Essay Use of Theme in "Everyday Use"

After dinner Wangero shows the true meaning of her visit when she starts to examine different artifacts in the house and asking Mama if she can have them. Mama and Maggie show their love of the items Wangero has requested by being able to state who had made them and what they had been made of. Maggie emphasizes Wangero's lack of understanding and compassion by stating accurately that the dasher from the butter churn had been carved by Aunt Dee's first husband Henry who everyone called Stash. Wangero makes a joke of Maggie's memory (72) by saying she had the brain of an elephant. Once again Mama displays patience of astronomical proportions. To Wangero, the churn top and the dasher are items that she can use to impress her peers. They have no sentimental value and she would probably not even know how to use them. She does not need them and yet, knowing how poor her mother and sister are, she still has the gall to confiscate a valuable kitchen tool only to put them on display.

In the story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker deals with a young woman who is trying to find her place in her own heritage. “Everyday Use,” is narrated by the mother or Mama, an African-American woman living in the deep South of Rural Georgia with one of her two daughters. The family is living in very poor conditions, they do not have fancy things, and the mother does all the work herself. The story begins with Mama and Maggie awaiting on Dee, a college student, to arrive at home from college. When Dee went off to college she thought that her heritage was old and out of style, but when she came back home for a visit she insists on taking many things from home. Dee also changed her name to Wangero, so she would not have the same name as someone else in her family. She wants these different artifacts of her heritage because she wants to show them off for fashion and use them for decorations. Dee points out the things that she thinks will stand out the most, such as the quilt, dashers, and the benches. Mama or Mrs. Johnson, does not allow Dee to take anything but the dashers. She knows that Dee will not respect the things that their ancestors made. Mama and Maggie respect their heritage very much and does not want anyone to use the artifacts in the wrong way. In the short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker applies the literary technique of irony to emphasize heritage as part of one daily life.

Alice Walker is a well-known African- American writer known for published fiction, poetry, and biography. She received a number of awards for many of her publications. One of Walker's best short stories titled "Everyday Use," tells the story of a mother and her two daughters' conflicting ideas about their heritage. The mother narrates the story of the visit by her daughter, Dee. She is an educated woman who now lives in the city, visiting from college. She starts a conflict with the other daughter, Maggie over the possession of the heirloom quilts. Maggie still lives the lifestyle of her ancestors; she deserves the right of the quilts. This story explores heritage by using symbolism of the daughters' actions, family items, and tradition.

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.

Dee is a controlling person who always wanted everything to herself only and don't want anybody to take something more than her. And that appeared when mama said that the quilts which were handmade by their grandma Dee, that she would give it to Maggie, Dee was very angry for that and she wanted to take the quilts herself not because she wanted, just because she don't like anybody to take something more than her and wants everything for herself only. Dee was well educated and didn't liked her mother's and sister's way of living so she traveled and when

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.

Dee’s selfishness is on display not long after she arrives with her husband, Hakim-a-barber. The family sits down for a meal when Dee remembers that there is something she wants from the house. She has her eye on the

The behavior of overlooking her sister's, Maggie, and Mama's feelings since her childhood to the present indicates Dee's character as a person who disregards others. Mama ponders that while the house where they used to live burned to the ground; Maggie was burning, her "hair smoking and dress falling off her in little black papery flakes." Although she saw that Maggie needed her sister's aid, Dee stood "off under the sweet gum tree" at a distance (87). Walker reveals that Mama still finds Dee carrying her self-centeredness when she excludes herself from the pictures and "never [took] a shot without making sure the house is included" (89). Dee wants to capture the signs of poverty from her past so that she can show how much success she has gained in spite of being poor to her friends. Dee is so egotistical that she declares her sister is "backward enough to put [the quilts] to everyday use" (91) whereas she considers herself smart and would appreciate the quilts by hanging them. Her coldness and lack of concern make

A symbol is a person, place, event, or object that suggests more than just its normal meaning. The symbols in this story, “Everyday Use”, were pretty clever and told a lot of clues about the story. Also Little peepholes that would dig into deeper meanings, and hints in the story.

Dee is clearly distancing herself from her mother and sister. She goes so far as to change her name from Dee to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, saying, "I couldn't bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me." Yet, she wants the quilts that are made by the very people that she despises. Mama is uneducated but not so ignorant as to realize Dee's unrooted, superficial motivation to have the quilts. "For her, heritage is something to be displayed on the coffee table and on the wall." Dee blatantly disrespects her mother's authority and free will.

Dee seems to be so interested in all of the little household items that her family still uses. When she sees the top to the butter churn that her Uncle whittled out of a tree, she wants to keep it and use it a centerpiece for her alcove table. Also, Dee says, "I'll think of something artistic to do with the dasher" (412). These items are a part of life for Maggie and her mother, but to Dee they are merely pieces for decoration.

During the family dinner, Dee's confusion about the meaning of her heritage also emerges in her attitude toward other household valuables. Dee praises the hand-carved benches that were made when the family could not afford to buy chairs. Though she rejects the family name given to her, she readily values their goods. In Dee's perspective, the benches and the churn are souvenirs or aesthetic objects, and they have no

The heirloom quilts told the family’s history through pieces of cloth, dating back to the Civil War. This was a significant part of the story. Each piece of cut cloth represented the many generations and provoke fond memories and remembrance of the struggles that have shaped their family lives.

Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" is a short story about the clash between a mother and daughter. Dee is the child returning home to visit. The visit is not exactly pleasant and ends after a stand-off between her and Mama. Many readers see Mama as finally standing up for her own ideals while also refusing to conform to the rules Dee wishes her to follow. Dee follows different rules of society and religion than her mother does in order to become her own person. The rules Dee follows are shallow compared to the old-fashioned ways of her mother.

In "Everyday Use", Walker shows the different sides of culture and heritage in the characters of Dee and her mother. The mom represents simple, and practical way of life where culture and heritage are valued both for its usefulness as well as it’s personal significance. Dee represents