Everyday Use By Alice Walker Essay

Literary Research Paper of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker In the short story, “Everyday Use” Walker addresses the conflict with cultural and personal issues within family heritage. Mama, Maggie, and Dee are the main characters within the story. They each have their own point of view and this evokes conflict amongst them. The story centers around the symbol of legacy exemplified through the “quilt”. Walker uses her own personal history and life struggles and intertwines them into the story through the characters thoughts, actions and feelings under a contemplative tone and conversational writing style.
Walker’s life story begins in Eatonton, Georgia, where she was born on February 9, 1944. She was born to her parents Minnie and Willie Walker who were sharecroppers. Alice was the last of eight children born into the family. As a child, she was accidentally blinded with a BB gun while playing with her brother. Instead of being responsible for normal work and chores, her mother allowed her to
typewrite. She later received a state scholarship to attend college at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. She studied there two years and was active in the civil rights movement, then transferred to Sarah Lawerence College in New York where she remained involved in civil rights. In 1965, she graduated with a B.A degree and moved to Mississippi. She taught and published short stories and essays. She was married a white civil rights attorney, with whom she had a daughter, but they divorced less than 10 years later (avl.com). Alice Walker is

Oates 2 still alive today and remains “a defender not only of human rights, but of the rights of all living beings” (alicewalkersgarden.com).
Walker’s has written multiple works of literature throughout the years. Her first book entitled “Once” was published in 1968. Walker went on to publish many more short stories, poems and novels. She published a set of short stories entitled In Love and Trouble and a collection of poetry entitled Revolutionary Petunias. The first children’s book she wrote was called Langston Hughes (biography.com). One of her most popular works, was the novel, “The Color Purple” which depicts the life and struggles of the character “Celie”. In 1985 this novel was made into a movie by Steven Spielberg and won an Academy Award . Walker won an American book award, and in 1983 won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for “The Color Purple” (alicewalkersgarden.com). Her most recent work being published being “The Cushion in the Road”
(biography.com). The story "Everyday Use”, illustrates the mother and her two daughters’ opposing ideas regarding their heritage, ancestry, and identities . “Mama” whom is the narrator in the story is described by Walker as a “large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands” (Roberts 494). Mama is depicted as an uneducated woman who is a hard worker that does what is necessary to support Maggie and herself. Maggie is a timid, plain, withdrawn and scarred young lady with low self confidence. Dee, the eldest daughter is depicted as a confident, strong woman, who left to make a better life for herself.
Dee had wrote her mother in the past, that “no matter where we choose to live, she will manage to come see us. But she will never bring her friends”(Roberts 495). This represents the Oates 3 shame of her heritage and how she wished to not live as she had been raised. Dee does eventually come with her boyfriend to visit. She is dressed “a dress so loud it hurts my eyes” (Roberts 496) which is much different from the “overalls during the day” (Roberts 494) that Mama wears. Dee announced that she had changed her name to the Indian name of “Wangero Leeewanika Kemanjo”. She claimed that it was keeping her heritage alive. She did not realize that she was contraindicating herself and depleting her own heritage of a name that had been passed from generation to generation. She only saw that she was named after “the people that oppressed me” (Roberts 496) instead of her ancestors and generations before her.
When Dee did enter the house, she requested to have a churn and dasher and then quilts. The quilts were hand made and Mama states “These old things was just done by me and Big Dee from tops of your grandma pieced before she died” (Roberts 498). The quilts were intended to be given to Maggie and Dee gets angry to find that she will not be able to take them. Maggie offers them up to Dee, but Mama steps in and gives them to Maggie as intended. The irony in the story is when Dee is preparing to leave, she states to her mother that she doesn’t understand “your heritage” when in truth she is the one that doesn’t fully understand her legacy and heritage. Susan Farrell argues that Mama has an “awakening to one daughter’s superficiality and to the other’s deep-seated understanding of heritage” (questia.com) . Dee represents modernization, materialism, and complexity in this story. This is a complete polar opposite of her younger sibling Maggie. Farrell describes Dee as “shallow, condescending, and manipulative” (questia.com). Mama and Maggie both live their lives not worried about what society thinks, because society’s views do not affect them. Dee is very Oates 4 materialistic and dependent on others view of her. Maggie on the other hand is uneducated, old-fashioned, yet a humble and timid girl whom Farrell describes has “simplicity”. Maggie is scarred physically and has low self esteem and tries to hide her scars from the house fire she was in as a child. “Mama” states “She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground” (495). The character of Maggie has some characteristics of the author Alice Walker. Based on Walker’s history of eye injury as a child and having to adapt based on her limitations we can see how it may correlate with Maggie’s burns and scars from the house fire. Maggie in the story hides her scars and seems to be embarrassed to show them when her sister Dee is there to visit. Maggie is also a timid and shy girl. Walker can relate because “she became self-conscious of this visible mark” (biography.com). Walker also withdrew from people and felt like she was “very ugly and disfigured” and it return made her “shy and timid” (biography.com). Walker uses the characters in the story to teach the reader a few life lessons. One of the lessons would be to accept your own personal heritage and do not try to change who you are as Dee did within the story. A second lesson would to be true to themselves, and a person of good character. Dee had changed her name and had more expensive things than her mother and sister but lacked humbleness, kindness, and humility. Material things may come and go, but a person’s character and attitude remains and defines a person. This story also shows how a person needs to be true to their roots and not ashamed of where they came from or what they have been through. Maggie was ashamed of her scars, but didn’t realize that she was much prettier on the inside compared to her sister. The last lesson that the reader can take from this story is to appreciate life and the family you have.