Preview

Short Story Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
482 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Short Story Everyday Use By Alice Walker
A profound emotional connection with someone unrelated makes him/her seem almost like family. But what about our “real” family that we are bound to by blood? Do love and connection bind us, or does it tear us apart? Do our family heirlooms provide meaning for all? The main conflict in “Everyday Use” includes an African American family with both internal and external struggles. The yard and quilt in Alice Walker’s intriguing short story, “Everyday Use” are symbolic and illuminate the fundamental theme of family and heritage.
The short story begins with Mrs. Johnson and Maggie waiting in the yard for Dee. Mrs. Johnson and Maggie both worked hard to make the yard, “…clean and wavy yesterday afternoon” in preparation for Dee’s arrival. But, the
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of The Story 'Everyday Use' By Alice Walker
    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page

    Analysis Of The Story 'Everyday Use' By Alice Walker

    Over the course of your life, how ever long it has been so far, have you been heavily influenced by your heritage and culture? Or have you been able to develop your own ideas and views on the world? If you have or you haven’t been influenced by your culture that’s up to you, but I ultimately think that it should be completely up to the individual whether or not they completely follow every rule of their religion, ethnic background, or whatever.…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker Summary
    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker Summary

    The short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker reflects on the heritage of a family of African Americans. The majority of the African American population has forgotten where they came from. The Webster dictionary defines heritage as “ the traditions, achievements, beliefs, etc., that are part of the history of a group or nation.” Maggie, Dee or Wangero, and their mother, who is also the narrator, are the basic characters for this short story.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Does Maggie Value The Quilts
    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages

    How Does Maggie Value The Quilts

    Family heritage is very important to many people. Heritage can take the form of photographs, paintings, families sitting around telling stories, and even songs. Quilting is one of many ways the African-American culture used to retain its heritage. African-American quilting is almost as old as the history of America. As slaves, and also their textiles, were traded heavily throughout the Caribbean, Central America, and the Southern United States, the traditions of each distinct region became intermingled. In time, African-American quilting became a tradition in itself. This strong tradition continues today. In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, although Maggie and Dee/Wangero differ in point of view regarding the heritage of the quilts and how to honor them; the quilts symbolized something significant…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Eveyday Use
    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Eveyday Use

    In the short story, "Everyday Use," Alice Walker teaches us lessons on true inheritance; what it is and who can receive it. Two hand stitched quilts become the center of conflict in the story. They are also used to symbolize the true inheritance. Like a quilt, a person's world view is made up of events, circumstances and influences that shape how they see and respond to the world. "Everyday Use" is a story of two worlds in conflict. Mama, acting as the narrator, guides us through the interaction of the two very different worlds embodied in her daughters.…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis
    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

    Alice Malsenior Walker is an African American author and activist who write of various personal experiences, including the black woman’s struggle. Walker describes herself as a “womanist: a woman who loves other women… Appreciates and prefers woman culture, woman’s emotional flexibility… and woman’s strength… Loves the spirit… Loves herself, regardless”. Walker writes through her feelings and the morals that she has grown with. One of her famous quotes, "It is important to remember yourself," quoted from her appearance at a Miami Book Fair in 1989, where she discussed her 1988’s essay collection, including The Temple of My Familiar, relates to her short story Everyday Use. By not remembering who you are you can grow to be disconnected from yourself. Alice Walker’s short story Everyday Use successfully shows readers how it is possible for one to lose sight of what is important. This essay describes how Walker designed the story to reveal to readers the values of serving heritage and culture. Through the perspective of the protagonist “Mama,’ Walker shows the differences between the two sisters,…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker's Everyday Use: The African American Legacy
    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Alice Walker's Everyday Use: The African American Legacy

    Alice Walker, the author of “Everyday Use”, narrates a story of a family’s racial heritage and the effect it had on the kid’s relationship and sense of identity. Walker illustrates how a mother of two daughters chooses the fate of a younger unfortunate daughter that submits to the family’s core values than the elderly one that fights against it. Most African American families face the same struggle on a daily basis; the fight of choices between the strong conservative parents and the opposing liberal kids who are following the modern trend but in the midst of it are trying to hold on to their cultural heritage considering the racial pandemic…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker's View On Heritage
    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker's View On Heritage

