Everyday Use for Your Grandmama
In order to understand this passage better, we can watch a movie---”The Color of Purple”
故事发生于1909年美国南部。未受过教育的黑人女孩西莉被继父强奸后，又被迫嫁给了粗鲁，凶狠的黑人男子，西莉称其为“先生”。在惊恐和胆怯中她开始了奴仆一般的痛苦生活。幸而有亲姐妹南蒂与之相伴，泪水中才多了一些欢乐。不久，这短暂的幸福也从西莉身边消失了。因为“先生”强奸南蒂不成，恼羞成怒地将南蒂赶了出去，姐妹二人被残酷的分开。年复一年，西莉在门口的邮筒中找寻南蒂的音讯，她始终期盼有一天能与南蒂再次重逢……(从中大家可以看到当时的整个社会的缩影，以及黑人生活的社会环境和社会地位，黑人女性的崛起和黑人女性的反抗精神也从有深刻得展现)
Everyday Use for Your Grandmama
Characters:
Maggie: a shy,young woman made even more self-concious by scars she got in a house fire years ago. She hasn` t has much formal education but has learned traditional skills, such as quilting, from her familiy.
Mama(Mrs johnson): the narrator of the story. She is a middle-aged or even older African American woman living with her younger daugter, Maggie. Athough poor, she is strong and independent, and takes great pride in her way of life.
Dee(Wangero):
Dee is Mama` s older daugher. She is attractive, well-educated and sophisticated. Moreover, she is selfish and she may even has caused the fire that disfigured （损毁···的外貌）her sister. Mama(Mrs johnson) called her Dee or Wangero. Asalamalakim: a young muslim man who accompanies Dee on her visit. Mama, unable to pronounce his name , called him “Hakim-a- Baber”. The muslim greeting he gives
to her means “peace and happiness to you. ”This maybe ironic because their visit disturbs the peaceful lives of Maggie and Mama. The relationship between him and Dee is unknown. He may be a friend, a boyfriend, husband or spiritual adviser. Main content:The story begins when the mother and Maggie wait for Dee to come back home.Dee goes back home with her lover. She asks for some traditional household appliances, especially two old quilts made by their grandma. The mother refuses. Instead, she sends the two quilts to Maggie. Dee leaves angrily.In her eyes, two old quilts(百纳被) are the cultural heritage of blacks. Maggie inherits the black tradition and she should own them.
The text:
I. para1-2 The prelude: the three family members.
II. Para3-16 The mother’s recollections / flashback:the three persons’relationships——mother; Maggie; Dee
III. Para17- 82 The process of Dee going back home.
Detailed study of the text:
Paragraph 1---16:
Paragraph1:
1,...Maggie and I made so clean and wavy...(wavy:波动起伏的。 It shows that Maggie and Mama had made carefully preparations for the arrival of Dee.)
2,It is like a extended living room. (extended: enlarged, prolonged. Expressions with extend: extended family)
Paragraph 2:
1,```homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs...(homely: 不好看的，不漂亮的，later we will know how she got the scar, so that is a suspense.)
2, she thinks her sister has held life always...to say to her.(she think that her sister has always had a firm control of her life and that she can always has what she want. )(课后习题paraphrase )
The role of the first two paragraph: it describes the place and main characters. Paragraph3:
1,totter: 蹒跚。Backstage:背后。
Paragraph4:
1,Johnny Carson: he is famous for such TVprograms, On TV he was a sporty man with gray hair and a smiling face.
Paragraph5:
1, In real life i am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands.(that means Mama was a typical black working woman.)
2, My fat keeps me hot in zero weather.(because I am fat, I feel hot even in freezing weather.)(课后习题paraphrase )
3,I am the way my daughter...an uncooked barely pancake.( this sentence tells that Dee was ashamed of his mother as a woking-class black woman.)
4, Johnny Carson has much to do ...witty tongue.(johnney carson has a witty and glib tongue. But i outdo 超过，胜过 him and so he has to try hard if he wants to catch up with me.)(课后习题paraphrase )
5,, who ever knew a Johnson with a quick tongue?(that is a rhetorical question. The obvious answer is that no one in the Johnson family has a quick tongue.) Paragraph6:
1,It seems to me i have talked to them always with one foot raised... from them.(I am ready to leave as quickly as possible because of discomfort, nervousness,
timidity,etc, and turn my head away from them in order to avoid them as much as possible for the same reason.)课后习题paraphrase )
2,She would always look anyone in the eye.(she would always look at somebody directly and steadily, not feeling embarrassed or ashamed.)课后习题paraphrase ) Paragraph 9
1, have you ever seen a lame跛足的 animal ...to be kind to him? （here the narrator compares Maggie to an injured and pitiful animal.）
2,she has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground..to the ground. (Maggie has been very shy ever since the fire destoryed our other house. She is so shy that she never raises her head or eyes when looking at and talking to people, and she is always feel so neverous and restless that she is unable to stand still.) Paragraph10,
1, Dee is lighter than Maggie..,(lighter means the color of one` s skin, not weight.) 2,And Dee.(an elliptical sentence, meaning”and there was Dee”)
3, she had hated the house that much.(so she was glad to see it burn down. This shows Dee is ashamed of her family.)
