An Analysis Of Alice Walker 's Everyday Use

“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, is a story of a black family composed of a mother and her two daughters: Maggie and Dee. Walker does an excellent job illustrating her characters. There are all types of characters in this short story from round to static. Dee is a flat character, yet Walker uses Dee’s character to warn people of what might happen if they do not live properly. Walker describes Dee’s character as arrogant and selfish, and through Dee’s character one is allowed to perceive the wicked effect of an egotistical world.

Alice Walker’s story “Everyday Use” is a story decipating family and heritage. She released the story with a collection of other short stories called In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women. This collection revealed Walker to be one of the finest of late twentieth century American short-story writers (Phy-Olsen). According to Cowart, the story address itself “to the dilemma of African Americans who are striving to escape prejudice and poverty.” One of the main characters, Dee, made drastic changes and would like her mother and sister to see things her way. Dee’s statement to her mother and sister regarding their disregard of heritage is very ironic considering the fact her name is a part of the family’s history, her new behavior, and her

Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," is a story about a poor, African-American family and a conflict about the word "heritage." In this short story, the word "heritage" has two meanings. One meaning for the word "heritage" represents family items, thoughts, and traditions passed down through the years. The other meaning for the word "heritage" represents the African-American culture.

A daughter who uses her mother's gifts in contrast to a daughter who preserves them, is far more valuable just like in “Everyday use” by Alice Walker because heritage values can be preserved. From here on, Walker utilizes a prideful tone which later shifts into an authoritative tone by illustrating a proud mother who becomes defensive because of her modern daughter’s opposing views.

In "Everyday Use," Alice Walker stresses the importance of heritage. She employs various ways to reveal many aspects of heritage that are otherwise hard to be noticed.

In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" Mama is the narrator. She speaks of her family of two daughters Maggie and Dee. 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. Throughout the story three themes consistently show. These themes show that the family is separated by shame, knowledge, and pride.

“Everyday Use” demonstrates real life struggles during the period is was written and published (1973), by using historical criticism, we can see that people are often disconnected due to their education. Alice Walker successfully shows the disconnection of heritage value by having one character well-educated and young, and another character who was not able to get an education and is much older. Taking the historical context, plays a major role in the way this short story is viewed. It was a time where people of color had a different and difficult experiences getting an education. The narrator was talking about not being able to get an education, so it was important her daughter get an education; The narrator wanted to be on a television show with her daughters to demonstrate how successful she became. However Dee the narrator's daughter sees her mother and Maggie her sister differently as if they do not know how to appreciate things for their valuable history. One example is, when she wanted the quilts that were suppose to go to Maggie; Dee gets upset that she cannot have them and her mother does not understand why she wants to put them on display.

In her short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker summarizes the representation of the beauty, the conflicts and struggles within African-American culture. “Everyday Use” focuses mainly between members of the Johnson family, consisting of a mother and her two daughters. One of the daughters Maggie, who was injured in a house fire and has living a shy life clinging to her mother for security. Her older sister is Dee, who grew up with a grace and natural beauty. “Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure… (716) She also grew up determined to have a better life than her mother and sister. This takes place when Dee (the only family member to receive a formal education) returns to visit Dee’s mother and younger sister Maggie. Again this portrays a slight issue between two different views of the African-American culture. Alice uses symbolism to empathize the difference between these interpretations, showing that culture and heritage are parts of daily life. The title of the story, Everyday Use, symbolizes the living heritage of the Johnson family, a heritage that is still in “everyday use”.

Although numerous similarities can be found between Walker and her characters, Walker still brings differences in “Everyday Use.” An example of this would be when the reader takes a look at Walker and her character Dee. In Walker’s life, she has intertwined herself with her culture by taking actions in several walks during the civil rights movement. An example of this is when our source reveals, “Walker was invited to the home of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in recognition of her invitation to attend the 1962 Youth World Peace Festival in Helsinki, Finland. Following the conference, Walker traveled through Europe and returned to Washington, DC in 1963 to participate in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” (Cummings 1). Compared to Dee, Walker had involved herself in many different protest highlighting her culture and taking pride in her heritage, were as Dee took a different approach on the matter regarding her heritage. In “Everyday Use” Dee tells her mother to call her by a different name for , “[she] couldn’t bear [the name]

Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday use” tells the story of a mother and her daughter’s conflicting ideas about their identities and heritage. Mrs. Johnson an uneducated woman narrates the story of the day one daughter, Dee, visits from college. Mrs. Johnson auto-describes herself as a “big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands.”(180,Walker). Contrasting her auto-description, she describes Dee as a young lady with light complexion, nice hair and full figure that “wanted nice things.”(181,Walker). The arrival of Dee to Mrs. Johnson’s house causes mixed emotions on Mrs. Johnson. Dee Johnson and Mrs. Johnson have differing viewpoints on heritage and each value possessions for different reasons. Dee’s superficiality and materialist ways

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 Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," the message about the preservation of heritage, specifically African-American heritage, is very clear. It is obvious that Walker believes that a person's heritage should be a living, dynamic part of the culture from which it arose and not a frozen timepiece only to be observed from a distance. There are two main approaches to heritage preservation depicted by the characters in this story. The narrator, a middle-aged African-American woman, and her youngest daughter Maggie, are in agreement with Walker. To them, their family heritage is everything around them that is involved in their everyday lives and everything that was involved in the lives of their ancestors. To

Heritage is an important factor to every developing family. Heritage helps to develop a person's values showing what they believe in. Particularly about the values of their family. In the story Everyday Use, by Alice Walker, value of heritage is a main topic. Throughout this story there are many different words used to describe what Wangero (Dee), Maggie, and their mother value. These choices of words all play an important role in the contrasting values of these people and the battle over heritage. The mother of Wangero and Maggie is the narrator of this story. It is evident at the beginning of this story, when the narrator describes her clean yard as an extended living room, that she is proud of her

Dupre Johnson Jim Wilson English 102 January 12, 2016 Cultural Heritage in "Everyday Use" This story takes place and is written in 1973. The Black Nationalism movement was going on during this time, in which high-profile blacks were changing their so called "slave names" to Muslim ones, i.e. Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali). The daughter who returns home in Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use," and the man she brings with her, represent a newly fashioned cultural identity for African Americans that is very much at odds with the traditional identities of the south during the 70s. In "Everyday Use," the narrator understands the importance of cultural heritage, suggesting that children should appreciate their heritage as it is passed down.

Growing up I was raised within a culture, following rituals performed by those before me. As an individual, I pictured and experienced my heritage in different ways. Within my family, traditions were served to enhance our natural heritage. Sometimes in my longing to know more of my heritage, I sometimes disallowed myself the genuine experience of my family tradition. With this I sometimes fight with easiness and complexity, old ways and the new ways of my heritage. Everyday Use by Alice Walker was published in 1973; it tells the story of Dee a young girl struggling to find her on heritage. For her, it was about fighting for a change and changing the lives of others who were okay with the way things were. Mama, the narrator, is a loyal and caring