    “Everyday Use” is a short story by Alice Walker that tells the story of a mother and two sisters who are finally together after being apart for a long time. Walker describes two characters who were both born and raised together, but they go separate ways and therefore manifest a different understanding of heritage. One of the sisters, Dee, is described as a very selfish and materialistic woman who allows other people’s opinions and her “understanding” affect her views on heritage. On the contrary, Maggie is a traditional woman who has a robust understanding of what heritage really is. Though these characters were born and raised the same, there is a disparity between their views on whether or not material items are a necessity to recollect…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker Heritage Essay
    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker Heritage Essay

    The short story, “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker portrays the relationship between a family and their issues concerning their heritage and values that are different to them. Clearly, the author Alice Walker incorporates her personal experiences into her writings. In the short story, the family lived a poor lifestyle and had to adapt to what they had. According to one source, “The Walkers lived in poverty, and as a young girl” (Cummings 1). Along with her lifestyle, Walker is able to include real details in her short story about being poor because she has been through it. Walker explains in her story as the character of Mama, “I never had an education myself. After second grade the school closed down” (21). Tuten explains that, “Commentaries…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    English POV essay
    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages

    English POV essay

    Thousands of years worth of history passed down generation to generation through culture is not easy to maintain with the evolving world around us, but being close to the roots of your heritage is a priceless and unique aspect of everyone's life varying between families either greatly or only a tiny bit. In "Everyday Use", Alice Walker creates a short story telling of a mother and her two daughter's contradicting interpretations of heritage. In "Everyday Use", Walker uses point of view, symbolism, and characterization to portray how people should be connected to their deepest roots of heritage every day.…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker Essay
    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker Essay

    Have you ever not seen eye to eye with your mother? In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, we are shown how many of the choices we make and the things we value create our identity. This story focuses on two characters, mama and her daughter Dee (Wangero), who struggle to see the same way about their heritage. Dee wants the things made by her grandmother, to not admire it as an artifact, but rather to remake it. She wants to take them, and change them to match her lifestyle as it is today. She loves them for the way they look. Mama, on the other hand, views the things from her mother as artifacts. She loves the items more than how they look. She admires the quilts because of their everyday use. Transformations take place between these characters. Dee’s transformation is more external than it is internal. She shows her transformation in the way she speaks, the clothes she wears, and her judgement. Mama’s transformation is more internal. She begins to see Dee’s real thoughts, and she stands up against her. When she takes the quilts away from Dee, she doesn’t only stand up for herself, but Maggie, as…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker Heritage
    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Alice Walker Heritage

    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…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use
    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Everyday Use

    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.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker Heritage
    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Alice Walker Heritage

    In “Everyday Use” Alice Walker shows the hardships and conflicts of African Americans lives during the late twentieth century. The story takes place in the 1960’s, and shows of the social differences that blacks would experience during this black power movement. Many blacks in America don’t think or care about their heritage and ancestry, but some focused on connecting with past roots. Alice Walker shows through the story of the two different ways of dealing with African American pasts and heritage.…

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use by Alice Walker
    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Everyday Use by Alice Walker

    The story "Everyday Use", written by Alice Walker, is a story of heritage, pride, and learning what kind of person you really are. In the exposition, the story opens with background information about Dee and Maggie's life, which is being told by Mama. The reader learns that Dee was the type of child that got everything and had everything that she wanted, while Maggie was the complete opposite. The crisis, which occurs later in the story, happens when Dee all of a sudden comes home a different person than she was when she left. During the Climax, Mama realizes that she has often neglected her other child, Maggie, by always giving Dee what she wants. Therefore, in the resolution, Mama defends Maggie by telling Dee that she cannot have the household items that she wants just to show others, instead of putting them to use like Maggie.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use Symbolism
    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Everyday Use Symbolism

    The culture of African American quilting is approximately as old as the United States of America. Alice Walker, the author of Everyday Use, contributes quilting to the story, and adds important symbolism and meaning to the story and the plot. In the literary selection, Everyday Use, Alice Walker highlights the story by the use of embellished style and a sense of realism, and the theme of heritage.…

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics