everyday use essay title

A Summary and Analysis of Alice Walker’s ‘Everyday Use’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Everyday Use’ is one of the most popular and widely studied short stories by Alice Walker. It was first published in Harper’s Magazine in 1973 before being collected in Walker’s short-story collection In Love and Trouble .

Walker uses ‘Everyday Use’ to explore different attitudes towards Black American culture and heritage.

‘Everyday Use’: plot summary

The story is narrated in the first person by Mrs Johnson, a largeAfrican-American woman who has two daughters, Dee (the older of the two) and Maggie (the younger). Whereas Maggie, who is somewhat weak and lacking in confidence, shares many of her mother’s views, Dee is rather different.

Mrs Johnson tells us how she and the local church put together the funds to send Dee away to school to get an education. When Dee returned, she would read stories to her mother and sister. Mrs Johnson tells us she never had much of an education as her school was shut down, and although Maggie can read, her eyesight is poor and, according to her mother, is not especially clever.

Mrs Johnson also tells us how their previous house recently burned down: a house, she tells us, which Dee had never liked. Dee hasn’t yet visited her mother and sister in the new house, but she has said that when she does come she will not bring her friends with her, implying she is ashamed of where her family lives.

However, Mrs Johnson then describes Dee’s first visit to the new house. She turns up with her new partner, a short and stocky Muslim man, whom Mrs Johnson refers to as ‘Asalamalakim’, after the Muslim greeting the man speaks when he arrives (a corruption of ‘salaam aleikum’ or ‘ As-salamu alaykum ’). He later tells Mrs Johnson to call him Hakim-a-barber.

Dee then tells her mother that she is no longer known as Dee, but prefers to be called Wangero Lee-wanika Kemanjo, because she no longer wishes to bear a name derived from the white people who oppressed her and other African Americans. Her mother points out that Dee was named after her aunt, Dicie, but Dee is convinced that the name originally came from their white oppressors.

Dee/Wangero now starts to examine the objects in the house which belonged to her grandmother (who was also known as Dee), saying which ones she intends to take for herself. When Mrs Johnson tells her she is keeping the quilts for when Maggie marries John Thomas, Dee responds that her sister is so ‘backward’ she’d probably put the special quilts to ‘everyday use’, thus wearing them out to ‘rags’ in a few years.

Although Maggie resignedly lets her older sister have the quilts, when Dee moves to take them for herself, Mrs Johnson is suddenly inspired to snatch them back from her and hold Maggie close to herself, refusing to give them up to Dee and telling her to take one of the other quilts instead.

Dee leaves with Hakim-a-barber, telling her mother and Maggie that they don’t understand their own heritage. She also tells Maggie to try to make something of herself rather than remaining home with their mother. After they’ve left, Maggie and her mother sit outside until it’s time to go indoors and retire to bed.

‘Everyday Use’: analysis

The central crux of Alice Walker’s story is the difference between Dee and her mother in their perspectives and attitudes. Where Mrs Johnson, the mother of the family, sees everything in terms of the immediate family and home, Dee (or Wangero, as she renames herself) is more interested in escaping this immediate environment.

She does this first by leaving the family home and becoming romantically involved with a man of African Muslim descent. She also looks deeper into her African roots in order to understand ‘where she comes from’, as the phrase has it: not just in terms of the family’s direct lineage of daughter, mother, grandmother, and so on (Mrs Johnson’s way of looking at it, as exemplified by their discussion over the origins of Dee’s name), but in a wider, and deeper sense of African-American history and belonging.

This departure from her mother’s set of values is most neatly embodied by her change of name, rejecting the family name Dee in favour of the African name Wangero Lee-wanika Kemanjo. Names, in fact, are very important in this story: Maggie is obviously known by a European name, and ‘Johnson’, the family name borne by ‘Mama’, and thus by her daughters, doubly reinforces (John and son) the stamp of male European power on their lives and history.

Dee, too, is very much a family name: not just because it is the name the family use for the elder daughter, but because it is a name borne by numerous female members of the family going back for generations. But Dee/Wangero suspects it is ultimately, or originally, of European extraction, and wants to distance herself from this. Dee’s rejection of the immediate family’s small and somewhat parochial attitude is also embodied by the fact that she reportedly hated their old house which had recently burned down.

‘Everyday Use’ was published in 1973, and Dee’s (or Wangero’s) search for her ancestral identity through African culture and language is something which was becoming more popular among African Americans in the wake of the US civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Indeed, a productive dialogue could be had between Dee’s outlook in ‘Everyday Use’ and the arguments put forward by prominent Black American writers and activists of the 1970s such as Audre Lorde, who often wrote – in her poem ‘ A Woman Speaks ’, for example – about the ancestral African power that Black American women carry, a link to their deeper roots which should be acknowledged and cultivated.

However, Walker does some interesting things in ‘Everyday Use’ which prevent the story from being wholly celebratory off Dee’s (Wangero’s) new-found sense of self. First, she had Mrs Johnson or ‘Mama’ narrate the story, so we only see Dee from her mother’s very different perspective: we only view Dee, or Wangero, from the outside, as it were.

Second, Dee/Wangero does not conduct herself in ways which are altogether commendable: she snatches the best quilts, determined to wrest them from her mother and sister and disregarding Maggie’s strong filial links to her aunt and grandmother who taught her how to quilt. The quilt thus becomes a symbol for Maggie’s link with the previous matriarchs of the family, which Dee is attempting to sever her from.

But she is not doing this out of kindness for Maggie, despite her speech to her younger sister at the end of the story. Instead, she seems to be motivated by more selfish reasons, and asserts her naturally dominant personality and ability to control her sister in order to get her way. The very title of Walker’s story, ‘Everyday Use’, can be analysed as a sign of Dee’s dismissive and patronising attitude towards her sister and mother: to her, they don’t even know how to use a good quilt properly and her sister would just put it out for everyday use.

We can also analyse Walker’s story in terms of its use of the epiphany : a literary whereby a character in a story has a sudden moment of consciousness, or a realisation. In ‘Everyday Use’, this occurs when Mrs Johnson, seeing Maggie prepared to give up her special bridal present to her sister, gathers the courage to stand her ground and to say no to Dee. She is clearly in awe of what Dee/Wangero has become, so this moment of self-assertion – though it is also done for Maggie, too – is even more significant.

