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，妹二人被残酷的分开。年复一年，西莉在门口的邮筒中寻南蒂的音讯，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):reaction order 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 le
aves 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 (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 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 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 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 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.)

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