Preview

Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
506 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis
The characteristics of culture In the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker the contrasting of the characters views and opinions, illustrates the importance of understanding your present life compared to your families heritage. Using careful descriptions and attitudes Walker shows the different sides of culture and heritage when she tells the story through the words of the mother (the narrator) in the story.
Dee (the oldest daughter) in the story takes pictures of everything in and around her mother’s home to remember how everything is. She fails to notice that they (her mother and younger sister) still use these items in their home. Dee’s character symbolizes a very modern character who values her heritage through trendiness and aesthetic appeal. The Mother shows her to be very materialistic when she does
…show more content…
She is confused to what this encompasses. She grasps at African tradition and cultures, like when she changes her name to Wangero (an African name). Consequently she fails to acknowledge her own African-American culture; as she finds the items in her Mother’s home to be material goods, as opposed to her ancestor’s habits and way of life.
McClure page 2
Dee discovers some quilts while going through her Mother’s things. One of which her mother tried to give her, but she thought it was old fashioned and out of style at the time. Now that she has been at the university for awhile she finds them to be a “priceless” resemblance of heritage. She sees the items as decorations. Thinking it would be quaint to display a butter churn top, that her uncle had carved for her mother, on her table as a center piece, and hang the quilts on her wall.
These items symbolize to Dee the tangible items that are hand made by her ancestors; nevertheless she remains unaware of the knowledge and history behind them. Mother knows the traditions and history behind the quilts; they put their ancestor’s memories to everyday

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Dee’s selfishness is emphasized through the mothers first person point of view, which might be bias, however in a line where Dee says “don’t get up.”, when she got back from college and was already dressed and spoke differently. she soon starts taking pictures of her mother and sister. This quote shows that Dee wasn’t really excited about seeing her mother and sister, it enforces how self-centered she actually is. She only cared about taking pictures to have her heritage, but the family was there so it didn’t really made sense.After she took pictures of her family, house, coffee pot, etc. She starts taking things from the house such as the quilt grandma Dee had made for Maggie. Dee began to want it, but since maggie was already use to Dee getting her way, she agreed for Dee to keep the quilt because she didn’t need much to remember grandma Dee since she…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Culture sometimes informs the way one views others and the world. In the texts “My Mother Pieced Quilts” and “Everyday Use”, there are exemplary examples of how culture can positively or negatively affect one’s view of things. In “My Mother Pieced Quilts”, it talks about how Teresa Palomo Acosta is reflecting on her past moments that she had with her mother. They pieced quilts together in the past and each square represented something different. In “Everyday Use”, it talks about how a girl named Dee treats her family heritage. She attempts to change her name from Dee to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. In these two texts, “My Mother Pieced Quilts” provides a positive example of how culture can affect the way we see objects. Meanwhile in “Everyday…

    • 232 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker reflects on the heritage of a family of African Americans. The majority of the African American population has forgotten where they came from. The Webster dictionary defines heritage as “ the traditions, achievements, beliefs, etc., that are part of the history of a group or nation.” Maggie, Dee or Wangero, and their mother, who is also the narrator, are the basic characters for this short story.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eveyday Use

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Dee, the eldest daughter, has ventured from the rural world she grew up in but never felt a part of. The story is set in the context of her returning home for the first time since she left for college. Maggie the younger daughter has never left home. As the story unfolds Dee's motives become apparent. She has come home to retrieve objects from her former life that are meaningful to her. She plans to incorporate them into her décor. Mama relates her sad attempt to find value in her family and claim her inheritance.…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” written in 1973 and it was widely studied and frequently anthologized short story, “Everyday Use” came out as one of the story collection In Love and Trouble. In “Everyday Use” she bring up many issue such as comparing relationship between heritage and tradition past. The story also question whether or heritage is something one use or something one possess.…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”, Walker dramatizes the “use and misuse of the concept of heritage”. (Christian). The three main characters each have their own meaning of what heritage means to them. Some individuals embrace and build upon their heritage. However, others may choose to preserve it and move in a different direction.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story Everyday Use tells of a girl who thinks she knows what her culture is, and a mother and sister who really know what their culture is but rarely ever stand up for themselves. One of the main conflicts Everyday Use by Alice Walker is conflict of identification with one’s own heritage. This is portrayed throughout the short story through the Mother and Wangero, who decides that in order to show her true, newly discovered ‘heritage’, she will take from her real heritage and use family-owned objects as decorations.…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the story “Everyday Use,” Dee, otherwise known as Miss Wangero is portrayed as the “bitch” in the family because of an old “rag” that’s been haunting her family for years. Mama and Maggie, who are overly obsessed with this quilt, fail to realize what her daughter is accomplishing outside their fantasy world and instead live their lives with the bare minimum.…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use Analysis

