Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis
For the response essay, I have chosen “Everyday Use” story which is written by Alice Walker. The story is about a mother and her two daughters. The mother is referred in the story as Mama and her two daughters are Dee and Maggie. Mama and Maggie live together in a traditional way while Dee has moved out and has become modernized. The story represents conflict between the characters which has rooted from their different characteristics and views regarding traditional and modern way of life. The two sisters Dee and Maggie have different characteristics and opinions therefore they don’t get along well like sisters and it causes conflict between them. As result Mama always there for both daughters to support and show them the right path and try to bring peace and balance into the family.
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In the story the character of Mama really stood out to me.
The story is also narrated from her point of view and she is the protagonist and fulfills great responsibilities throughout the story. From the story it seems Mama has great personality. There are few reasons that why I like Mama’s character and how it stood out to me. First of all she is the head and mom of the family. She has done her responsibilities beautifully. She did good preparation when Dee was coming home from college. For example, she cleaned the yard and made everything look beautiful and fresh. She was a good support for her daughters. For example, although they were poor she sent Dee to school to get education as it is stated in the story, “we raised money, the church and me to send Dee to send her to Augusta to school” (Kennedy, & Gioia, 2016, p.79). I liked the way she knew the importance of education and wanted her daughter to get her education and be successful in her
life.
The other reason is that Mama wanted to keep her traditions and her past alive. She wanted her children to know and follow their traditions as every mom does. Therefore, she was surprised that Dee changed her name to wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. She said “you were named after your aunt Dicie and she was named after Grandma Dee” (Kennedy, & Gioia, 2016, p. 81). It seems she had respect and value for her past ancestors and was not ashamed of her heritage. That’s what I really liked about her character; no matter where we go in life we should never forget our past and origin. That is what makes all of us unique and different from each other. But recently people see each other as superior or inferior. We are all human beings and are created equally by God. We should all appreciate each other’s race or ethnicity and economic status and use such differences to bring positive changes in the world and stop spreading hate, and violence.
The other reason that I liked Mama’s character is that at the end of the story she stood out for Maggie when Dee wanted her quilts. Mama said, I “Hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero’s hands and dumped them into Maggie’s lap” (Kennedy, & Gioia, 2016, p. 84). There is couple of issues that Mama addressed. By doing such action, Mama brought peace and equity among her two daughters. She just did what was right at the moment. She didn’t show favoritism, instead tried to keep balance and give each daughter’s right equally.
Also the other good characteristic about Mama is that she kept her promise. When Dee asked her to give Maggie’s quilts she said, “I promised to give them quilts to Maggie, for when she marries John Thomas” (Kennedy, & Gioia, 2016, p. 83). And at the end Mama was successful to give the quilts back to Maggie. Keeping promise is important thing in our life. If we keep our promise, it makes us reliable and trustworthy and people have more respect. Once we break our promise all these elements also break with it. From the Mama we learn that no matter how hard would be the external or internal forces to break our promise, we should still stand straight and do what we have promised. This is the way we keep people happy and not hurt their feelings as Mama did to Maggie and she was surprised and happy as it was mentioned that “Maggie sat on Mama’s bed with her mouth open” (Kennedy, & Gioia, 2016, p. 84). Since, Mama kept her promise and gave her the quilts.
In conclusion, the “Everyday Use” story by Alice Walker is a great story that delivers important messages through the characters specially Mama that increases readers’ awareness about different family issues and is a good source to learn from it. It teaches us on how to be a good head of the family to bring justice and peace in the family environment. It also teach us the importance of traditions and a promise that we should always keep our promise and never let it break, because it would break others feelings.
In the story the character of Mama really stood out to me.
The story is also narrated from her point of view and she is the protagonist and fulfills great responsibilities throughout the story. From the story it seems Mama has great personality. There are few reasons that why I like Mama’s character and how it stood out to me. First of all she is the head and mom of the family. She has done her responsibilities beautifully. She did good preparation when Dee was coming home from college. For example, she cleaned the yard and made everything look beautiful and fresh. She was a good support for her daughters. For example, although they were poor she sent Dee to school to get education as it is stated in the story, “we raised money, the church and me to send Dee to send her to Augusta to school” (Kennedy, & Gioia, 2016, p.79). I liked the way she knew the importance of education and wanted her daughter to get her education and be successful in her
life.
The other reason is that Mama wanted to keep her traditions and her past alive. She wanted her children to know and follow their traditions as every mom does. Therefore, she was surprised that Dee changed her name to wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. She said “you were named after your aunt Dicie and she was named after Grandma Dee” (Kennedy, & Gioia, 2016, p. 81). It seems she had respect and value for her past ancestors and was not ashamed of her heritage. That’s what I really liked about her character; no matter where we go in life we should never forget our past and origin. That is what makes all of us unique and different from each other. But recently people see each other as superior or inferior. We are all human beings and are created equally by God. We should all appreciate each other’s race or ethnicity and economic status and use such differences to bring positive changes in the world and stop spreading hate, and violence.
The other reason that I liked Mama’s character is that at the end of the story she stood out for Maggie when Dee wanted her quilts. Mama said, I “Hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero’s hands and dumped them into Maggie’s lap” (Kennedy, & Gioia, 2016, p. 84). There is couple of issues that Mama addressed. By doing such action, Mama brought peace and equity among her two daughters. She just did what was right at the moment. She didn’t show favoritism, instead tried to keep balance and give each daughter’s right equally.
Also the other good characteristic about Mama is that she kept her promise. When Dee asked her to give Maggie’s quilts she said, “I promised to give them quilts to Maggie, for when she marries John Thomas” (Kennedy, & Gioia, 2016, p. 83). And at the end Mama was successful to give the quilts back to Maggie. Keeping promise is important thing in our life. If we keep our promise, it makes us reliable and trustworthy and people have more respect. Once we break our promise all these elements also break with it. From the Mama we learn that no matter how hard would be the external or internal forces to break our promise, we should still stand straight and do what we have promised. This is the way we keep people happy and not hurt their feelings as Mama did to Maggie and she was surprised and happy as it was mentioned that “Maggie sat on Mama’s bed with her mouth open” (Kennedy, & Gioia, 2016, p. 84). Since, Mama kept her promise and gave her the quilts.
In conclusion, the “Everyday Use” story by Alice Walker is a great story that delivers important messages through the characters specially Mama that increases readers’ awareness about different family issues and is a good source to learn from it. It teaches us on how to be a good head of the family to bring justice and peace in the family environment. It also teach us the importance of traditions and a promise that we should always keep our promise and never let it break, because it would break others feelings.