Discover more from Interesting Literature

Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.

Type your email…

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

107 Everyday Use Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on everyday use, ✍️ everyday use essay topics for college, 🎓 most interesting everyday use research titles, 💡 simple everyday use essay ideas, ❓ everyday use questions.

• Family and Heritage in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• Tradition in “Everyday Use” by Walker and “The Lottery” by Jackson
• Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker
• African-American Narration in Walker’s “Everyday Use”
• Critical Analysis of Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use“
• The Problem of Heritage in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”
• Comparison: “A Pair of Tickets” by A. Tan and “Everyday Use” by A. Walke
• Literature Comparison of The Yellow Wallpaper and Everyday Use The issue of loneliness and the slow descent into madness discussed in the two famous novels, The Yellow Wallpaper and Everyday Use. These two novels share a number of common and different elements.
• Alice Walker’s 1955 and “Everyday Use”: Artificial vs. Genuine This essay will examine Walker’s stories 1955 and “Everyday Use” and discuss a common theme of artificial vs. genuine in the American culture.
• “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker: Précis and Critique “Everyday Use” is a short story authored by Alice walker that represents social dilemmas and dynamics among African Americans.
• Comparing Two Kinds and Everyday Use The topic of cultural conflict is the main similarity of Two Kinds and Everyday Use. They explain two ways that can affect people, making them to oppose families and society.
• “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker Analysis The essay critically analyzes the aforementioned social issues in the “Everyday Use” narrative and demonstrates their relevance to society.
• Heritage and Tradition in ”Everyday Use” by Alice Walker The story Everyday Use, written by Alice Walker, portrays two different overviews of the two polar viewpoints belonging to people within the same family.
• Characters of Walker’s “Everyday Use” and Their Heritage This paper aims to compare the distinctive features of the main characters of the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and find out what could cause these differences.
• Maggie’s Story in Everyday Use by Walker In Everyday Use by Walker, a conflicted story is presented, opposing superficial cultural values. The paper offers an alternative scene in the short story from Maggie’s perspective.
• The Perception of Heritage in “Everyday Use” In her story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker presents the motivations of people resulting in the emergence of particular views on heritage.
• The Story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker Alice Walker in her story “Everyday Use” uses illusion or appearance as the principal theme of the story to highlight the role of the past in the characters’ current life.
• Preserving Cultural Heritage: Conflict in Walker’s “Everyday Use” The story suggests that the best way of preserving a group’s heritage, be it physical objects or spoken language, is not putting it on display, as in a museum.
• Heritage in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” The family conflict based on a different perception of the concept of heritage is the key theme of Walker’s Everyday Use.
• “Everyday Use” a Book by Alice Walker Everyday use is an allegorical story that intertwines the African heritage and the modern world practices. Written by Alice Walker the story focuses on the lives of the African Americans.
• “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker addresses an issue of heritage through the relationship between the characters and its relation to the cultural background.
• “Everyday Use” Short Story by Alice Walker The coming revolution of nationalism and the eternal opposition of the big city, the world of diversity and consumption, is compared with the small courtyard of the Johnson family.
• Analysis of “Everyday Use” Story The paper analyzes “Everyday Use” story and discusses on the differences between the two sisters’ views on their heritage, and the values each character attaches to the items.
• Cultural Context in the Short Story ”Everyday Use” by Alice Walker “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is a short story about an African American family of Mama and her two daughters, Dee and Maggie.
• The Main Themes in “Everyday Use” by Walker The themes of family relations, sister rivalry, traditions, heritage, and the struggle for civil rights intertwine in Alice Walker’s short story.
• The Book “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker Maintaining African American cultural legacy features prominently as a theme in Alice Walker’s book “Everyday Use.”
• Language of “Everyday Use” Story by Alice Walker “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is about the hardships of African American women. It is about the milestones of heritage implied in terms of African American mothers.
• Alice Walker’s Concepts of Everyday Use In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, the author places two sisters side by side for an afternoon of visiting.
• Exploitation in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” presents several important topics to contemplate, the most crucial ones being those of family relationships and attitude toward heritage.
• Afro-Americans in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” “Everyday Use” is a short story authored by Alice Walker. The story is told in the first person by an African American woman known as Mama.
• Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”: Traditions, Relationships, and Identity
• Building the Story From Symbols: “Everyday Use” by A. Walker
• How Alice Walker Explores the Meaning of Heritage in “Everyday Use”
• Alice Walker’s Self Portrayal in “Everyday Use”
• Dominance and the Quest for the Self in Alice Walker’s ‘”Everyday Use” and Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”
• Rejecting Heritage: Wangero’s Greed Illustrated in Walker’s “Everyday Use”
• Central Conflict Between Mother and Daughter in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and Any Tan’s “Two Kinds”
• The American Dream Represented by Dee in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”
• “Everyday Use”: Alice Walker’s Writing Style and How It Helps Tell the Story
• Dissimilar Lives Create Different Expectations in “Everyday Use”
• Mother and Daughter Relationship Conflicts in “Beloved” by Toni Morrison and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• Cultural Themes Through “From Prada to Nada” and “Everyday Use”
• The Black Empowerment Movement Within Bambara’s “The Lesson” and Walker’s “Everyday Use”
• Alice Walker’s Women: Oppression and Victory in “Everyday Use” and “The Color Purple”
• Past and Present Connections: Alice Walker’s Use of First Person Point of View in “Everyday Use”
• Comparing the Shared Representation of Greed in Maupassant’s “The Necklace” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”
• Situational and Dramatic Irony in “Story of An Hour”, “Everyday Use”, “The Necklace”, and “The Lottery”
• Capitalist and Classism Ideologies in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• The Educational and Race Issue in “Everyday Use”
• “Everyday Use”: Is It Possible to Leave the Past Behind?
• Character Analysis of Dee Image in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• The Value and Purpose of Cultural Heirlooms in “Everyday Use”, a Short Story by Alice Walker
• “Everyday Use”: Defining African-American Heritage
• The Archetypes of Mother and Crone in “Everyday Use”, “A Worn Path” and “Mothers Tongue”
• “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker: Contrast Between the Sister’s Beliefs About the Guilt
• Comparing Love and Acceptance in “I Stand Here Ironing” and “Everyday Use”
• “Everyday Use” and “Good Country People” Are Short Stories With Similar Themes
• Relationship Between Two Generations in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• Alice Walker’s Interpretation of the Ideas of Household and Family in the Story “Everyday Use”
• Comparing the Similarities and Differences Between Maggie and Dee in “Everyday Use”, a Short Story by Alice Walker
• The Themes and Narration Techniques of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• “Everyday Use”: Sisters With Nothing in Common
• Mother Figure Who Critiques the Actions of a Young Woman in “How Far She Went” by Mary Hood and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• Symbolism and Character Development in “Everyday Use”
• Black Woman Spirituality in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• The Concepts of Denial and Acceptance in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”
• Narrative Imbalance in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• Conflicting Ideas About Identities and Ancestry in “Everyday Use”
• The Relationship Between Maggie and Mama in the Novel “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• The Symbolism of a Quilt in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”
• “Everyday Use”: Today’s View on Culture and Heritage
• Conflict, Irony, and Symbolism in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”
• The Different Views and Conflicts Between a Mother and Her Two Daughters in the Short Story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• How the Relationships Between Parent and Child Are Depicted in Joe Johnson’s “October Sky” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”
• Cultural Identity and Problems in “Everyday Use”
• The Language and the Quilt in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• “Everyday Use”: Are Mama and Dee Sympathetic Characters?
• What Is the Significance of the Story Title “Everyday Use”?
• What Is the Rising Action of the Story “Everyday Use”?
• How Is Dee a Static Character in “Everyday Use”?
• When Was “Everyday Use” First Published?
• Which Conflicts Are Not Resolved in “Everyday Use”?
• What Is Point of View in “Everyday Use”?
• What Is the Class Mobility in “Everyday Use”?
• How Is the Main Conflict Resolved in “Everyday Use”?
• What Goes on in Dee’s Mind in “Everyday Use”?
• Does Maggie Steal Dee’s Boyfriend in “Everyday Use”?
• How Does Maggie Change in “Everyday Use”?
• What Does Dee Value in “Everyday Use”?
• Does Walker Side With Maggie or Dee in “Everyday Use”?
• What Type of Story Is “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker?
• How Old Are the Characters in “Everyday Use”?
• What Qualities Does Mama Wish She Has in “Everyday Use”?
• What Happens at the End of “Everyday Use”?
• Who Is the Protagonist in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker?
• Who Is the Narrator in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker?
• What Is the Setting of the Short Story “Everyday Use”?
• What Does Mama Symbolize in “Everyday Use”?
• Who Does Alice Walker Dedicate “Everyday Use” To?
• What Is the Importance of Memory in “Everyday Use”?
• What Do the Handmade Quilts Symbolize in “Everyday Use”?
• Is There Any Debate in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker?
• What Is the Mothers Attitude Towards Dee in “Everyday Use”?
• What Are the Cultural Differences in “Everyday Use”?
• Who Is the Antagonist in the Short Story “Everyday Use”?
• Why Did Maggie Smile in the End of “Everyday Use”?
• What Is Alice Walker’s Purpose in “Everyday Use”?

