Everyday Use

English 102

July 30, 2013

“Everyday Use” In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the author spends a lot of time on symbolism, imagery, conflict, and characters. The point she is trying to make in this story is that family heritage is not the materials we posses but the people we share our lives with. In “Everyday Use” the quilt is the main symbol. However it is not the actual quilt that represents the heritage but the people who created it. The symbol Alice Walker uses in “Everyday Use” is a quilt. The mother and daughter Maggie have a different understanding and appreciation for it than the other daughter Dee. They see it as something useful that other family members made out of love. They see it for more than it is “Simply put, the quilt is a metaphor for the ways in which discarded scraps and fragments made be made into unified, even beautiful, whole.” (Piedmont-Marton, Elisabeth). The other daughter Dee sees it as proof of her heritage. Something she can put on display and nothing more.

In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” she uses the imagery of animals a lot. She compares’ not only herself to animals but also her daughters and the town in which they live. Everything in her story she can compare to some kind of animal. “Some of the comparisons between the women and fauna are highly conventional or purely descriptive” (Gruesser). Mrs. Johnson decribes herself as a big-boned woman with hard man like hands. Mrs. Johnson or “Mama” describes Maggie’s memory like that of an elephant. She also says that Dee’s pleading voice is like a bird. She also compares Dee’s hair to that of sheep and her pigtails look like two small lizards. When she talks of the town that they live in she called it a pasture. She also said that the people that lived there were like cattle.

There seams to be a lot of conflict in Alice Walkers “Everyday Use” The conflict between Mrs. Johnson or Mama and Dee. Two generations that don’t understand one another. The conflict between Maggie and Dee is that one sister sees herself as a better more educated person than the other. And then there is the conflict in Dee herself. She has fought her whole life to get out of the small town where she was borne. And from people that she was embarrassed of. And now that its fashionable to come from nothing, or to have humble beginnings she wants to claim it and display it on a wall in her apartment in the Big City.

Character plays a big part in Alice Walkers “Everyday Use” First there is the character of the mother Mrs. Johnson. She is a simple woman who can take care of herself. She is in no need of a man because she said herself she is a big-boned woman with man like hands. She can kill a bull and butcher it in the same day. The one daughter Maggie is a meek person. She is quiet and keeps to herself. Some people “Dee” might think her to be dumb or slow. However she proves that she is more insightful than others, especially her sister. The Character Dee is completely different from her family. She thinks she needs to get back to her “original heritage” and changes her name to that of an African name “Wangero” “Such a reading condemns the older, more worldly sister, Dee as “Shallow,” ”condescending,” and “manipulative,” as overly concerned with style, fashion, and aesthetics, and thus lacking a “true” understanding of her heritage.”(Farrell,Susan). Dee is also decribed to be “disconnects with mother and sister and their rural lifestyle and is ashamed of her family roots about which she knows little. Smugly egotistical, educated, and materialistic, Wangero wears fashionable African dress and an African hairstyle, has a muslim boyfriend, resides in the city, and desires to preserve some of her family’s artifacts, which she can proudly display to her friends.” (Piacentino, Ed).

In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” we can learn that how we treat others is a reflection of ourself. And that to value our heritage is to value our closest family members. That your heritage is not an object. Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use is a perfect example of this.

Farrell, Susan. "Fight vs. Flight: a re-evaluation of Dee in Alice Walker's 'Everyday
Use'." Studies in Short Fiction 35.2 (1998): 179+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 July 2013.

Gruesser, John. "Walker's 'Everyday Use.'." Explicator 61.3 (Spring 2003): 183-185. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 97. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 July 2013.

Piacentino, Ed. "Reconciliation with Family in Alice Walker's 'Kindred Spirits.'." Southern Quarterly 46.1 (Fall 2008): 91-99. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 319. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 July 2013.

Piedmont-Marton, Elisabeth. "An overview of “Everyday Use”." Short Stories for
Students. Detroit: Gale, 2002 Literature Resource Center, Web. 7 July 2013