Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis Essay

“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.

Walker use of this situation shows a bigger issue in African Americans families. According to Werlock, the issue is must “African Americans turn their back of their background and traditional family.” According to Cowart, Dee believes she has escaped the ghetto. In her mind, she has the right to act different from her mother and sister because now she is living at a higher standard than they are. Yet with this mindset, she is trapped with them mentally.

     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.

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 is a short story written by Alice Walker as part of the story collection in the book Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women. The short story is a powerful piece of writing that takes the reader on an insightful journey into the challenges, struggles, and realities of growing up as an African woman. The main issues that are palpable throughout the story are the issues of black consciousness and the stereotypes of rural black African women. I believe that the purpose of the text is to highlight the interconnectedness of the past and the present. The author wants the reader to appreciate the struggles and challenges that Black women faced

Although Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” is evidently different than Flannery O’Connor’s short stories, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Revelation,” there seems to be a striking similarity between the main characters O’Connor and Walker chose for their stories. Dee, one of the main characters from Walker’s “Everyday Use,” the Grandmother from O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” and Mrs. Turpin from O’Connor’s short story “Revelation,” all share one major flaw, that is, they feel a sense of superiority to those around them. Their self-glorification and prideful beliefs about themselves and the people surrounding them becomes the central conflict as each story unfolds. Dee’s insulting comments towards her Mama and younger sister Maggie about their lack of education, the Grandmother’s sense of moral superiority and her frequent passing of judgment onto others, along with Mrs. Turpin’s categorization of people based on their socioeconomic status and outward appearance, all illustrate the ugly reality of pride that is ever present in the human heart.

Through humorous comments, the mother paints a picture of what she is thinking, and allows the audience to see her as she is, and not as the world and those around her perceive her to be. Specifically the mother describes the characters appearance, and actions, as well as offers analogies, such as mothers on T.V. To support her view of reality, or how things really were, in her opinion. As the story progressed, she reveals cultural differences between Mama, Maggie and Dee. Walker also points out the importance of respecting your immediate heritage such as parents, and other family, and truly knowing and internalizing the real meaning of racial

The story 'Everyday Use', written by Alice Walker, is a story of heritage, pride, and learning what kind of person you really are. In the exposition, the story opens with background information about Dee and Maggie's life, which is being told by Mama. The reader learns that Dee was the type of child that had received everything that she wanted, while Maggie was the complete opposite. The crisis, which occurs later in the story, happens when Dee all of a sudden comes home a different person than she was when she left. During the Climax, Mama realizes that she has often neglected her other child, Maggie, by always giving Dee what she wants. Therefore, in the resolution, Mama defends Maggie by telling Dee that she cannot have the

The extent of Dee's selfishness is evident by her lifestyle. As a child, she always

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

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

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.

Dee however, always thought she was too proud to live with what her Mother provided for her. She still loved her Mother, no doubt, but she said things like "She wrote me once that no matter where we "choose" to live, she will manage to come see us" (415). Another way that Dee thought she was too proud for what her Mother provided for her was when she changed her name. She felt that it was too below her, and that it did not even deserve to be associated with a living person. After she tells her Mother her new name, and her Mother asked her what happened to her old one, she said that "She's dead…I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me" (416). With this statement, Dee sums up everything she thinks about her history and her Mother. She feels that the only way that she could change herself and her background is by changing her name, or killing her other

The narrator described herself as large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. She said she can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man, and her fat keeps her hot in zero weather (444). She seemed to be a hard working woman, who differently from Dee is proud of her heritage and where she came from. It is understood she knew she may not have had the best life possible, but made the best of it. She knew Dee was the successful, popular child, but once Dee returned home with a changed name she saw her in a different light. She realized Dee’s doings were from throwing out the cultural heritage she belonged to into the new, hip black movement. She seemed to appreciate Maggie more after Dee tried to remove things from their house to show off. When Dee argued with her about giving the quilts to her instead of Maggie who was used to never winning, or having anything reserved for her the mother grabbed the quilts from Dee and handed them to Maggie. The mother is very grateful for her children, but is not going to let Dee, the daughter who has “made it”, take over the quilts meant for Maggie once she married.