Cite this post

• Chicago (N-B)
• Chicago (A-D)

StudyCorgi. (2022, July 14). 107 Everyday Use Essay Topics. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/everyday-use-essay-topics/

"107 Everyday Use Essay Topics." StudyCorgi , 14 July 2022, studycorgi.com/ideas/everyday-use-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . (2022) '107 Everyday Use Essay Topics'. 14 July.

1. StudyCorgi . "107 Everyday Use Essay Topics." July 14, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/everyday-use-essay-topics/.

Bibliography

StudyCorgi . "107 Everyday Use Essay Topics." July 14, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/everyday-use-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . 2022. "107 Everyday Use Essay Topics." July 14, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/everyday-use-essay-topics/.

These essay examples and topics on Everyday Use were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on December 28, 2023 .

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Literature › Analysis of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use

Analysis of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 24, 2021

Probably Alice Walker ’s most frequently anthologized story, “Everyday Use” first appeared in Walker’s collection In Love and Trouble: Stories by Black Women. Walker explores in this story a divisive issue for African Americans, one that has concerned a number of writers, Lorraine Hansberry, for instance, in her play Raisin in the Sun (1959). The issue is generational as well as cultural: In leaving home and embracing their African heritage, must adults turn their backs on their African-American background and their more traditional family members? The issue, while specifically African-American, can also be viewed as a universal one in terms of modern youth who fail to understand the values of their ancestry and of their immediate family. Walker also raises the question of naming, a complicated one for African Americans, whose ancestors were named by slaveholders.

The first-person narrator of the story is Mrs. Johnson, mother of two daughters, Maggie and Dicie, nicknamed Dee. Addressing the readers as “you,” she draws us directly into the story while she and Maggie await a visit from Dee. With deft strokes, Walker has Mrs. Johnson reveal essential information about herself and her daughters. She realistically describes herself as a big-boned, slow-tongued woman with no education and a talent for hard work and outdoor chores. When their house burned down some 12 years previous, Maggie was severely burned. Comparing Maggie to a wounded animal, her mother explains that she thinks of herself as unattractive and slow-witted, yet she is good-natured too, and preparing to marry John Thomas, an honest local man. Dee, on the other hand, attractive, educated, and self-confident, has left her home (of which she was ashamed) to forge a new and successful life.

Alice Walker/Thoughtco

When she appears, garbed in African attire, along with her long-haired friend, Asalamalakim, Dee informs her family that her new name is Wangero Leewanika Kemanio . When she explains that she can no longer bear to use the name given to her by the whites who oppressed her, her mother tries to explain that she was named for her aunt, and that the name Dicie harkens back to pre–CIVIL WAR days. Dee’s failure to honor her own family history continues in her gentrified appropriation of her mother’s butter dish and churn, both of which have a history, but both of which Dee views as quaint artifacts that she can display in her home. When Dee asks for her grandmother’s quilts, however, Mrs. Johnson speaks up: Although Maggie is willing to let Dee have them because, with her goodness and fine memory, she needs no quilts to help her remember Grandma Dee, her mother announces firmly that she intends them as a wedding gift for Maggie. Mrs. Johnson approvingly tells Dee that Maggie will put them to “everyday use” rather than hanging them on a wall.

