Allusion In Everyday Use

In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” one of the characters, Dee visits her mother and sister after being gone for many years at college, from the view of the reader, the reunion seems distant and the character’s relationships amongst each other strained as Dee now looks upon her family with condescending disdain. Throughout the course of the story the author expertly exploits the history of the central family in an effort to explain how they’ve become who they are. Walker uses a combination of allusion and character interaction to illustrate the theme which covers power of education to split people apart and bring them together. Walker’s use of allusion throughout the story is not extensive, though when it is used it takes full advantage of
the current situation and background in the story. For example Mama states “She washed us in a river of make-believe…”,(Walker 70) in order to refer the false identity that Dee has assumed. In her effort to become closer to her heritage Dee has shunned her believed “slave named” and adopted the alias Wangero, as she thought it placed her closer to her roots, though in reality the name is a glass diamond, it looks nice to her but lacks any true value. In the quote Mama also states “She used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice… Pressed us to her with the serious way she read, to shove us away at the moment…”, Walker intentionally uses this quote to show that education changes people, as Dee’s zero tolerance policy towards what she regards as is already seen when she a young girl. Both these situations highlight Dee’s attempts to conform herself and others to educate themselves, this reflects the theme because in an effort to educate others and herself, she only ostracizes herself from them. Walker also uses character interaction in order to illustrate how education is able to divide others. When Mama is attempting to give Dee the quilts from grandmother Dee rebuttals “She’d probably be backward enough to put them to use every day,” (Walker 75), because she is now “educated” she wants to preserve an honor her culture by storing the quilts unlike Maggie who would honor her grandmother’s memory by using them. The strength of the strain is most evident when Dee exclaims “ Wa-Su-Zo-Tean-O!”(Walker 72),a greeting that Dee has learned that immediately puts her and family on different levels. In her effort to flaunt her knowledge of her culture, Dee has essentially lost her own and deviated herself from her true one and her family which abides by it. In her short story, “Everyday Use”, Alice Walker illustrates the theme of the divisive power of education by using allusion in her story and interaction amongst her characters. Walker’s vehicle of delivery revolves around the character Dee who is not only the symbol of what education does people in the story but also demonstrates the divide it can cause between a person and his or her culture.