English Essay: A Comparison of 'Everyday Use' and 'A Rose for Emily'

This essay provides a comparative analysis of Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use' and William Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily'. It explores the characters, plots, and settings of both stories, highlighting thematic connections related to change, discrimination, and cultural inclination. The essay examines the Johnson family in 'Everyday Use' and Emily Grierson in 'A Rose for Emily', focusing on their struggles with identity, societal expectations, and family influences. The essay also delves into the racial discrimination and cultural heritage depicted in both stories, emphasizing the impact of family dynamics on the protagonists' lives and choices. References to academic sources are included to support the analysis, providing a comprehensive understanding of the literary works.

Running Head: ENGLISH ESSAY
English Essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ENGLISH ESSAY
Topic- Compare and Contrast Alice Walker’ ‘Everyday Use’ and William Faulkner’ ‘A Rose for
Emily’
Usually people cannot always make a justification for their behaviours and their
behaviours are founded on different circumstances of the whole society. They are in the very
process of finding the true identity they have. This specific essay will analyse two of such stories
named as Everyday Use of Alice Walker and William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily. The
comparison and contrasting will be based on the characters of the stories, the plots and the
settings of the story for showing a thematic connection between the stories resonating with the
themes of change, discrimination and the cultural inclination.
Firstly, in the story titled as ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker, the focus is on the Johnson
family living in a rural and poor section of Georgia in the early years of the 1970s. The head of
the family is Mrs. Johnson being portrayed as the self-sufficient personality who never stays
back from taking up men’ work. She lived a modest life with two of her daughters named as Dee
and Maggie. Both of them have different characteristics since Dee is found as accomplishing
many in life as compared to Maggie (Radhi, 2017). Dee is then found to be struggling in search
of the true identity she had in the process of adopting a specific culture not representing the
heritage of the family. In order to maintain the family’ cultural heritage, it is preferred by Mrs.
Johnson to give the entire heirloom to Maggie since it would be of great use for her as compared
to Dee who is found to be disowning the cultural connection she had.
On a similar note, A Rose for Emily is also a story regarding a young woman named as
Emily Grierson taking place in the early years of the nineties specifically in the Southern part of
America in the Mississippi. With Emily Grierson being admired by the whole community, she is

2ENGLISH ESSAY
a bit less in handling her emotions. The result is that the writer has referred to Emily falling in
the form of the fallen monument due the fact that she acted quite differently even after belonging
to a well-to-do family. The death of Emily unearths few mysteries not-believed by the people of
the town. Moreover, her death is the beginning of the whole story where different themes have
been quite illustrated founded on the view of the writer of the south at the time of 19th century
(Kirchdorfer, 2017).
In the story of Alice Walker, Dee is found to be struggling with the racist society whereas
the story of Faulkner has portrayed some racial discrimination that is faced by people. Two of
the authors have written stories when the African Americans were struggling hard in search of
their real identity after days of discrimination (Wang, 2018).
Both the stories look at the different perspectives for portraying the role of the
communities that have been played along with the expectations. The role of the families in both
the stories is quite influential for the primary characters due to the fact the characters display the
ways they had been brought up in their respective families. In the Everyday Use, the author pen
down” quilts formed an important part of their family tradition…….representing the Johnson’
traditions and cultural heritage” (Sadeq & Al-Badawi, 2016). Likewise, the family influences are
well evident in A Rose for Emily where Emily’ father is found as the greatest influence of her
life.

3ENGLISH ESSAY
Reference
Kirchdorfer, U. (2017). Weak Men in William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily. The
Explicator, 75(3), 145-147.
Radhi, S. H. (2017). Aesthetic Image of the Animal Epithet in Alice Walker's Short Story"
Everyday Use". Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 8(5), 120-127.
Sadeq, A. E., & Al-Badawi, M. (2016). Epiphanic Awakenings in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral
and Alice Walker’s Everyday Use. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 7(3),
157-160.
Wang, S. H. (2018). Subjectivation through the Name-of-the-Father: A Lacanian Reading of
William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily. Journal of English Language and
Literature, 10(3), 1029-1033.