Dee leaves in a huff, telling Maggie she ought to make something of herself. With her departure, peace returns to the house, and Mrs. Johnson and Maggie sit comfortably together, enjoying each other’s company. Although readers can sympathize with Dee’s desire to improve her own situation and to feel pride in her African heritage, Walker also makes clear that in rejecting the African-American part of that heritage, she loses a great deal. Her mother and sister, despite the lack of the success that Dee enjoys, understand the significance of family. One hopes that the next child will not feel the need to choose one side or the other but will confidently embrace both.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” In Major Writers of Short Fiction: Stories and Commentary, edited by Ann Charters. Boston: St. Martin’s, 1993, 1,282–1,299.

Share this:

Categories: Literature , Short Story

Tags: African Literature , Alice Walker , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use appreciation , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use guide , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use notes , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use plot , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use summary , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use themes , American Literature , Analysis of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , appreciation of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , criticism of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , essays of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , guide of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , Literary Criticism , notes of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , plot of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , story of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , structure of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , summary , themes of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use

Related Articles

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Everyday Use

33 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

In “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens,” Walker writes, “And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see.” Discuss “Everyday Use” in light of this quote.

Compare and contrast Walker’s physical descriptions of Dee and Maggie . How does Walker use physical appearance as a means of characterization?

When Mrs. Johnson reminds Dee that Maggie could make new quilts if the old ones fell apart, Dee insists, “The point is these quilts, these quilts!” (Paragraph 70). How does this statement reflect Dee’s understanding of art and heritage?

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now

Related Titles

By Alice Walker

By the Light of My Father's Smile

Alice Walker

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens

Possessing the Secret of Joy

Strong Horse Tea

The Color Purple

The Flowers

The Temple of My Familiar

The Third Life of Grange Copeland

The Way Forward is with a Broken Heart

To Hell with Dying

Featured Collections

African American Literature

View Collection

An Analysis of 'Everyday Use' by Alice Walker

Appreciation, Heritage, and the Generosity of Effort

• Short Stories
• Best Sellers
• Classic Literature
• Plays & Drama
• Shakespeare
• Children's Books
• Ph.D., English, State University of New York at Albany
• B.A., English, Brown University

American writer and activist Alice Walker is best known for her novel " The Color Purple ," which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. But she has written numerous other novels, stories, poems, and essays.

Her short story "Everyday Use" originally appeared in her 1973 collection, "In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women," and it has been widely anthologized since.

The Plot of 'Everyday Use'

The story is narrated in the first-person point of view by a mother who lives with her shy and unattractive daughter Maggie, who was scarred in a house fire as a child. They are nervously waiting for a visit from Maggie's sister Dee, to whom life has always come easy.

Dee and her companion boyfriend arrive with bold, unfamiliar clothing and hairstyles, greeting Maggie and the narrator with Muslim and African phrases. Dee announces that she has changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, saying that she couldn't stand to use a name from oppressors. This decision hurts her mother, who named her after a lineage of family members.

Claims Family Heirlooms

During the visit, Dee lays claim to certain family heirlooms, such as the top and dasher of a butter churn, whittled by relatives. But unlike Maggie, who uses the butter churn to make butter, Dee wants to treat them like antiques or artwork.

Dee also tries to claim some handmade quilts, and she fully assumes she'll be able to have them because she's the only one who can "appreciate" them. The mother informs Dee that she has already promised the quilts to Maggie, and also intends for the quilts to be used, not simply admired. Maggie says Dee can have them, but the mother takes the quilts out of Dee's hands and gives them to Maggie.

Chides Mother

Dee then leaves, chiding the mother for not understanding her own heritage and encouraging Maggie to "make something of yourself." After Dee is gone, Maggie and the narrator relax contentedly in the backyard.

The Heritage of Lived Experience

Dee insists that Maggie is incapable of appreciating the quilts. She exclaims, horrified, "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use." For Dee, heritage is a curiosity to be looked at—something to put on display for others to observe, as well: She plans to use the churn top and dasher as decorative items in her home, and she intends to hang the quilts on the wall "[a]s if that was the only thing you could do with quilts."

Treats Family Members Oddly

She even treats her own family members as curiosities, taking numerous photos of them. The narrator also tells us, "She never takes a shot without making sure the house is included. When a cow comes nibbling around the edge of the yard she snaps it and me and Maggie and the house."

What Dee fails to understand is that the heritage of the items she covets comes precisely from their "everyday use"—their relation to the lived experience of the people who've used them.

The narrator describes the dasher as follows:

"You didn't even have to look close to see where hands pushing the dasher up and down to make butter had left a kind of sink in the wood. In fact, there were a lot of small sinks; you could see where thumbs and fingers had sunk into the wood."

Communal Family History

Part of the beauty of the object is that it has been so frequently used, and by so many hands in the family, suggesting a communal family history that Dee seems unaware of.

The quilts, made from scraps of clothing and sewn by multiple hands, epitomize this "lived experience." They even include a small scrap from "Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War ," which reveals that members of Dee's family were working against "the people who oppress[ed]" them long before Dee decided to change her name.

Knows When to Quit

Unlike Dee, Maggie actually knows how to quilt. She was taught by Dee's namesakes—Grandma Dee and Big Dee—so she is a living part of the heritage that is nothing more than decoration to Dee.

For Maggie, the quilts are reminders of specific people, not of some abstract notion of heritage. "I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts," Maggie says to her mother when she moves to give them up. It is this statement that prompts her mother to take the quilts away from Dee and hand them to Maggie because Maggie understands their history and value so much more deeply than Dee does.

Lack of Reciprocity

Dee's real offense lies in her arrogance and condescension toward her family, not in her attempted embrace of African culture .

Her mother is initially very open-minded about the changes Dee has made. For instance, though the narrator confesses that Dee has shown up in a "dress so loud it hurts my eyes," she watches Dee walk toward her and concedes, "The dress is loose and flows, and as she walks closer, I like it."

Uses the Name 'Wangero'

The mother also shows a willingness to use the name Wangero, telling Dee, "If that's what you want us to call you, we'll call you."

But Dee doesn't really seem to want her mother's acceptance, and she definitely doesn't want to return the favor by accepting and respecting her mother's cultural traditions . She almost seems disappointed that her mother is willing to call her Wangero.

