Readers of Alice Walker's, "Everyday Use", discusses how the narrator realizes that Maggie understands her own heritage. What does the narrator mean when she says, "Just like when I'm in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout?" Does the narrator do something amazing that she has not done before? Some readers opine that the narrator knows what it really feels like to have family. Others say that the narrator recognizes the importance of giving. However, both these readings are not with the point. The narrator realizes that Maggie should have the quilts because they embody her heritage.
The title, "Everyday Use", has a specific meaning that lashes on to the story. When the narrator, Walker
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During an evening after dinner, while Wangero rummages through Walker's trunk, she finds two quilts. The quilts that Wangero holds were sewn by Grandma Dee. The quilts each symbolize Maggie's heritage. For instance, "One quilt is the Lone Star Pattern. The other is Walk Around the Mountain. In both of them are scraps of dresses Grandma Dee wore fifty and more years ago. Another one has bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that is from Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War" (125).
The general meaning of "heritage" is the characteristics and traits of a family passed from one generation to the next. In this case, the quilts are being passed down from Grandma Dee and Grandpa Ezra to Walker. But now the question is, "who will the quilts pass down to next?" Just right after the controversy, Wangero is unsure about if Maggie should have the quilts because Maggie knows how to sew. Wangero says, "You just will not understand. The point is these quilts, these quilts!" (126). Wangero is attempting to explain to Walker that the quilts have sentimental value. In her own mind, Walker questions Wangero, "what would she do with the quilts?" Wangero's response is that she would display the quilts. Wangero looks over at Maggie and contemplates about the quilts which she holds in her hands and says, "Mama, she can have them, like somebody
Everyday Use is one of Alice Walker’s short stories which published at 1973. It tells about Mama, Maggie and Dee. Mama and Maggie lived in the middle of pasture and both of them are still bound to their family tradition, and Dee is Mama’s educated daughter. The story tells the arriving of Dee along with Hakim-A-Barber. When they’re about to eat, Dee asks a few goods from Mama and one of them is the Quilt. Quilt in the story is their family heritage. The presence of Dee along with her knowledge and the quilt itself represent an Irony as an element of literature. The story shows that Dee’s knowledge can transform in to an irony because she doesn’t have a true understanding about the heritage and the family tradition itself.
In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use,” the author takes up what is a persistent subject in her work: the illustration of the coherence as well as the conflicts and struggles within African-American culture. “Everyday Use” focuses on an encounter between family members. This reunion takes place when Dee and her boyfriend return to visit Dee’s mother and her sister Maggie. The author uses symbolism to emphasize the difference between both daughters and illustrates that culture and heritage are parts of daily life.
In the story, a dispute comes about, which was who should receive the grandma’s quilts even though they were already promised to Maggie. Dee argued her sister wouldn’t appreciate the quilts; she would put them to everyday use rather than hang them. Mama explained that was the purpose of the quilts to be used; it held no sentimental value because it was a materialistic thing. At this part of the story, Mama conformed to Maggie’s needs by giving her the quilts instead of obeying Dee’s (Wangero’s) demands as usual.
The tradition of their lifestyle is an important role of appreciating their heritage. Maggie and Mama still live like their ancestors did generations before them. They still use the family items in their everyday life. The tradition of the bench being passed down from generation to generation symbolizes their heritage. When Dee wanted to take the churn for a center piece she did not even take in to consideration that they still use it to
This short story "Everyday use" speaks about the life of two young ladies and their mother. They are a poor family that lived in old-fashioned life but Dee the bigger sister don'y like that life.
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.
Because, the quilts had been made by the grandmother’s hands, the work that went into the quilts is the reason for importance of saving or preserving them as a family heirloom. “Maggie”, knows the true value of the quilts, “Dee” seems to view them as any other common blanket. Alice Walker stated in the story that Maggie felt like the world never learned to tell Dee no. That is a direct reference to the mother never standing up to Dee and asserting her rightful place.
In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, Maggie demonstrates when one appreciates her past and family, it leads to a meaningful life. Maggie has been demonstrated to show you need to know about your family. Maggie’s love for past down traditions have made her act more considerate and her mother quotes, “‘ She can always make some more’ I said. ‘ Maggie knows how to quilt’”(Walker 7). Maggie’s knowledge and understanding of her heritage are illustrated in this quote. Her mother and she have a special relationship because she’s more into knowing her family and is curious about it. In addition to, when you appreciate your family, most likely you can comprehend how to make certain items/know what your family history is. Additionally, Walker uses Maggie
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
Together with the beliefs comes heritage which is defined as traditions passed on for years, family items and etc. In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, describes about a poor family who have a different perspective about the word “heritage”. “You just will not understand. The point is these quilts, these quilts”. This quote connects to the title of the story because Dee thinks that Maggie and her mother will use the quilt every day. Dee has a whole different perspective of the quilts. She views the quilts as a small reminder of her heritage, that is dying. For her mother and her sister, the quilts symbolizes a bond to their cultural identity and their connection to the quilts. Because Dee has failed to understand the true meaning to their “ heritage” and she is convinced that Maggie has proven that she understands the value of the quotes symbolize in the true meaning of a person’s heritage.
In the short story Everyday Use, by Alice Walker, the short story is narrated by a black woman in the South who is faced with the decision to give away two quilts to one of her two daughters. Dee, her oldest daughter who is visiting from college, perceives the quilts as popular fashion and believes they should undoubtedly be given to her. Maggie, her youngest daughter, who still lives at home and understands the family heritage, has been promised the quilts. Dee is insistent to possess these heirlooms of family heritage, while Maggie is forbearing in allowing Mama to make her own decision as to who should receive the quilts. Dee shows a lack of appreciation, disrespect, and a distancing behavior towards her mother and sister. Mama
The strongest example of Dee's confusion and of Walker's belief that a family's heritage should be alive and not frozen in time is at the end of the story. Dee finds the two quilts that had been pieced together by many generations of her family, and she wants to keep them. Her mother says, "In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's paisley shirts. And one teeny
Everyday Use begins with the narrator, Mrs. Johnson, saying that she will wait for her daughter Dee in the yard that she and Maggie made clean and wavy the day before (Walker, 1973). This first sentence shows the great lengths in which Mrs. Johnson and Maggie go to in order to make Dee happy. Having grown up this way, Dee has a feeling of entitlement. Maggie is nervous about Dee coming to visit. 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 (Walker, 1973). When the girls were younger, Maggie was burned badly in a house fire, leaving scars down her arms and legs. The scars on her body had not only damaged her body but her confidence as well.
Johnson has promised to Maggie as a wedding present. These hand sewn quilts were priceless in both women's eyes but for very different reason. Mrs. Robinson looked at them as a part of her life, her everyday use, made from her mother and grandmother's old dresses. "Wangero" saw them in regards to their monetary value. She tells her mother and Maggie that they do not appreciate them for their value, and they do not understand their heritage. She wants to hang them up on a wall, as if to display her heritage, her family's customs. It is clear that Alice Walker disdains Wangero's attitude towards her past, as does the reader. We know who it is who really does not appreciate their heritage, Wangero.
Maggie's devotedness to her family and her heritage shows her understanding of the legacy of her ancestors. Mama has promised the quilts to Maggie because they were meant for everyday use. The quilts also hold a certain value, and they both know what the value is. It is not about money, as Dee thinks, it is the connection between them and their family. The quilts are very personal, they are family memories and remind them of their loved