Love and Hate Essay

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Hate

There are a number of poignant similarities between Mama in Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" and Delia in Zora Neale Hurston's short story "Sweat." Both women are matriarch figures, African-American, and live in rural surroundings. As such, they each have a healthy dose of what is referred to as common sense -- although to other cultures and outsiders they may talk and act like simple, ignorant country bumpkins. Perhaps it is this perception of the two that makes them so accommodating to the will of others. But the principle similarity between each of these women is that she has a threshold for her tolerance level, and once it is broached she acts in a way that is belied by her simple, rustic manners.

There are domestic issues plaguing each of the matriarchs in their respective tales, which substantially contribute to the point at which they refuse to tolerate the demands or the inflexibilities of others. For Mama in Walker's story, the source of her domestic disturbance comes in the form of her eldest daughter, Dee. Dee believes that she is more sophisticated, worldly and savvy than her simple mother and Mama's youngest daughter, Maggie. As such, she believes that her newfound college education, African heritage and mode of dress and speech make her better than the pair. Initially, due to her accommodating nature, Mama allows Dee to continue her pseudo-African culture charade and to carry on about her home in a condescending manner -- because she is so tolerant.

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For instance, when Dee initially asks to take valuable cultural relics that have belonged to her and Mama's family for years, Mama acquiesces in order to accommodate her, which the following quotation implies.

This churn top is what I need," she said. "Didn't Uncle Buddy whittle it out of a tree you all used to have?"

"Yes," I said.

"Un huh," she said happily. "And I want the dasher, too." (Walker).

Although Dee is asking to remove these valued family-wrought objects from her house, Mama allows her to do, because it is in the latter's nature to be accommodating . She does not quite understand why Dee has changed her name, and she does not necessarily like it or the act of condescension she and her boyfriend put on while visiting Mama, but the matriarch is willing to tolerate it -- for a while.

Similarly, Delia puts up with a whole lot of undesirable things from her husband, Sykes, in Hurston's tale. He routinely beats her. He talks to her in violent, derogatory terms regularly. Even worse, he is unfaithful and flaunts his infidelities around the small town they live in and even in the very house in which they live (which Delia herself owns). Like Mama, Delia is willing to put up with all of these unpleasant aspects of life because it is in her nature to be naturally accommodating, if not even somewhat meek. Moreover, she is willing….....

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