Irony In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

“Everyday Use” is a short story in which Alice Walker, the author, presents irony that comes from the sisters differing intended use for quilts. In Alice Walker’s short story, “Everyday Use”, the Johnson family lives in a poor, rural section of Georgia in the early 1970’s. Mama, the narrator, is a husky self-sufficient woman who is not afraid of doing a man’s work. She lives with her youngest daughter, Maggie, who has a stammer and scars from a house fire. At the beginning of story, they wait in the front for Maggie’s older, more beautiful and popular sister. Walker uses symbolism and contrast to define African-American heritage, race and rural versus the urban, and the significance of the title of the story “Everyday Use”. To begin, Walker uses symbolism to define African-American Heritage. The history of Africans in America is filled with stories of agony, wrongdoing, and degradation. It is not as pleasing as a colorful african heritage that can be constructed, like a quilt, from samples and pieces that one finds attractive. It is a real heritage that includes real people: people who are commendable of respect and admiration. Mama, is clear from her ability to associate pieces of fabric into two quilts with
The most important themes of the story are highlighted by the issue of how things are used on an everyday basis. The most obvious issues surrounding the everyday use of items and the disagreements around them is the quilts. “The point is these quilts, these quilts!” (419). For Dee, the quilts should not be actually used for warmth, but their everyday use also extends to other matters, such as the usefulness of reading, considering race and class, among others. The phrase “Everyday Use” refers to the way in which the mother wants the quilts to be used. She views the quilts as suitable objects, rather than as heirlooms to be hung up on a wall and looked