Shows Possessiveness

Dee shows possessiveness and entitlement as "her hand close[s] over Grandma Dee's butter dish" and she begins to think of objects she'd like to take. Additionally, she's convinced of her superiority over her mother and sister. For example, the mother observes Dee's companion and notices, "Every once in a while he and Wangero sent eye signals over my head."

When it turns out that Maggie knows much more about the history of the family heirlooms than Dee does, Dee belittles her by saying that her "brain is like an elephant's." The entire family considers Dee to be the educated, intelligent, quick-witted one, and so she equates Maggie's intellect with the instincts of an animal, not giving her any real credit.

Appeases Dee

Still, as the mother narrates the story, she does her best to appease Dee and refer to her as Wangero. Occasionally she calls her as "Wangero (Dee)," which emphasizes the confusion of having a new name and the effort it takes to use it (and also pokes a little fun at the grandness of Dee's gesture).

But as Dee becomes more and more selfish and difficult, the narrator starts to withdraw her generosity in accepting the new name. Instead of "Wangero (Dee)," she starts to refer to her as "Dee (Wangero)," privileging her original given name. When the mother describes snatching the quilts away from Dee, she refers to her as "Miss Wangero," suggesting that she's run out of patience with Dee's haughtiness. After that, she simply calls her Dee, fully withdrawing her gesture of support.

Needs to Feel Superior

Dee seems unable to separate her new-found cultural identity from her own long-standing need to feel superior to her mother and sister. Ironically, Dee's lack of respect for her living family members—as well as her lack of respect for the real human beings who constitute what Dee thinks of only as an abstract "heritage"—provides the clarity that allows Maggie and the mother to "appreciate" each other and their own shared heritage.

• 4 Stories About the Generation Gap
• The Meaning of Maggie in Toni Morrison's 'Recitatif'
• Favorite Quotes From Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying"
• Biography of John Dee
• Analysis of 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by C. Perkins Gilman
• Biography of Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize Winning Writer
• Writing About Literature: Ten Sample Topics for Comparison & Contrast Essays
• Best Poetry Books for Children
• Weighing the Evidence: Was Cleopatra Black?
• Contrast Composition and Rhetoric
• 'The Scarlet Letter' Quotes Explained
• Sentence Variety in Alice Walker's Essay 'Am I Blue?'
• Biography of Maya Angelou, Writer and Civil Rights Activist
• 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' Themes, Symbols, and Literary Devices
• Analysis of Flannery O'Connor's 'Good Country People'
• Maxine Hong Kingston’s "The Woman Warrior"

Everyday Use

By alice walker, everyday use essay questions.

What is Alice Walker’s purpose in writing Everyday Use ?

Many critics argue that the character of Dee is modeled after Walker herself. In the 1960's, Walker, the daughter of sharecroppers, was attending university and, like Dee, felt that black Americans were finally finding their own voice. But Walker also shares traits with Maggie - a childhood accident left her self-consciously scarred and shy. Dee and Maggie are on opposite sides regarding how their identity. Dee seeks to fetishize and reject the existence that comprises Maggie's everyday world. Maggie knows the inherent value of objects beyond signifiers for a culture; she recognizes the traditions and heritage that are still active. The sisters are sides of the same coin, having opted diverging paths newly open to them in the 1960s. That Walker shares characteristics with both of her characters illustrates her aim in writing the story. While Maggie and Mama are cast in a "good" light at the end of the story and Dee comes off as selfish, Walker's women give voice to the myriad interpretations of identity in an era of Civil Rights.

What is the significance of Mama's dream, in which she reunites with Dee on a television show?

Although Mama seems to accept her reality, her day dream vignette has her conforming to a much more socially accepted definition of beauty. In her dream, Mama is light-skinned, thinner, and witty: she displays all the traits that white middle class America find desirable in a "pre-Oprah" African-American woman. It is worth noting that the woman in this dream is not a product of Mama’s own conception of beauty but rather a manifestation of what Dee would admire in a “beautiful” mother. Although Mama is anxious over the wounds Dee will reopen upon her arrival, she still has the latent desire to be accepted and respected by her eldest daughter, and the world in which Mama believes she exists.

What is the significance of Dee's taking photographs of her family when she meets them in the yard?

After she greets her family, Dee returns to the car to take out a Polaroid camera. Like a tourist on an archeological expedition, Dee takes shots of the dilapidated authenticity of her family’s home. Dee is careful to include Maggie in the peripheries of the picture, like a tacked on artifact that gives added meaning to her portrait of home. Dee is also careful to separate herself from both the pictures and the context of the pictures. Ironically, Dee's camera shots are as much a reflection of Dee’s rebuke of her culture as they are of chronicling it.

Dee/Wangero takes objects from Mama's home because she sees them as being fashionable, and insists that they are priceless items meant to be displayed rather than used. To Mama, however, these quilts serve a more practical and deeper meaning. Comment on the difference between both views.

The old quilts, butter churn, and whittled benches are living manifestations of the Johnson family past. The items are not only meant for “everyday use” but they also contain memories. Each square of old fabric on the quilt represent the lives of family and friends that have come and gone; they are a reminder of times filled with pleasure and pain, the sacred and profane. The butter churn represents the tree in Mama's sister’s yard, the whittled handles contoured with the hand shapes of people who fed the family. The pressed-in smoothness of the wooden benches represents the countless family and friends who sat at the family table. Dee wants these heirlooms as displays of art salvaged from a culture that is dead to her. Maggie and Mama, however, still use these items and, in doing so, keep their culture alive.

Is Dee a wholly unsympathetic character?

At first glance, it is easy to reject Dee as a selfish and insensitive person. Upon closer inspection, one can begin to understand the struggles that led her up to this point in her life. To become the person she is, Dee would have had to overcome many obstacles - namely, the limitations placed on her rural upbringing. Her education has opened up her world, and her success at college is certainly the product of her self-possession and tenacity. Dee is in a transitional phase between childhood and womanhood, so the pretension can be interpreted as the growing pains of maturity. Dee may be selfish, but she is no doubt driven. Ironically it is the parts of Dee’s personality that we might find objectionable that has enabled her socio- economic emancipation. Sure Dee could use a long lecture on empathy, but she was able to transcend the life that was preordained for her.