Paragraph11
1,she used to read to us without pity, forcing...underneath her voice.(The narrator implies that the books Dee read to them were written by white people and full of their language and ideas, falsehoods and their way of life.)
2,she washed us in a river of ...need to know.(she imposed on us lots of falsity and so-called knowledge that was totally useless and irrelevant to us.)课后习题paraphrase )
Paragraph12
1,her eyelids 眼皮would not flicker闪烁 for minutes at a time.（it shows that Dee was undaunted勇敢的，无畏的, with a strong character. She would look at anybody steadily and intently for a long time.）
2, Often I fought off the tempation to shake her.( Often I wanted so much to shake her , but I restrained myself.)
3,At sixteen she had a style of her own, and knew what style was.( she had her own unique way of doing thing at an early age, she also know what is fashion. That means she is totally different from her sister. )
Paragraph13
1,she stumbles along good-naturedly...(she often makes mistakes while reading, but never loses her good temper.)
2, like good looks and money, quickness passed her by.(she was homely and poor. Besides she was not smart.)课后习题paraphrase )
Paragraph14
1,”when did Dee ever had any friends ?”(a rhetorical question that means Dee never really had any friend.)
Paragraph15
1,furtive:鬼鬼祟祟的，秘密的，
His furtive behaviour aroused our suspicion.
他鬼鬼祟祟的行为引起了我们的怀疑。
Paragraph3--16: this section is what we call exposition, providing background and preparing for the main action, which is what happens during Dee` s visit. Para.17
… but there they are!
Before I could meet them (in the yard), they have already arrived.
Para.18
…I stay her with my hand. I stop her from dashing off with my hand.
1)stay: to stop, halt or check somebody from doing sth.
2)Note that the simple present tense --- the purpose is to make the story
telling more vivid.
Para.19
1. Hair is all over his head a foot long and hanging from his chin like a kinky mule tail.
A simile by comparing the young man’s hair to a mule tail
2. I hear Maggie suck in her breath. "Uhnnnh," is what it sounds like.
I hear Maggie inhale her breath and a sound like “Uhnnnh” escapes her mouth.
3. like when you see the wriggling end of a snake just in front of your foot on the road.
1)课后习题Ⅳ-B-3 an elliptical sentence --- it was like the reaction you
have when you see the wriggling end of a snake just in front of your foot
on the road.
2)Wriggle: to move to and fro with a twisting and writhing motion
Para.20
1.A dress down to the ground, in this hot weather
课后习题Ⅳ-B-4 an elliptical sentence ---she is wearing a dress long enough to touch the ground in spite of this hot weather.
2.a dress so loud…
1)an elliptical sentence --- she is wearing a dress in loud colors
2)课后习题Ⅳ-A-12 loud: attracting attention by being unpleasantly colorful and
bright
3.there are yellows … the light of the sun
throw back: to reflect
4.earrings gold, … her shoulder
课后习题Ⅳ-B-5 an elliptical sentence ---her earrings are gold, too, and they are hanging down to her shoulders.
5.it is her sister’s hair.
This time it is her sister’s hair style that makes Maggie utter an exclamation of dislike and disapproval.
6.it is black as night … behind her ears.
1)black as night: a simile
2)rope about: metaphor --- compare the moving of Dee’s pigtails to that of a
rope
3)like small lizards: a simile
4)Dee’s new hairstyle is African, and looks bizarre to the country girl Maggie. Para.21
1.“Aalamalakim, my mother and sister!”
To call strangers “y mother and sister” is not the American way of greeting, but a Muslim habit
2.he moves to Maggie but she falls back…
hugging a girl at the first meeting is a western habit. Maggie is too shy and, as a rural girl, she is probably not used to being hugged by young men she doesn’t know.
Para.22
… kisses me on the forehead
Not usual for a daughter to kiss her mother on the forehead. Normally, people kiss each other on the cheeks for greeting. This shows Dee is very distant and unloving with her family.
