Alice Walker's Everyday Use

Dee does not truly value the heritage, and her interest in the quilts seem to reflect a cultural trend. This cultural trend becomes evident when the mother says, “I had offered Dee a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they were old-fashioned, out of style”(Walker 96). We learned early in the story that Dee acquired a style at a young age, and she allowed the world around her to alter and manipulate that style.

As the two sisters have different appearance and personalities, they have different perspectives on heritage that contrast each other. Walker uses quilts to symbolize the heritage and describes the two girls' view on quilts to show their perspectives on heritage. Maggie thinks of heritage as an attachment to her ancestors. She believes the everyday use of the inherited materials, how much ever value they may retain, will keep her connected to her ancestors. She values the attachment to the ancestors more than the inherited material itself. When she gives up the quilts to Dee, she states, "I can 'member Grandma Dee with the quilts." Dee, on the other hand, thinks of heritage as something that has an extrinsic value, for example its aesthetic value as an antique. She believes that the proper way to accept and preserve her heritage is to not put it into her everyday use but to cherish it only as an accessory. Such an idea is revealed when Dee says, "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts! She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use." When the mother asks Dee what she would do with the quilts, she says, "Hang them" (1177), which shows that Dee thinks of the quilts only as tangible antiques.

Alice begins her story with Dee’s mother describing her precious yard. The way the narrator describes this bond shows that the yard is something that she keeps very close to her house and that she’s proud. To Dee’s mother the yard, sort of represents a little quite place that she can think and put her thoughts together. She treats it like a child and makes sure

In the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, the author portrays opposing ideas about one's heritage. Through the eyes of two daughters, Dee and Maggie, who have chosen to live their lives in very different manners, the reader can choose which character to identify most with by judging what is really important in one's life. In Dee's case, she goes out to make all that can of herself while leaving her past behind, in comparison to Maggie, who stays back with her roots and makes the most out of the surroundings that she has been placed in. Through the use of symbolism, the tangible object of a family heirloom quilt brings out these issues relating to heritage to Mama, and she is able to reasonably decide which of her daughters has

In the story, a family heirloom becomes a conflict because while Dee wants to take the quilt to decorate her home, Maggie would make better use of the quilts by using them instead of framing them. This quilt that has been passed down from generation to generation, is symbolic of the love that both the older generations and the present generation has for each other. The quilt also symbolizes the strength of the family and the stitching is symbolic of the bonds that hold a family together. Mama ultimately decides that the quilt will go to Maggie because Dee does not understand the practicality of the quilt which is that they were from pieces of clothes that were lived in, which represented their past. Alice Walker was also emphasizing that it is the woman in the family that have held and currently hold families together by depicting closeness of the female relationships.

The idea of heritage is very different from one person to another. The story of “Everyday Use” shows a dynamic picture of two sisters that see their family history and upbringing nearly opposite points of view. The quilts become the catalyst for a cultural battle between Dee’s (Wangero) new “enlightened” lifestyle and Maggie’s contentment with her upbringing.

The strongest example of Dee's confusion and of Walker's belief that a family's heritage should be alive and not frozen in time is at the end of the story. Dee finds the two quilts that had been pieced together by many generations of her family, and she wants to keep them. Her mother says, "In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's paisley shirts. And one teeny

Characterization and symbolism are prominent aspects of Walker’s story “Everyday Use”. Walker brilliantly writes about the use of everyday items to portray symbolism encountered between members of the Johnson family. During the Story each character perceives and approaches each element differently. Walker highlights each element in the story as each character expresses their different views of items showing that people or objects are more important than decoration or style.

The grandmother made the quilts, Mama can make the quilts, and the skill is even passed down to Maggie- "She can always make some more, Maggie knows how to quilt” (Walker 6). Because Maggie will apply “everyday use” to the quilts, Mama feels it is best to give to someone who knows the importance it retains. By wanting to apply the quilts as decoration, Dee is letting her pride interfere with her fully expressing her heritage, thus placing their family history on hold. Walker wants to persuade readers to use whatever remains they have of their heritage to keep it alive and create a legacy, rather than just putting it on display for all to see.

Dee is only wanting to have the quilts, because she thinks it will make her seem like she is in touch with her heritage. She is using this materialistic thing to show her heritage, instead of using her family. Dee does not understand the true meaning of heritage, which helps develop the theme. Furthermore, the author uses Maggie’s character to develop the theme. Maggie proves that she knows her heritage is much more than all materialistic things, when she gives Dee the quilts.

In the short-story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, there are many symbols presented to the reader that differ in the way Dee and her mother understand them. Three of these symbols I have selected to explain include a new name, a bench, and some quilts (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012). These symbols not only correspond to everyday use, but also in their own way, symbolize a clash between Dee and her mother Mrs. Johnson (Mullins, 2013). Mrs. Johnson had two daughters named Dee and Maggie who are very different in everyday life (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012). The youngest daughter Maggie is undereducated, lives in poverty at home with her mother, and suffers mentally due to some physical scarring received from a house fire (Martin, 2014).

“Everyday Use” is a short story by Alice Walker, which emphasizes the importance of understanding and cherishing your heritage and the inheritance that may come along with it. Knowing who is truly entitled to the inheritance, and what their heritage meant was the central conflict in the story, when the two main characters Dee and Maggie, both wanted the two hand stitched quilts. Rather than looking at the physical aspect of the quilts the author wants the reader to know that the meaning is much deeper. The quilts are used to depict the struggle, triumphs, oppression, joy, pain, and love of each hand that helped to create the prized works of art. The quilts needed to be put to everyday use, rather than a mere decoration on the wall. Through the quilts Walker was able to show what each character valued: Dee valued the materials things, Maggie, valued things she could attach herself to, and Mama valued the acceptance of her daughter Dee.

Mama realizes that Dee doesn’t deserve the quilts when Dee explodes on her family and looks at her mother with hatred. Dee doesn’t see the people behind the quilts just like how she doesn’t see the people behind her name. Maggie was a part of the quilt. She could continue the art of quilting. That is a part of her family’s inheritance and heritage. The things Maggie learned from her family created who she was as a woman. Mama takes the quilts from her and

This underlying message that I believe walker has tried to symbolize is the reality of this happening in so many families all around the world, forgetting who they were raised to be, where they came from and most Importantly who helped them get there. Another form of clever symbolism is the quilts themselves, the title of this story “Everyday Use” metaphorically refers to how mama wants the quilts to be used. “In both of the quilts were scraps of dresses grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago, Bits and pieces of grandpa Jarrells paisley shirts and one teeny faded blue piece about the size of a penny matchbox that was one of great grandpas erds uniform that he wore in the Civil War.” ( ) The quilts are very important and represent the entire past of their family dating all the way back to the civil war.

When the climactic scene occurs and Dee asks “Can I have these quilts?” (145), Maggie’s first implied reaction is one of surprise and anger; “I heard something fall in the kitchen, and a minute later the kitchen door slammed” (145). But as someone “never used to winning anything, or having anything reserved for her” (146), Maggie succumbs and offers to let Dee have them. Although “Maggie knows how to quilt” (146), she is able to comprehend the deeper personal value of the quilts, and states that she “can ‘member Grandma Dee without the quilts”(146). Despite their value as an item of everyday use, the quilts are meaningful to Maggie, much in the way they are to her mother who remembers having quilted them with Big Dee. The scraps, the bits and pieces and “one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra’s uniform that he wore in the Civil War.” (145) hold deep significance to Maggie.