Reaction to Everyday Use
Reaction to Everyday Use Marion Graham English/125 November 12, 2012
Reaction to Everyday Use Everyday Use is a short story written by Alice Walker about a family of three, Mama, the narrator, Maggie her youngest daughter, and Dee, her eldest daughter. Both daughters are completely different, Maggie is a simpler person and Dee is high maintenance. Dee has always the home she was brought up in and everything to do with her childhood. She always wanted more and Mama gave her the best she could. One day, years after Dee has gone off to college, she returns to visit Mama and Maggie’s new home (the other had been burnt down when Dee was still living with them), and she brings along a man, possibly her husband. When Dee returns she has changed her name and has come hoping to retrieve certain family heirlooms. Walker uses different literary tools to tell this story in a way that makes the audience think about what she is trying to tell the audience. Strategy The main literary strategy Walker uses in the writing of Everyday Use are irony and symbolism. Mama and Maggie value the quilts discussed in the story, not as folk art, instead for what they are intended to be used for, a source of warmth. Mama would rather give Maggie the quilts and let her put these quilts to use even though they may end up ruined because she knows that she is the one that will appreciate and love the quilts the most. Dee wants to in a sense save the quilts from the harm that she is sure that her sister, whom she seems to think is intelligently inferior will ruin but she does not understand the true value and worth of these quilts. Dee’s sudden interest in her heritage and want to embrace different objects from her family’s past is obviously seen by
Reaction to Everyday Use Everyday Use is a short story written by Alice Walker about a family of three, Mama, the narrator, Maggie her youngest daughter, and Dee, her eldest daughter. Both daughters are completely different, Maggie is a simpler person and Dee is high maintenance. Dee has always the home she was brought up in and everything to do with her childhood. She always wanted more and Mama gave her the best she could. One day, years after Dee has gone off to college, she returns to visit Mama and Maggie’s new home (the other had been burnt down when Dee was still living with them), and she brings along a man, possibly her husband. When Dee returns she has changed her name and has come hoping to retrieve certain family heirlooms. Walker uses different literary tools to tell this story in a way that makes the audience think about what she is trying to tell the audience. Strategy The main literary strategy Walker uses in the writing of Everyday Use are irony and symbolism. Mama and Maggie value the quilts discussed in the story, not as folk art, instead for what they are intended to be used for, a source of warmth. Mama would rather give Maggie the quilts and let her put these quilts to use even though they may end up ruined because she knows that she is the one that will appreciate and love the quilts the most. Dee wants to in a sense save the quilts from the harm that she is sure that her sister, whom she seems to think is intelligently inferior will ruin but she does not understand the true value and worth of these quilts. Dee’s sudden interest in her heritage and want to embrace different objects from her family’s past is obviously seen by