Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

Jacques Derrida had once said that culture is something in which "everything is arranged so that it is this way." I believe that culture is the opposite as it creates the way in which you perceive external forces rather then it being the external forces arranged in a specific way. Culture therefore allows one to become informed about foreign cultures to which one is then to perceive the culture a specific way. Culture is the multitude of many factors in which it consistently informs one 's perception of the world surrounding them as well as the individuals.

Have you ever noticed that siblings can be polar opposites? In the piece "Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the facet of individuality is highlighted. The piece focuses on the lives of two sisters. Maggie and Dee are two very different people with dissimilar views about life despite growing up together.

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

n the short story "Everyday Use," by Alice Walker, a mother and one of her daughters argue over who should get some old quilts. The quilts are valuable to the family, made from clothing family members wore, going as far back as the Civil War. While who gets the quilts seems most important, there is actually a character who gains more by the end of the story. The mother starts the story feeling unimportant and ignorant, especially in the eyes of her daughter, Dee. But by the end of the story, the mother gains pride and self-respect in a way she never has before.

In "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, two sisters need the carefully assembled blanket that is an image of the family legacy. Alice Expresses what her inclination are about her legacy through this story. It means the world to her. Something, for example, a stitch that was handmade makes it uncommon. Just devotion and years of work can speak to a bedcover.

In the story of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, it explains the differences between two sisters who grew up living under the same conditions, style of living, and under the same roof but became two different persons with different life views and perspectives. The story begins when Dee had moved away from home to attend college. Dee was the only person in her family to receive college education. For that reason, Dee had changed her own perspectives that created a gap between her and her own family.

“Everyday Use” is a timeless short story told my Alice Walker. There are three main characters that are apparent throughout the story; these characters are Mama, Maggie, and Dee. Dee is the character that Walker uses to portray the real world at the time that the story was set. Right from the start, the audience gets the sense of the selfish and condescending nature that Dee holds. The second paragraph sets the perfect upfront picture of Dee by saying “She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that “no” is a word the world never learned to say to her.” (1) Dee represents the role that race plays in shaping identity through the idea of black pride, the physical description, and through the selfish attitude that Dee has.

“Everyday Use” Historical Criticisms explored the disconnection that people can sometimes have depending on their education. Alice Walker successfully shows the disconnection by comparing two ends of the spectrum of generation. Taking the historical context, it 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 experience getting an education. When the narrator was talking about having an education it was important because she wanted to be on a television show her success and how far she went. However Dee see’s her mother and Maggie differently as if they don’t know how to appreciate heritage as an art. For example, when she wanted the quilts that were suppose to go

Parents are often asked by their kids, which child is their favorite? Most of the time the parent professes that their love is equal. However, in the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the author presents Mama with a conflict between her desire to give the quilts to her elder daughter, Dee, who has become sophisticated and arrogant or her younger daughter, Maggie, who is innocent and crippled socially. They are disagreeing over who should receive these quilts because that hold great prestige due to their age, and ultimately Mama decides to entrust them with Maggie with due to her greater sense of culture and heritage. Walker is trying to explain the importance of humbleness and love for one’s family through the actions of Mama and Maggie.

Alice Walker is a twentieth-century writer that shows various conflicts about life through her writing. In her short story, “Everyday Use”, Walker uses the setting, the characterization, and the point of view to develop the theme of appreciating one’s family and the values of it. Walker uses the circumstances of the family and why it is important to appreciate it. The family that she writes about does not have many valuable items, but they have what they need.

As Alice Walker, author of “Everyday Use,” lets the mother tell the story from her point of view. We see that the mother and one of her daughters, Dee, have different views in some of the symbols that are being illustrated.

From “breaking ice to get water for washing” (Walker 311) to getting “up early” (Hayden 1) to make “banked fires blaze” (Hayden 5), it is no secret that parenting can be a physically-demanding job. By making sure their children simply survive, parents often push emotional and mental “offices” (Hayden 14) to the side. In “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, this phenomenon occurs, as the parent-child relationships are extremely traditional. Both works of fiction can teach parents that while putting food on the table is certainly a duty of caregivers, it takes a lot more than “man-working hands” (Walker 311) to raise a child. Today’s parents should learn from the mistakes of traditional parenting and opt

Everyday Use is a story written by Alice Walker in 1973. She explains that heritage and culture are an important family value. Culture is about valuable items that have been passed down through your ancestors and heritage, including religion, beliefs, traditions, clothing, food, and everyday life. In this story, Mama describes herself as a big-boned woman with hands that are rough from years of physical labor. She is both mother and father to her two daughters.

“Every day” by Alice Walker demonstrates a relationship between a mother and her oldest more educated daughter Dee and her younger less prominent daughter Maggie. Dee has ultimately abandoned her true heritage and pursued a brighter and what Dee considers more African heritage. “Everyday Use” is ultimately a story about Dee’s struggle with racial identity and family heritage. In the story, Dee arrives home from college trying to collect artifacts from her mother’s home.

“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.