    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Dee is sisters with Maggie in this story, she is the character who is very impolite, or that does things her way. Dee is the only educated character; it says in the short story that she left so that she could be educated. Dee is noticed as a character that does whatever she wants, and have it go her way. One example is that, Dee wears a brightly colored, yellow-and-orange, ankle-length dress that is inappropriate for the warm weather. This shows that she would wear anything she wants even if its inappropriate in any way. In the story mama wouldn’t let Dee have the quilts, and she became furious. This another example that she is very stubborn, because in the end she keeps the quilts.…

    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dee is depicted as a self-centred and egotistic young lady. She has an illusion that everything, including the universe revolves around her. This character trait is brought out when Dee refuses to take heed to her mother’s counsel. Dee’s mother made attempt to discourage Dee from changing her name but to no avail.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever not seen eye to eye with your mother? In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, we are shown how many of the choices we make and the things we value create our identity. This story focuses on two characters, mama and her daughter Dee (Wangero), who struggle to see the same way about their heritage. Dee wants the things made by her grandmother, to not admire it as an artifact, but rather to remake it. She wants to take them, and change them to match her lifestyle as it is today. She loves them for the way they look. Mama, on the other hand, views the things from her mother as artifacts. She loves the items more than how they look. She admires the quilts because of their everyday use. Transformations take place between these characters. Dee’s transformation is more external than it is internal. She shows her transformation in the way she speaks, the clothes she wears, and her judgement. Mama’s transformation is more internal. She begins to see Dee’s real thoughts, and she stands up against her. When she takes the quilts away from Dee, she doesn’t only stand up for herself, but Maggie, as…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The two themes of the story are the meaning of heritage and the power of knowledge. Dee thinks that her heritage is dead and she wants to use the material remains of it as artifacts. Her heritage has not ended and needs people to keep it going and that is why Mama rewarded Maggie with the quilts. Dee tries becoming something she is not by disowning her family values for a heritage she knows nothing about. She has forgotten where she comes from and does not truly appreciate the contribution of her relatives. Knowledge gave Dee the illusion that she is above everyone else. Dee has lost herself in education. It gave her a false view of the world and who she really…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mama states, “a look of concentration on her face as she watched the last dingy gray board of the house fall in toward the red-hot brick chimney…she had hated the house” (1532). She hates the burned house because it directly reminds Dee of segregation, and inequality in her life before civil rights. The new house is replaced with a mere replica of the burned house revealing Mama’s persistence in preserving heritage. Topics of preserving heritage centralize around the family objects: carved dasher and family quilts. Dee seeks these objects not for their family values but to collect them as lost time artifacts. As an activist for desegregation, Dee rejects her real heritage and wants these items as a remembrance of the past. Mama refuses to give up her familial tied items to someone who will not respectfully make an effort to continue the lineage tied behind them through “everyday use”; another prime example of her tenacity to preserving true familial…

    • 869 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Everyday Use” is a short story by Alice Walker that tells the story of a mother and two sisters who are finally together after being apart for a long time. Walker describes two characters who were both born and raised together, but they go separate ways and therefore manifest a different understanding of heritage. One of the sisters, Dee, is described as a very selfish and materialistic woman who allows other people’s opinions and her “understanding” affect her views on heritage. On the contrary, Maggie is a traditional woman who has a robust understanding of what heritage really is. Though these characters were born and raised the same, there is a disparity between their views on whether or not material items are a necessity to recollect…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the short story, "Everyday Use," by Alice Walker teaches lessons on true inheritance; what it is and who can receive it. Two hand stitched quilts become the center of conflict in the story. They are also used to symbolize the true inheritance.…

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays