Walker builds up her argument by mentioning the experiences of other people in the essay. One of them is Jean Toomer, a poet in the early 1920s. He is a man who observed that Black women are unique because they possessed intense spirituality in them, even though their bodies endure every aspect of punishment in every single day of their lives. They were in the strictest sense Saints – crazy, pitiful saints. Walker points out that without a doubt, our mothers and grandmothers belong to this type of people. By building up on the observations of Toomer, she was somehow able to show how hard it was to be a mother or a grandmother or even just a woman at that time, one reason perhaps is that they are black. The mothers and grandmothers at that time endured all of this without any hope that tomorrow will be different, be better. Because of this, they were not able to fully express themselves. They were held back by their society.…
Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" is the story of a woman, referred to as Mama, and her two daughters, Maggie and Dee. Mama and Maggie live together in their small home in a rural area. Dee has gone to college in a big city and is coming for a visit. Maggie is painfully self conscious, "chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle" with scars on her body from a house fire. Dee has always been scornful of her family's simple way of living and has been greatly influenced by her time away. Walker uses Maggie to explore the ideas of a family's heritage and history and, by contrasting her with Dee, voices a concern that in our search for our roots perhaps we are losing important aspects of our heritage.…
In contrast, the women in “Everyday Use” by Walker exemplify the total opposite of what Southern women should be. Walker allows the mother in “Everyday Use” to have self-confident strength, in which she takes on the tasks usually reserved for a man. In the beginning the mother describes herself as “a large big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands.” She goes further to explain how she “can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man.” Walker makes the mother the narrator of the story which becomes significant since she is a great example of the resistance shown to move into a more modernized world. Throughout her narration, it becomes obvious the mother is stuck in tradition, so much so her confinement becomes clear due to her lack of…
In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” one of the characters, Dee visits her mother and sister after being gone for many years at college, from the view of the reader, the reunion seems distant and the character’s relationships amongst each other strained as Dee now looks upon her family with condescending disdain. Throughout the course of the story the author expertly exploits the history of the central family in an effort to explain how they’ve become who they are. Walker uses a combination of allusion and character interaction to illustrate the theme which covers power of education to split people apart and bring them together. Walker’s use of allusion throughout the story is not extensive, though when it is used it takes full advantage of…
Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" is a short story about the clash between a mother and daughter. Dee is the child returning home to visit. The visit is not exactly pleasant and ends after a stand-off between her and Mama. Many readers see Mama as finally standing up for her own ideals while also refusing to conform to the rules Dee wishes her to follow. Dee follows different rules of society and religion than her mother does in order to become her own person. The rules Dee follows are shallow compared to the old-fashioned ways of her mother.…
Many interpretations can be inferred after reading Alice Walker’s Everyday Use (1973). A trend in part of 20th century American modern writers was the art of realist writing. With the use of informal diction and colorful language, Walker added realism to her story to fully immerse the reader in setting and enhance the overall reading experience. In more ways than one, Walker’s writing style targets the roots of American social boundaries during the civil rights movement by outlining the acceptance/refutation extremes of African American identity control; this focus directly relates to reactions exchanged between Mama and Dee/Wangero. Similar themes of social boundaries are supported within Flannery O’Connor’s Good Country…
In the winter I wear flannel night gowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man” (744). This portrays the picture of a typical African-American Mother who is working tirelessly to keep up with her family and especially the kids regardless of what the man does; either he provides or goes away living his life. It also displays a domineering spirit of most African women in their families to rule and preserve the norms of their homes. Mama’s lack of education does not limit her from comprehending the importance of her cultural heritage; which can be seen from how she related to the quilt and her love and respect to preserve it and hand it down to someone she assumed would do the same (Maggie). In as much as Mama never approved some attitudes of Dee; she identified to her heritage. Most African immigrants in America are just like Mama; they are faced with a struggle to preserve their cultural heritage and pass it onto their US-born kids. Instead they finds Dee’s earlier attitude of denying her heritage showing up and their responds would be just like Mama “I didn’t want to bring up how I have offered Dee (Wangero) the quilt, when she went away to college. Then She had told me, they were old fashioned and out of style”…
Walker uses the accident that happens during her childhood to prove that one’s mindset can be altered because of a profound experience and how her attitude completely transforms from a conceited and arrogant child into a newly reborn woman who sees a new kind of beauty within her life. She uses different points of her life to build on this idea in separate clear stages. She begins the story with a very conceited outlook on life where she knows she’s beautiful. “I’m the prettiest!”, a young Walker decrees, as she abuses her beauty for her father’s consent. This attitude is further encouraged by the society of which she is a product. She is always used to hearing praise from people such as “Oh, isn’t she the cutest thing!”. In a culture like this, Walker begins shaping into a commodity more than an actual person. Walker herself even views her younger form with disdain because of this snobbish attitude, because she…
Through contrasting family members and views in "Everyday Use", Alice Walker illustrates the importance of understanding our present life in relation to the traditions of our own people and culture. Using careful descriptions and attitudes, Walker demonstrates which factors contribute to the values of one's heritage and culture; she illustrates that these are represented not by the possession of objects or mere appearances, but by one's lifestyle and attitude. In "Everyday Use" Walker personifies the different sides of culture and heritage in the characters of Dee and the mother (the narrator). Dee can be seen to represent a materialistic, complex, and modern way of life where culture and heritage are to be valued only for…
The short story “Everyday Use”, by Alice walker, begins with a family of three: Maggie, Dee, and “Mama”(there mother). The author never reveals her actual name. However Dee being old enough to attend college leaves off to college. When she comes back from college, she begins to express herself in different ways, a way that is more liberal. By the authors description she is dressed differently, she talks differently, she even changed her name to Wangero. However she starts gathering things that her mother and her sister, Maggie, owned to express her heritage, she has the wrong idea of heritage, her heritage lied in her own name passed from her grandmother to her aunt to her. the name that she carried, Dee, was passed along for three generations, which she didn’t realize. The author shows symbolism and point of view throughout the story through the family’s name,Dee, the quilt, the house, and the mother explains the story where the author uses point of view. The objects that make Dee the person she is, are disrespectful, selfish, and self-centered.…
Mama describes herself by saying, “In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands.” She is a hard working woman taking care of both her daughters. She was not well educated. Mama explains her educational background saying, “I never had an education myself. After second grade the school was closed down. Don’t ask me why: in 1927 colored asked fewer questions than they do now.” Mama did not have the privilege to an education like Dee because of racial differences in the past. She also knows the true meaning of her heritage and would not allow Dee to take the quilts. Mama understands that her heritage is not dead and is forever living and asks her daughter, “What would you do with them?” Mama knew that Dee would treat the quilts as if it was something to preserve. Mama describes Maggie’s shyness and lack of confidence by stating, “Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him? That is the way my Maggie walks. She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground.” The house fire has impacted Maggie’s life tremendously compared to her sister Dee. She is kind- hearted and is usually over looked as described…
In “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker depicts the protagonist, Dee as a selfish, African girl who turned her back on her family and…
Alice Walker, who was twenty years younger then the famous writer Flannery O’Connor, admired O’Connor’s works. She grew up reading her writing and especially in college, she escaped in her books. Walker realized that O’Connor lived right near her, in her hometown, Milledgeville. Walker wrote, “Still, since I have loved her work for many years, the coincidence of having lived near each other intrigued me, and started me thinking of her again,” (42). She had many questions she wanted answered. Walker was curious to see what lied ahead of her, abandoned in the two houses. She took her mother with her for the excursion.…
Alice Walker’s essay “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” brings to light the histories of remarkable African American women whose legacies surpassed the bondage of slavery. Her argument incorporates her concepts of family and heritage on the shaping of individual personalities, and perceptions. Her intention is clearly to encourage African American women to discover their skills and abilities by learning from the past to better appreciate the present. Her argument can be seen as challenging the new generation of African American women to eliminate cultural, societal and economic boundaries and express themselves through art. Her deep reflection about women elders exhibits her compromise to motivate young African American women to be independent and creative. The author is explicit and clear about her…
The character I have chosen from Alice Walker's novel, 'Everyday Use,' is Mama. Mama is a single parent raising two daughters. Mama describes herself as a “large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. She proudly tells of her ability to kill and clean hogs as “mercilessly” as any man. I believe these skills were acquired out of sheer survival and necessity. Mama starts the story recalling the dreams she often has in which she and Dee reunite on a television talk show. In this dream she has described herself almost as if it is the woman that she wished she was for example she states she is “a hundred pounds lighter, her skin like an uncooked barley pancake.” Although she says the way she looks in the dream is the way her daughter would want her to be, I think she longs for that as well.…