Is Mama a wholly sympathetic character?

There is much about Mama to admire. She is humble, caring, hard working and self-aware. She keeps her little farm going with the strength and determination that would put many men to shame. She has no illusions about herself or either of her daughters. Mama knows Dee lives in a world outside her own, and she knows that Maggie is destined to live a life that is similarly small. With Maggie, Mama’s pragmatism feels rather pessimistic. Throughout the story, Maggie is described in less than flattering terms. Mama describes her a “lame animal” who, although loyal and affectionate, has no strong qualities. It is even more disconcerting that Mama believes Maggie incapable of acquiring any strong qualities. Mama’s half-compliments of Dee’s natural beauty, “lighter skin”, and clever wit is juxtaposed with her comment about good looks, money, and quickness passing Maggie by. Mama has long been content - or complacent - with her lot in life and projects this same sense of fatalism onto young Maggie. According to Mama, the best Maggie can hope for is to “marry John Thomas (who has mossy teeth in an earnest face).” Much like Dee, Mama’s limitations help shape her strengths, but she has trouble seeing beyond her front yard.

Would you characterize Mama as a dynamic character in the story?

Mama has spent her life in the shadow of her own daughter. She has recognized that Dee’s looks, intelligence, and drive will allow her to surpass her upbringing. She has stood by when Dee has objectified and insulted both her and Maggie with condescending remarks and called them ignorant. Dee's homecoming inspires nervous anxiety rather than joyful anticipation. When Dee finally shows up, she is much like an amplified version of her spoiled self. Dee’s dismissal of Mama’s lifestyle and objectification of the items needed for “everyday use” puts Dee into final perspective for Mama. Critic David White argues that “Mama’s pride in the practical aspects of her nature” means that she has not contemplated “abstract concepts such as heritage". Mama knows she has always been refused access into this world and hence knows when she is being manipulated.

Dee’s insistence on acquiring the quilts that are meant for Maggie finally pushes Mama to react. Mama rebukes Dee in the way she should have many years ago - by calling out her immaturity and shifting her care to Maggie. For Mama, the quilts represent both a practical and emotional consciousness that she refuses to let be compromised. Thus, Mama becomes a dynamic character through the changing relationships with her daughters.

What effect does the story being told in first person have on the narrative?

Everyday Use is told in Mama's voice. The reader never learns her name, only her familial title as Dee and Maggie call her. This gives Mama an authority earned through wisdom, age, and position as matriarch. However, her namelessness also strips Mama of identity beyond that which is defined by the home. The first person narration allows the reader to get inside the head of the protagonist, but the narrative is also skewed by that character's thoughts and feelings. We glean that Mama is matter-of-fact in how she describes herself, almost as an omniscient narrator would. We understand the fraught relationship with Dee via Mama's fantasy of being on Johnny Carson's show. These glimpses allow the reader to understand Mama through her thoughts rather judging her based on appearances, or how others see her - but it also colors how we view Dee (dynamic, selfish) and Maggie (sweet, slow). At first, Mama is a passive observer allowing her story - and her daughters' lives - to unfold around her. However, as Dee brings the larger, changing world to her doorstep, Mama becomes a fully realized person in her reaction to Dee's fetishizing their heritage. Throughout, the reader never loses sight of Mama because her voice is the story.

Even though Everyday Use was written over 40 years ago, does it still have relevance today?

Race and racial identity will always be a prevailing theme in American literature despite the increasingly diverse makeup of the populace. The dichotomy between preserving heritage while driving towards an evolving identity is a constant struggle between the past and the future. The artifacts that Dee wishes to collect would now no longer be in everyday use, signaling that the recent past has always been, and will always be, displaced through technological advances. But just as constant are the cultures and traditions that are carried forth through generations. While Dee's story has a very concrete time and place (the Civil Rights era), the Johnson family story is one that can be played out through the future, and the relevance of one's search for identity is perennial.

Everyday Use Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Everyday Use is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Everyday Use by Alice Walker

From the text:

I never had an education myself. After second grade the school was closed down.

In paragraphs 61-72, how does the conversation between Dee and Mama about the quilts develop the theme?

I'm sorry, please provide the text in question.

I saw my brother sneaking out of my room, his (1) movements slow and silent. When he saw me the poor kid was flinching, practically (2) under my gaze. "I was just looking at your CDs," he told me. At least he admitted he had been (3) _. annoyed, I decided

Is this related to the book Everyday use? What are you asking here?

Study Guide for Everyday Use

Everyday Use study guide contains a biography of Alice Walker, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Everyday Use
• Everyday Use Summary
• Character List

Essays for Everyday Use

Everyday Use essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Everyday Use.

• Identity Confusion in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use"
• The Black Empowerment Movement within Bambara's "The Lesson" and Walker's "Everyday Use"
• Pride and Heritage in “Everyday Use”
• "Everyday Use" from an Antipatriarchal Perspective
• A Comparison of Dee and Mathilde

Wikipedia Entries for Everyday Use

• Introduction
• Publication details

Everyday Use

Alice walker, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Heritage and the Everyday

Heritage, and its relationship to daily life, is the central question that Walker explores in “Everyday Use.” Through the eyes of Mama , and through the contrasting characters of Dee and Maggie , Walker offers two varying views of what family history, the past, and “heritage” really mean.

In Dee’s view, heritage is a kind of dead past, distanced from the present through nostalgia and aestheticization (which means reducing something to a symbol or piece…

Through Dee , “Everyday Use” explores how education affects the lives of people who come from uneducated communities, considering the benefits of an education as well as the tradeoffs.

Alice Walker clearly believes that education can be, in certain ways, helpful to individuals. For one, education can empower people financially and therefore materially. Dee’s education rewards her with the “nice things” she has desired since she was a child: gold earrings, a camera, sunglasses. The…

Objects, Symbolism, and Writing

As Mama narrates “Everyday Use,” she uses a multitude of objects and material goods to tell her story. Through Mama and her attention to objects, Walker investigates the meaning of materiality in fiction and explores the various ways they can be used for storytelling.

In the first place, material goods work in “Everyday Use” to stand in for and help describe characters’ identities. For example, Mama marks Dee ’s difference from the rest of her…

Racism, Resistance, and Sacrifice

Race structures the social and economic conditions of characters’ daily lives in “Everyday Use.” From the first few paragraphs, Walker makes it clear that the oppression of African-Americans is built into the society of the Deep South, where Mama and Maggie live. This injustice manifests itself in a multitude of ways, ranging from Mama’s inability to look “a strange white man in the eye” to her mentions of racialized violence, like the time when “the…

Writing Strong Titles

by acburton | Apr 25, 2024 | Resources for Students , Writing Resources

You’ve finished your paper, and all that’s left is your title. What do you name the essay you’ve just worked tirelessly on, for days, sometimes even weeks to put together? Should it be long or something shorter? Should you prioritize grasping your readers attention or encapsulating the major themes of your essay? These are all questions that the Writing Center is here to help with!

First Things First: Why Do We Need Titles?

Titles serve as the first point of contact between readers and your written work. They serve to inform readers about what your work will be about and clarify how it is relevant to others’ work or research. All of these things work to engage readers, compelling their curiosity and interest!

What Approaches Can I Take to Create Effective and Engaging Titles?

1. Hook Your Reader

Students often start with this consideration when working to formulate the title of their paper. To ‘hook your reader’, think about what you find most interesting about your own research and something new or enticing that you will be sharing. Convey this to your reader.

2. Keep it Concise, but Make it Informative

An essential aspect that works alongside ‘hooking’ your reader is making sure that your title is concise. While “one-part” titles can prioritize being creative or descriptive (check out our example below!), “two-part” titles, those that may use a colon to present two parallel ideas, can run the risk of being too long to grasp and hold your reader’s attention. A good rule of thumb is to aim to keep your “two-part” titles no longer than two lines. Whichever you choose, either “one part” or “two part”, you’ll want to be sure that your title serves as one method for your reader to predict what your paper will be about. While you don’t want to give everything away, your title shouldn’t be too far off from what your paper will demonstrate.

3. Consider Your Audience

Much like you did when writing the work that you are now striving to title, consider your audience. The words and phrases you choose to incorporate should be reflective of the discipline you are writing for and should not include terminology that, whoever may be reading it, won’t be able to grasp. Contemplate if using more general language would be more effective for your reader (especially if your work may be attractive to readers outside of your discipline) or if more precise or specific language is more appropriate for your goal (e.g., an academic publication or journal).

4. Incorporate Keywords

One of the simplest ways to get started on your title is by incorporating keywords. Think about it; what does your work focus on? What terms are being used often? How are they being used (e.g., in comparison or in contrast to other terms)? Incorporating keywords into your title not only serves to provide you a great place to start, but can also help get your work to a wider audience! Take the time to think about how you might get your work to show up in search engines when curious readers want to know more about a subject.

5. Reflect the Tone of Your Writing

Depending on the genre or discipline, your title should aim to follow the style, tone, or slant of the work it precedes. For example, if you are writing non-scholarly work for the Humanities, you may find that a more lighthearted, fun, or inventive title may work for the topic at hand. In contrast, STEM papers may focus on using specific language, or a tone that lets the reader know that their work is contemplative, veracious, or, in other words, no laughing matter. Take note, again, of your audience and what it is that you want your reader to feel or take away as they navigate your writing.

Below, you’ll see how these considerations work alongside your decision to create those one or two-part titles discussed earlier.

For a Compelling, Thoughtful Title, You Might Try…

A “one-part” title that prioritizes either..

• Example: “ RENT’ s Tango With Your Emotions”
• Example: “An Analysis of Modernism in Larson’s Melodramatic Musical”

STEM papers or reports traditionally have a descriptive title. Creative projects, like short stories, often have creative titles.

A “two-part” title:

• Creative Introductory Clause: Descriptive, Specific Topic
• Example: “RENT’s Tango With Your Emotions: An Analysis of Modernism in Larson’s Melodramatic Musical”

Although seen much more often in STEM writing, scholarly work in the Humanities, Arts, or Social Sciences may have a two-part title.

How Do We Format Essay Titles?

Formal titles follow Title Case Formatting ; this type of formatting includes capitalizing the first word, the last word, and every significant word in between. For example:

• T ransgressive T ekken : P layer E xpression and P articipatory C ulture in the K orean B ackdash

Helpful Hint!

To write stronger titles, avoid starting with a question. While this may draw your reader in, it may also leave them feeling disinterested in reading further to find the answer. Similarly, avoid exaggerating your work through your title. Be honest with your reader on what to expect going forward. Visit us at the Writing Center for help brainstorming a fantastic title or polishing up an existing one!

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Everyday Use — Literary Analysis: The Importance of Heritage in “Everyday Use”

Literary Analysis: The Importance of Heritage in "Everyday Use"

• Categories: Everyday Use Heritage

About this sample

Words: 678 |

Published: Jan 25, 2024

Words: 678 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Symbols of heritage, character conflict, works cited.

• Walker, A., & Christian, (1994). Everyday use. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press.
• ZHANG, Y. (2008). Analysis of the Characters in Alice Walker's" Everyday Use"[J]. Journal of Hubei University of Education, 9.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr. Karlyna PhD

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature Arts & Culture

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

1 pages / 650 words

3 pages / 1353 words

4.5 pages / 1980 words

3.5 pages / 1676 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Everyday Use

In Alice Walker’s famous short story “Everyday Use,” Dee is perceived as an unsympathetic character. It is difficult for the reader to feel compassion for Dee since she possesses repelling characteristics; she is as [...]

In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use," the characters of Maggie and Dee serve as illustrations of how individuals from the same background can develop different identities and worldviews. Through Walker's portrayal of [...]

The dynamics and complexities of family relationships have long been a subject of interest and significance in literature. In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use," the relationship between the two sisters Maggie and Dee is [...]

The Author’s craft among the story “Everyday Use” uses transition and flashbacks as a result of throughout the story someone is either puzzling over the past or puzzling over the long run. In 'Everyday Use,' Alice Walker [...]

Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" is a tightly woven tale that brings together many disparate elements of the story to reinforce the thesis put forward by W.E.B. DuBois that black Americans are trapped in a double [...]

