Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

In the story “Everyday Use”, by Alice Walker, the story is told from the perspective of the Mama and the story involves two daughters.The oldest daughter changes her name and doesn't appreciate her culture, Dee and Maggie both want the family quilt. Dee wants the quilt, but the mom doesn't want to give the quilt to her, she wants to give the quilt to Maggie. Maggie wants to hold on to her heritage and Dee doesn't understand her heritage, her mom knows that Dee won't hold on to the family heritage.In the poem “My Mother Pieced Quilts” memories revolve around the poem.The poem is mainly about the mother's talent of weaving and how she weaves memories out of old fabric she finds that doesn't work anymore.In both of these stories,

Dee could probably be considered a main character in the story, but her change was too simple, because she changed on the outside only, and because she didn?t change on the day that the story occured. Mama stated ?When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the souls of my feet. Just like when I?m in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout? (94). Maggie did not have a lot of input in the story although she did change a little, both were flat characters. Mama is a more in-depth character than Dee and Maggie because the reader is given very descriptive attributes of her physically and mentally. Dee did not want to quilt to remember her heritage by, but instead to hang it up on the wall like some sort of trophy to show others where she has come from. She loves her family very much, but is ashamed of the surroundings she grew up in. Overall, Mama?s change had a big impact on the story due to the fact that she went from a woman who had low self esteem and was scared to

Maggie doesn’t get involved in the life around her like her sister Dee does. Although Mama mentions that Maggie is going to marry John Thomas, it is doubtful that even a marriage will help Maggie become a strong and clearly defined individual. Mama, protective as she is of Maggie, is frank about her shortcomings and problems. Maggie’s relationship with Dee is filled with jealousy and awe. Mama recalls how Maggie had always thought Dee had been gifted with an easy life in which her hopes and desires were rarely, if ever, frustrated.

Dee had moved away to attend a college in Augusta. When she returned she found Mama and Maggie waiting. She was the only one from her family to attend college. Her decision to go to school caused her family and her to grow apart. She arrived with a boyfriend or husband. Her family could not tell which at first. She always wants to show she is strong. “She is determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts.” (Walker 76). She likes feeling strong and in charge. Dee had defined her own style and identity at an early age. “At sixteen she had a style of her own and knew what style was.” (Walker 74). Dee told her family that she decided to change her name. She stated that the reason for the rash decision was because, "I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after people who

Second, there were some cultural differences, Maggie and Mama lived in a house located in a pasture with animals, and you could tell through Mama's description of Dee that she was more modernized probably a city Girl. When Dee/Wangero came to visit she wore a bright dress with loud colors, bangles and gold earrings. Mama said Dee's dress had so many yellows and oranges it was enough to throw back the sun (109). Maggie wore a pink skirt and red blouse that enveloped her body (107). Dee was an educated woman having graduated from High School. Mama on the other hand never made it past the second grade because the school she attended was closed down in 1927. Mama said that, "Colored asked fewer questions than they do now" referring to why the school closed (109). Circumstances such as age, education, and living arrangements dictated their

Dee, from Walker’s “Everyday Use,” is Mama’s older daughter who not only has a judgmental, insensitive attitude towards Mama and her younger sister Maggie, but also believes she appreciates her family heritage more than Mama does, when in fact, Dee is the one who is “uneducated” and lacks an understanding about what her heritage truly is.

“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.

Dee’s selfishness is also portrayed by her cultured verbal skills. Dee can talk her way through anything. Dee often manipulates others with her verbal skills. This is shown when she reads to her mother and sister “without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice” (Walker 289). This statement further demonstrates the fact that Dee’s family feels inferior to her. Mama describes the situation as if Dee has some kind of power over her family because she is scholarly and her family is not. Dee uses her education to make Mama and Maggie feel less important without, necessarily meaning to.

From the beginning, the mother introduces Dee as her more educated daughter and states how she reminds them every chance she got:

Wangero wants quilts that belonged in the family for generations but her mother is not willing to give them to her because she really wants to reject her daughter’s progressive ways. She has always resented her daughter for wanting more out of life. Wangero never felt a victim of slavery as her mother had. Her mother anguishes about her own misgivings and Ms. Walker cleverly points out the mother’s lack of education. When the quilts are taken away from Wangero by her mother it is her mother rejecting progress.

In the story, she introduces two sisters with almost opposite personalities and different views on heritage: Maggie and Dee. She uses the contrast between the two sisters to show how one should accept and preserve one's heritage. Beyond the contrast between two sisters there exist the judge figure mom, the narrator and the Dee's irony. The irony on Dee's opinion is the key to understand the story and why the mother let Maggie keep the quilts, which symbolize the heritage.

Maggie, the youngest daughter, saw herself as a shy, introverted youthful woman. She had scars mentally and physically from when their house had burned down some years before, and she is very ashamed of them. Once Dee and her

Maggie the younger sister lived with her mother and liked the life of her living with her mother. Dee didn't like that poor old-fashioned life and she wants to be rich and to forget about this poor family and to live her actual way of life as an African-American. Mama liked their way of life and didn't want to change it and also Maggie liked it and didn't want to change it.

Dee?s character in the story is a direct relation to any number of people in society that do not know or are confused about their heritage. She is struggling to create an identity for herself, and is confused as to what it encompasses. She grasps at African tradition and culture, yet fails to acknowledge her own African American culture. This happened all over America, particularly in the North, in the 1960?s, following the civil rights movement. Dee is misconstruing her heritage as material goods, as opposed to her ancestor?s habits and way of life. This may be due in part to her leaving her hometown and becoming an educated, sophisticated young woman. Dee?s direct heritage is that of African Americans.

     In this story, Dee is completely unappreciative. One can get the feeling that the mother in the story had worked long and hard rearing her daughters, and has even gotten Dee into college somehow. Dee returns with her college education and new personality trying to preach to her mother and sister about what they are doing wrong. Plenty of times Dee spoke down to her mother and little sister, Maggie.