Also note she takes all the photos first before she kisses her. A loving daughter will run up to her mother and throw her arms around her.
Para.23
1.meanwhile Asalamalakim is going through … hand.
课后习题Ⅲ-8 paraphrase---meanwhile Dee’s boyfriend is trying to shake hands with Maggie in a fancy and elaborate way.
2.Maggie’s hand is as limp as a fish… sweat…
Simile. Maggie’s hand lacks firmness and is cold though she is sweating
3.or maybe he doesn’t know how…
ungrammatical spoken English
4…. He soon gives up on Maggie
Soon he knows that won’t do for Maggie, so he stops trying to shake hands with her in that manner.
Note “gives up on Maggie”, not gives up Maggie, the meanings are diffirent. Para.25 There is an exclamation mark which shows emphasis.
Here, we also can see the trace of the name changing. During the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, many African Americans were disappointed by the influence of integration. Many blacks affirmed their African roots by discarding their “slave names” and adopting Africans names, even many didn’t know the meaning or how
to spell them correctly. And they also wore African hair styles and African clothing. The author held negative opinion about the name changing. She thought an African name was not related to the recent past of the black Americans’’ experience. Para.26 Mama felt her daughter “Dee” no longer existed. So that, she describes her daughter’s visit as something happening in the past.
Pare.27 She meant that the girl born again with a new name. (Dee no longer existed.) Para.28 “Dee” vs. “Big Dee”
The daughter’s name was after her aunt, and then we added “Big” to aunt’s name to make a distinction.
Para.32 “Though, in fact, … through the branch es”.
Actually, I could trace it back before the Civil War, through the family branches. But Dee seemed tired, I wouldn’t go on either.
Para.33 “There you are”.
It is a colloquial expression. Dee’s boyfriend meant “I knew you couldn’t trace it further back” by saying this.
Para.36 1. “Looking down … a Model A car”.
Here “a Model A car” meant something old and out-of-date.
2. “every once … my head”
Now and then he and Dee communicated through eye contact in a secretive way. Para.41 “Ream it out again”
Try to pronounce it again no matter how difficult.
Ream: to extract the juice from; to enlarge a hole with a reamer
Para.42 1. “Well, soon … the way”
We overcame the difficulty and could pronounce it.
2. “I tripped it out”
I failed to say to say it correctly.
Trip: to stumble; catch one’s foot and lose balance
Para.43 The narrator hints some conflict here. We can guess those beef-cattle are Muslims.
Para.44 “I accepted some of their doctrines”
Conversion to Islam was also part of many African Americans’ search for a new identity by this.
Para.45 1. Greens – green leafy vegetables eaten cooked or raw.
2. “She talked … potatoes”
Talk a blue streak: talk a lot and rapidly
3. “Everything delighted her”
“New interest” vs. “Old hatred”
-----Indicated a change of value.
Para.52 “Maggie’s … an elephant’s”
It is a simile. Elephants are said to have good memories.
Para.53 “I can use … alcove table”
Centerpiece – an ornament
Alcove – a secluded section of a room for meal. 凹室
Para.54 1.“Sink” is used figuratively meant a depression in the wood of the handle left by the thumb and fingers.
2. “You could … the wood”
The objects record history. Dee only noticed the nice shape, but Mama and Maggie connected them with the people who used them.
Para55-82: Dee asks for the old quilts.
Words:
Para55:rifle:plunder;to search messily
Eg: The men rifled through his clothing and snatched the wallet.
hang back(off):to be reluctant to advance,as from timidity and shyness Eg: I saw him step forward momentarily but then hang back, nervously massaging his hands.
dishpan:a pan in which dishes,cooking utensils,etc,are washed
teeny(colloquial):tiny
Eg: I forgot to mention one teeny wittle item.
Para61:stroke中风; 一件(幸运的)事n.
（用笔等）画；轻抚；轻挪；敲击vt.
Eg: He had a minor stroke in 1987, which left him partly paralysed.
It didn't rain, which turned out to be a stroke of luck..
She held the quilts securely in her aarms,stroking them.(this is a sentence in our textbook)
Para74:“That was Maggie’s portion.”
Here “portion” means fate in our textbook.
Para80:“You ought to try ro make something of yourself,too…”
Here in our textbook,“make” means to turn out to be;to prove to have the essential qualities
Sentences:
“Bits and pieces of grandpa Jarrell’s Paisly shirts.”(para55)
Ellipitcal.In the quilts there were bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell’s
Paisly shirts.
“MaMa,”Wangero said,sweet as a bird.”Can I have these old quilts?”(para56) Simile.“MaMa,”Wangero said in an extremely sweet voice.
“I promised to give them quilts to Maggie…John Thomas.”(para64) Incorrect grammer.It should be “I promised to give these quits to Maggie when she marries John Thomas.”
“She gasped like a bee had stung her.”(para65)
Simile.She breathed suddenly in painful surprise.
“God knows I been saving’em…nobody using’em.”( para67)
Incorrect grammer.It should be”God knows I have been saving them long enough with nobody using them.I was hoping somebody would use them.”
“Lwss than that!”(par a68)
Ellipitcal.The quilts would be in rags or in an even worse condiction.
“I can remember Grandma Dee without the quilts.”(para73)
Paraphrase:I do not need the quilts to remind me of Grandma Dee.She lives in my memory.
It's really a new day for us.(para80)
Metaphor.For us colored people,this is a new era,and we must seize our opportunities.
But a real smile,not scared.(para82)
Ellipitcal.She smiled a real smile from the bottom of her heart,not nervous. Paragraphs(The portrayal of the characters and the plot of the story):
para61: “She held the quilts securely in her arms,stroking them. ”
In para.63,she was “clutching them closely to her bosom.”All this shows how much
she wanted them and how determined she was to have them.
para66：“She’d probably be backwa rd enough to put them to everyday use.”
Here Wangero said that Maggie was behind times,and not as well educated as she was and that Maggie would not able to appreciate the value of the quilts and would use them just as quilts,not as works of art.
para74：“I t was Grandma Dee and Big Dee…to quilt herself. ”
Again it shows Maggie has inherited the cultural legacy from the maternal ancestors. Para75:In this paragraph the action reaches the climax.Mama did something she had never done before by hugging Maggie to her bosom,snatching the quilts from Wangero’s hands and putting them on Maggie’s lap.
Para80:“Your heritage…”“heritage ”is a key word. Wangero understood that old quilts represented heritages but her interpretation of it was superficial as she only saw it as a thing for showing.Unlike Maggie who was closely involved in carrying on the heritage by making them.
Para82:This paragraph contains the final section of the plot-resolution;it records the outcome of the conflicts.This story ens with Mama and Maggie sitting in the yard,just enjoying a dip of snuff,undisturbed.
CONCLUSION:
Mama grew up in a world where colored people were treated much differently than Maggie and Dee have experienced. When Mama was growing up, she had few civil liberties as a colored person. She is a very spiritual woman; she mentions that she sings church songs, and describes one of her actions in comparison to how she might act in church when the “spirit of God touches her”. Mama has a deep, rich personality, and although she has not lived an easy life, the rough life she has
lived has turned her into a strong woman.
Mama is happy with the life she has been given. Although she has not accomplished much materialistically, she is proud of who she is. On the night in which the story takes p lace, Mama and Maggie sit on the porch, “just enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go to bed”. It is easy to imagine that this is how the two spend many evenings, and Mama says that after Maggie marries she will be “free to sit here and just sing church songs to herself” . Her life is not very exciting, but she is happy.
高级英语课件第三版E v e r y d a y U s e f o r Y o u r G r a n d m a m a Company number【1089WT-1898YT-1W8CB-9UUT-92108】
Everyday Use for Your Grandmama In order to understand this passage better, we can watch a movie--- ”The Color of Purple” 故事发生于1909年美国南部。未受过教育的黑人女孩西莉被继父强奸后，又被迫嫁给了粗鲁，凶狠的黑人男子，西莉称其为“先生”。在惊恐和胆怯中她开始了奴仆一般的痛苦生活。幸而有亲姐妹南蒂与之相伴，泪水中才多了一些欢乐。不久，这短暂的幸福也从西莉身边消失了。因为“先生”强奸南蒂不成， 恼羞成怒地将南蒂赶了出去，姐妹二人被残酷的分开。年复一年，西莉在门口的邮筒中找寻南蒂的音讯，她始终期盼有一天能与南蒂再次重逢……(从中大家可 以看到当时的整个社会的缩影，以及黑人生活的社会环境和社会地位，黑人女性的崛起和黑人女性的反抗精神也从有深刻得展现) Everyday Use for Your Grandmama Characters: Maggie: a shy,young woman made even more self-concious by scars she got in a house fire years ago. She hasn` t has much formal education but has learned traditional skills, such as quilting, from her familiy. Mama(Mrs johnson): the narrator of the story. She is a middle-aged or even older African American woman living with her younger daugter, Maggie. Athough poor, she is strong and independent, and takes great pride in her way of life. Dee(Wangero):