“Everyday Use”, a short story written by Alice Walker, is told in the perspective of Mama. Mama is described as “a big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands”. The story begins with Mama waiting on her oldest daughter Dee to [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Literature Studies: ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker Essay

Published in 1973, ‘Everyday Use’ is a repeatedly anthologized short story which is studied and appreciated on a wide scale. This short story is written by Alice Walker, which got published in her short story collection – ‘In Love and Trouble.’ The story revolves around three core characters and their perspective on family heritage. This essay will discuss in brief this short story and its plot, and the different perspectives behind it. Furthermore, a substitute title is suggested, which is in relevance to the theme of the short story.

‘Everyday Use’ is a story of a small African family which lived in the south of the country. The family includes a mother, Mrs. Johnson, and her two daughters, Maggie and Dee. The story is told by the mother. According to her, Maggie was the youngest, dull, and not attractive at all. She was a simple and traditional girl who has never left home. On the contrary, Dee, who was the eldest daughter, was educated, deep, and worldly wise. She lived far from her hometown in a college to pursue a good education.

The title suggested for this short story is given in relevance to its characters and their different perspectives. As every character of the story concludes with diverse endings, and therefore, it is very significant to study their perspectives one by one. Hence, the title ‘the difference in perception’ is the most suitable in my viewpoint.

To understand the story from a different perspective, it is very vital to understand the plot of ‘everyday use.’ This essay will discuss and analyze the plot of ‘Everyday Use’ in a detailed manner. It will make it easy to understand the characters and their perspectives. The story ‘Everyday Use’ tells us the importance of rich family inheritance and lessons which are learned through them.

To decide upon whom the valuables of the family history are transferred and how they become an issue of conflict between families are also considered in this report. In this story, the two hand-stitched quilts become the bone of conflict between the two sisters.

Those two quilts were hand stitched with numerous interesting clothes which were worn by the family members of the African tribe. Just like the quilt, every individual has a different perspective on how they see the world, and thus their life is a mixture of numerous events and circumstances which tells them how to respond to their surroundings – the world.

Just like this, ‘Everyday Use’ is a story of two contrary / conflicting worlds. Recounted by Mama (Mrs. Johnson), the story tells us about two diverse worlds which were personified in her two daughters.

How two girls from the same rich inherited family and same community can be so different in their personalities? However, no traits of wealthy family background were witnessed in the story or by their get-ups. The plot and the story simply explain that diversity was noticed in Dee’s nature, which gave rise to the conflict.

Dee was different in nature and attitude. Despite living in rural life, she never was a part of it and always considered herself as a part of the urban world. This was because of the education she was getting; her physical appearance compared to her sister, who got burnt, did not have the proper shape, and it was dull and unattractive. The entire story is told in a framework which portrays the returning of Dee home for the first time after her departure for college.

On her arrival, Maggie was not comfortable and got nervous. Since Dee was better in appearance and personality than Maggie, she had some sort of complex and could not face her sister as she does not like her. On the arrival of her sister- Dee, she was not coming in the courtyard to her mother to greet and welcome her sister. Her mother called her and gripped her hand tightly so that she may not run away upon meeting her sister. This scenario can be easily understood from a few lines from the story, which says:

‘How do I look, Mama?’ Maggie says, showing just enough of her thin body enveloped in a pink skirt and red blouse for me to know she’s there, almost hidden by the door.

When Dee returns from college, she arrives with her boyfriend. Her mother was not happy with it and her appearance. She was astonished when she got to know that she changed her name as well. She had come to collect the valuables from the house so that she can add them to her décor. Her mother was not happy with this fact and was surprised to see that she did not value the inheritance.

Moreover, she insisted on taking the two hand stitched antique quilts with her, which her mother and grandmother made. Her mother refused to give them to her as she had promised Maggie that they are hers. This became an issue of conflict between the two sisters and the mother. In anger, Maggie decided to give those quilts to her, but in the end, the mother took them back and asked Dee to take other quilts.

According to the perspective of Mama, Dee was going in the wrong direction, and she was on her own, having her style, which was very different from the family. This can be understood as Mama tells in the story that:

“At sixteen she [Dee] had a style of her own; and knew what style was.” She had proper features and physically attractive.”

According to Maggie, she was not like Dee and was physically unattractive as she got burnt when their house caught fire decade back. She had scars on her body, and that was the reason she was low on confidence. She never went out of the house. Maybe somewhere in her heart, she envied Dee, or maybe she was in a complex with her sister. She never liked her nor her actions or her presence as it made her uncomfortable.

According to Dee, the life her mother and sister were living was very old and not that what she wanted. This was why she had changed her name to ‘Wangero’ as her name was too old.

“Well,” I say. “Dee.”

“No, Mama,” she says. “Not ‘Dee,’ Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!”

“What happened to ‘Dee’?” I wanted to know.

“She’s dead,” Wangero said. “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.”

Anyone who puts himself/herself on Dee’s position may act in the same way she did. Someone who experiences life in an urban society may act that way, but should not forget their family inheritance and should respect them. After that evening, Dee went back to her college and mother, and Maggie kept sitting in the courtyard till late at night, and that is how this short story ends.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, July 1). Literature Studies: ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker. https://ivypanda.com/essays/literature-studies-everyday-use-by-alice-walker/

"Literature Studies: ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker." IvyPanda , 1 July 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/literature-studies-everyday-use-by-alice-walker/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Literature Studies: ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker'. 1 July.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Literature Studies: ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker." July 1, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/literature-studies-everyday-use-by-alice-walker/.

1. IvyPanda . "Literature Studies: ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker." July 1, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/literature-studies-everyday-use-by-alice-walker/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Literature Studies: ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker." July 1, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/literature-studies-everyday-use-by-alice-walker/.

• Analysis of Contrasting Views on Heritage
• "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker Critical Analysis
• Everyday Use by Alice Walker
• Literary Devices of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker
• Conflict in Everyday Use
• "Everyday Use" Story by Alice Walker
• African-American Heritage in the “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• "Everyday Use" Short Story by Alice Walker
• Analysis of Alice Walker’s Essay “Everyday Use” in Reference to the Idea of Power and Responsibility Within Family
• The Book “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed
• “A Desperate Adventure” by Max Adeler
• Literature Studies: Every Little Hurricane by Sherman Alexie
• "Fight Club" a Novel by C. Palahniuk
• Literature Studies: Men in Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles”