Eudora Welty's Everyday Use

Theme for “Everyday Use” The theme of “Everyday Use” (1973), by Eudora Welty, is the impact of the past on the present. Mama Johnson and her daughter Maggie await the arrival of the older daughter, Dee. Mama Johnson recalls the various allowances she provided for Dee. Dee receives a formal education and the finer clothes she prefers to wear, unlike Mama Johnson and Maggie. Dee has two fundamental issues. Her family embarrasses her, and she is accustomed to getting her way, although Dee is never satisfied. She has high ideals, while Mama Johnson and Maggie are simpler people. Mama Johnson recalls a time when Dee “used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant
Dee asks Mama Johnson if she could take the butter churn with the butter still intact as the style has become fashionable to decorate with heritage pieces. She also demands two quilts, made by her grandmother from scraps of fabric that were once memorable articles of clothing. However, Mama Johnson has already promised these quilts to Maggie for her impending marriage. Mama Johnson now has to decide whether to yield to Dee’s demands or keeping her promise to Maggie. This is the pivotal point in the story when Mama Johnson rises against Dee and tells her no, and Dee “gasped like a bee had stung her” (Welty 556). Mama Johnson thinks, “I didn’t want to bring up how I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college” (Welty 556). Those quilts were insignificant when she went to college; however, she has now become worldlier and realizes their value. Dee’s dissatisfaction with her name is another illustration where she doesn’t accept her heritage. She had never been denied anything in her past, and when Mama Johnson denies Dee the quilts, Mama Johnson has shown how Maggie is just as vital to her and puts up a boundary with Dee. Her visit illustrates how Dee still suffers from being self-important, and that her family