Everyday Use Literary Analysis

Many families cherish their traditions and how they began or who they are made to remember. Traditions and family heirlooms are passed down for centuries and most likely have come into contact with everyone at some point. Maybe a mom has a necklace passed down from her great grandmother as a reminder of the beginning of her journey finding home in a new country or a baseball from a dad’s first game at the stadium with his grandfather that introduced his love of the sport. Traditions are a great way to remember and memorialize someone. Maggie from “Everyday Use” by Alicia Walker and the grandmother and granddaughter from “Legacies” by Nikki Giovanni associate heirlooms or  traditions to people because of their emotional value and how they are

With the passing of the storm and the departure of Alcee, Calixta does not revert to her subordinate housewife bonds. Instead, she uses her awakening to discover newfound happiness in her marriage and duties as a wife and mother. When Bobinot and Bibi return, the reader sees a different Calixta than the downtrodden, worried, and selfless Calixta from the beginning of the story. In fact, it is the father and son who must begin ?to relax and enjoy themselves,? not Calixta, who is already joyously preparing dinner (861). At the dinner table, ?they laughed much and so loud that anyone might have heard them? (861). The only other time

After warming up to the salesman, through conversation, Elisa talks about her passion of planting, and how it feels to have," planting hands" (207). Then she goes on to reveal that although she has never lived like him she has dreamed about what it would be like to live out under the stars, travel, and how, " it must be nice," to sleep in the wagon rain or shine, wishing that it would be acceptable for a woman to do such things (208). After emotionally revealing herself to this man, giving him some work, and giving him some potted chrysanthemums to give to the lady with the garden he was on his way.

'The Storm' begins on a stormy spring day, with the protagonist Calixta at her sewing machine. She is alone, her husband Bobinot and son Bibi have gone to the store. Calixta seems to be a bored woman, confined to her duties as a housewife and mother. As the distant storm approaches she is unaware of what the storm brings, her former lover Alcee.

2.) What kind of wife and mother does Calixta appear to be? Does anything strike you

The male dominance on the farm is immediately brought to the reader’s attention as her husband, decent but dull, excludes her from the important business of the ranch (Renner). In relation, Elisa is isolated from the rest of the world in Salina Valley.

In Everyday Use, Mama is described as a big-boned woman with rough hands that were worn from years of hard labor. She wore overalls, and was both mother and father to her daughters’ Dee and Maggie. Mama was very poor and uneducated like most during this era, she wasn’t given the opportunity to escape her rural lifestyle. Although she was a loving mother, her outspoken, upfront nature forbids her from lying when it comes to her daughters downfalls. Mama understanding of her heritage wouldn’t allow her to let Wangero (Dee) to take the family quilts (P.78).

In the short story called “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker, the mother daughter conflict theme is portrayed throughout the whole story. The oldest daughter Dee constantly believes that she is better than the rest of the family causing a family feud about who gets the cherished quilt. Dee has always been on a pedestal over her family and she soon finds out that it is no longer the case. Once she finds this out conflict arises. The biggest conflict lies between Mama and Dee. This is clearly illustrated by Dee’s high standards, selfish behavior, and lack of knowledge about her family’s heritage.

A writer always has an antagonist but attempting to understand that character and knowing the character are two different things, every story has two side. It is up to you to decide how the character is. In Alice Walker's story "Everyday Use" the theme of differing views of heritage is shown through the literally elements of characterization, setting and imagery.

"[Elisa's] passionate involvement with the process of planting becomes an expression of all the suppressed romance in her life" (Lewis 393). "She is a strong, childless woman of thirty-five that has subliminated her maternal instincts by producing remarkable flowers" (French, John 83). Nevertheless, "the plants and flowers cannot compensate for the lack of understanding and affection from her husband" (McCarthy 27). In the story, Elisa plays the role of a simple-minded lady who allows her husbands thoughts and actions to dominate her. "Elisa's marriage neither fills her time nor fulfills her desires" (Hughes 24). However, Beach concludes that Elisa without a doubt has a "soul" and is much less simple than she seems (Beach 32).

Everyone is unique in their personalities mannerisms, and traditions. “Everyday Use” is a short story by Alice Walker that includes two sisters with varying views on the preservation of their culture.The character Mama provides insight into the sisters. When Dee visits it is obvious both have their own ideas that make them unique. No one is exactly the same even two sisters with the same background can grow up completely different.

“Racitatif” by Toni Morrison and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, both tackle the subject of race on a microscopic level in the hopes of magnifying the social injustices that tore the united states apart. “Everyday use,” Tackles the subject of race, from the vantage point of a single family and the generations that lay between the mother and daughter. Morrison, in a unique manner, tells the story of two girls, Twyla and Roberta, and their ability to communicate with each other during such racially motivated times; all the while, leaving the reader in the dark about the race of the two girls.

Calixta and Francesca, main characters of the two stories, both showed signs of nothing less than love towards their families; however, the idea of true love that sits in the minds of today’s society is questioned in the stories. Francesca spends her life distant from others, so she cherishes the time she has to spend with her family even though the family might not feel the same way; so when Robert comes into her life, she is treated a way she has never been treated before, and she loves it. One night, while hard at work preparing a wonderful dinner for her family, Francesca sets the dinner table expecting a beautiful family dinner. When she asks for grace to be called before the first bites of supper, her request is casually put down and the remaining supper time is spent disappointedly eating silently (Eastwood). Her husband Richard

Families are made up of all kinds of people. Sometimes family members like each other; sometimes they do not. Sometimes family members have similar outlooks on life; sometimes they do not. In the story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker creates a family of three very different characters. Mama is a self-sufficient woman who is used to working hard to support her daughters. Mama’s younger daughter Maggie is a nervous, uneducated introvert who still lives at home. The two of them are waiting for Mama’s older daughter Dee to arrive. And when Dee arrives, she upsets the balance. Dee is not really home for a visit; she is not really interested in her mother’s or her sister’s life. She is home to take pictures and gather keepsakes to put on display at her own home. Dee is a superficial, condescending, and selfish person who drops in and out of the family when it benefits her the most.

Although the story "Everyday Use" is narrated from Mama's point of view, Alice Walker reveals Dee, Mama's eldest daughter, to be the central character. Dee remains essentially unchanged throughout the story. Even though Dee achieves her aim by overcoming complications such as poverty and racial discrimination, she is not admirable for her achievements and courage. Walker describes her to be selfish and self-centered, a woman who remains unchanged from her childhood to the current position after several years. The disregard for her sister's pain, ingratitude for the money raised for her education, and the desire for quilts indicates her static behavior.