The Lesson” and “How to Date a Brown Girl” are similar because in “The Lesson”, Miss Moore wants to teach a lesson to the group of kids about money and in “How to Date a Brown Girl”, the narrator is teaching the main character about how to treat differents girls. “Everyday Use” and “How to Date a Brown Girl” are also similar because in “Everyday Use”, dee is worried to let her friends know of what she really came from, and in “How to Date a Brown Girl”, the main character hide some things related to his culture in his apartment to make a impression in certain girls. The short stories also has their differences, for example: “Everyday use” is different from the Lesson, and “How to Date a Brown Girl” because in “Everyday Use”, mama only worried about dee, the eldest of her daughters, who want to be different from his relatives. Meanwhile, maggie is feeling like the black sheep of the family. “The Lesson is different from “Everyday use”, and “How to Date a Brown Girl” because in “The Lesson”, Miss Moore wants to teach to a group of poor children about how the money is distributed in American society, and “How to Date a Brown Girl” is different from “Everyday use”, and “The Lesson” because in “How to Date a Brown Girl”, the narrator is giving some advices to the main character about of how to thread a women based on their culture or race.
Literary Element 2: Point Of View:
This three stories are similar to each other because all the characters are learning something in different situations. “Everyday Use” and “The Lesson” are related because Mama from and Sylvie from never got education. They couldn’t attend to school. Also, “The Lesson” And “How to Date a Brown Girl” are similar because the main character of “How to Date a Brown Girl” is learning from the Narrator Advices and Sylvie and his friends are learning from American Society economically through Miss Moore and about the differences between the cultures. “Everyday Use” and “How to Date a Brown Girl” are also related because Mama is learning from Dee, who is attend to school and the main character of “How to Date a Brown Girl” is learning how to behave properly with a girl. “Everyday Use” is different from the other stories because the story is told in the point of view of Mama. This help us to understand how she feels about herself and her two daughters. In “The Lesson” the story is told in the point of view of Sylvie. She is from a low class neighborhood. She hated Miss Moore because Miss Moore got education and she have experienced things in her life that Sylvia may never see. In “How to Date a Brown Girl”, the story is told from the perspective of yunior (the main character), how is reading the advices of the narrator and following then.
Literary Element 3: Characterization:
This three stories are similar because the main characters are learning in different situations. Either through poverty or from someone with experience in life. “Everyday Use” and “The Lesson” are similar because Mama and Ms. Moore did what they could to overcome themselves. That shows that both are persevering people. Also “The Lesson” and “How to Date a Brown Girl” are similar because in both stories, the main characters are learning something new. “Everyday Use” and “How to Date a Brown Girl” are similar because Mama and the main character of “The Lesson” are doing what she can to not fall back from the people who surround them. “Everyday Use” is different from “The Lesson”, and “How to Date a Brown Girl” because Mama described her as ha hard working women. She tells how strong she is. “The lesson” is different from the other two stories because Sylvie described Miss Moore like women how were different from all the people around the neighborhood because of her education. “How to Date a Brown Girl” is different from “The Lesson”, and “Everyday Use” because by reading the story, you can tell that the main character is of a lower class and he is ashamed of his lifestyle.
In conclusion, this set of short stories are good to study in high school or college because it teach us a lot of different topics such as culture, appearance, wealth gat, and something very important that is education. Education help us in our progress in life such as our values and anything else that characterize us as a person, and with perseverance, we can overcome and improve each day more.
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The significant similarities between this the three stories is the theme of appearance vs. reality.
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Each story has a character that dont does not want that the others to know about their culture or stand out from everyone elsehis/her culture and infested with lies and deception.
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“Everyday Use” and “The Lesson” are similar because one of the main themes that both stories have in common is the theme of appearance vs. reality.
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In “Everyday Use”, Dee wants to be different from his assimaltes American culture to feel superior to her family and in “The Lesson”, sylvia thinks that Miss.
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Also “The Lesson” and “How to Date a Brown Girl” are similar because in “The Lesson”, Miss Moore wants to teach a lesson to the a group of kids about money and in “How to Date a Brown Girl”, the narrator is teaching the main character about how to treat differents girls.
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“Everyday Use” and “How to Date a Brown Girl” are also similar because in “Everyday Use”, dee is worried to let her friends know of what she really came frombeingdiscrete about her place of birth to prevent her friends from lookinf down on her, and in “How to Date a Brown Girl”, the main character hide some things related to his culture in his apartment to make a impression in certain girlspretendes to be rich by conealing aspects of his culture and the fact of being poor.
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