Preview

Power In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
160 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Power In Alice Walker's Everyday Use
Walker’s story “Everyday use” describes the power knowledge yields and the divisiveness it causes between loved ones. Mother and Maggie are content with their simple lifestyle but, feels the need to put on airs while Dee visits. Dee’s forced connection to her African roots alienates herself from her family causing, Mother’s simple pastoral scene to be filled with animosity. Insulting her family by claiming, “Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" she said. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use."(Walker) successfully sparking a fight between the two. Unable to understand why Dee would want quilts she isn’t going to use, Dee clarifies by saying, "But they're priceless!"(Walker) but, mother would like them to be given
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use
    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Everyday Use

    The short story “Everyday Use”, by Alice walker, begins with a family of three: Maggie, Dee, and “Mama”(there mother). The author never reveals her actual name. However Dee being old enough to attend college leaves off to college. When she comes back from college, she begins to express herself in different ways, a way that is more liberal. By the authors description she is dressed differently, she talks differently, she even changed her name to Wangero. However she starts gathering things that her mother and her sister, Maggie, owned to express her heritage, she has the wrong idea of heritage, her heritage lied in her own name passed from her grandmother to her aunt to her. the name that she carried, Dee, was passed along for three generations, which she didn’t realize. The author shows symbolism and point of view throughout the story through the family’s name,Dee, the quilt, the house, and the mother explains the story where the author uses point of view. The objects that make Dee the person she is, are disrespectful, selfish, and self-centered.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of The Story 'Everyday Use' By Alice Walker
    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page

    Analysis Of The Story 'Everyday Use' By Alice Walker

    Over the course of your life, how ever long it has been so far, have you been heavily influenced by your heritage and culture? Or have you been able to develop your own ideas and views on the world? If you have or you haven’t been influenced by your culture that’s up to you, but I ultimately think that it should be completely up to the individual whether or not they completely follow every rule of their religion, ethnic background, or whatever.…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Maggie In Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'
    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Maggie In Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'

    “Everyday Use” symbolizes the importance of quilts and the value put upon them by a mother and her two children. “I try to teach my heart not to want things it can't have” once said Alice Walker. In many cases I relate this quote to the character Maggie in the short story “Everyday Use.” Maggie is shy and bashful because of her scars. She feels that her older sister Dee had had it made while they were coming up. Dee had gotten the chance to go to college while Maggie had stayed home with her mom. Maggie became more in touch and aware of her ancestral roots because she had stayed home with her mom. One important object often associated with “Everyday Use” is the quilts. Dee felt like she should have the quilt because to her she had deserved them more than Maggie did. She felt like she had understood the importance of the quilts and she would put them to proper use. Ironically enough, she said that…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What Is Everyday Use Maggie's Heritage
    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages

    What Is Everyday Use Maggie's Heritage

    Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" is the story of a woman, referred to as Mama, and her two daughters, Maggie and Dee. Mama and Maggie live together in their small home in a rural area. Dee has gone to college in a big city and is coming for a visit. Maggie is painfully self conscious, "chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle" with scars on her body from a house fire. Dee has always been scornful of her family's simple way of living and has been greatly influenced by her time away. Walker uses Maggie to explore the ideas of a family's heritage and history and, by contrasting her with Dee, voices a concern that in our search for our roots perhaps we are losing important aspects of our heritage.…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Does Maggie Value The Quilts
    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages

    How Does Maggie Value The Quilts

    Family heritage is very important to many people. Heritage can take the form of photographs, paintings, families sitting around telling stories, and even songs. Quilting is one of many ways the African-American culture used to retain its heritage. African-American quilting is almost as old as the history of America. As slaves, and also their textiles, were traded heavily throughout the Caribbean, Central America, and the Southern United States, the traditions of each distinct region became intermingled. In time, African-American quilting became a tradition in itself. This strong tradition continues today. In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, although Maggie and Dee/Wangero differ in point of view regarding the heritage of the quilts and how to honor them; the quilts symbolized something significant…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Eveyday Use
    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Eveyday Use

    In the short story, "Everyday Use," Alice Walker teaches us 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. Like a quilt, a person's world view is made up of events, circumstances and influences that shape how they see and respond to the world. "Everyday Use" is a story of two worlds in conflict. Mama, acting as the narrator, guides us through the interaction of the two very different worlds embodied in her daughters.…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Identification With One's Heritage In Everyday Use By Alice Walker
    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Identification With One's Heritage In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    She thinks to herself, “I didn’t want to bring up how I has offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they were old-fashioned, out of style”(320). The mother is in disbelief at Dee, who only wants to use her heritage as something for show and tell. Those same blankets she had once refused she now wanted because they fit her own aesthetic, and not at all for the value and meaning behind those quilts. The mother then decides to do something unheard of and, “hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snactched the quilts out of Miss Wangero’s hands and dumped them into Maggie’s lap”(321). The mom has chosen her true heritage over the false, glamorized one that her eldest daughter has decided to create. She gives the quilts to Maggie because in her heart she knows that Miss Wangero does not deserve them, that Maggie can truly appreciate them and know who she is and where she’s come…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use Movie Analysis
    • 1771 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Everyday Use Movie Analysis

    Tuten argues that there is a use and abuse of language portrayed in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”. The author states, “Dee manipulates and oppresses both her mom and her sister through her verbal skills” (Tuten 125). Dee uses her verbal skills to get what she wants, and this is evident in the way she degrades Maggie to secure the quilts for herself. Although Dee is smooth with her words, she lacks common sense and the knowledge of her family heritage. Maggie gives up the quilts, not because she gives into Dee, but that she knows the true value of the quilts. One can also see that Dee is ashamed and embarrassed by her childhood, and the only reason for her visit is not to see her family, but to see what she can bring back to her home for decorations. Once the mother is able to understand her motive, she tells her she can’t have the quilts and gets upset at Maggie for giving them to…

    • 1771 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Jealousy In Alice Walker's Everyday Use
    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Jealousy In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    In the book ‘Everyday Use’, jealousy is depicted in several ways. It is a fact that favoring one child among many brings about sibling rivalry. In effect jealousy springs out and can lead to several things. In ‘Everyday Use’, Maggie, a younger sister to Dee, is jealous of her elder sister. Dee is more attractive and more stylish. ‘Maggie looks at her sister with a mixture of envy and awe’(Walker 1006). This is because she suffers from wounds obtained as a result of an inferno earlier in life.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sonny's Blues
    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sonny's Blues

    In “Everyday Use”, Alice Walker depicts many differences between culture and present day life by using Dee and Mama. Dee is a materialistic girl that lives for a modern and innovative way of life. She only sees her African roots and culture as an appeal. Mama is Dee’s mother, who is an African woman that knows the significance of their heritage and appreciates the importanc of what it means to them. These two characters consistently have conflicting ideas on how they should incorperate their heritage in modern life. This was shown when Dee asked for the quilts that were made from generation to generation from Mama. Those quilts even dated back to the Civil War. The quilts are important because they are one of Mama and their family’s few treasures and Dee wanted to hang them up on the wall like a museum piece. At the same time Mama actually promisesd Maggie, Dee’s sister, the quilts. Maggie gives the quilts to Dee but Mama snatches the quilts from Dee’s hands to prevent her from taking them and hangs them. Mama and Maggie value the quits because they remind of family while Dee only cares for its artistic value. At the end of the story, Dee leaves with her boyfriend to college while Mama and Maggie simply cannot stop her and watch her depart. This scene shows just how much Mama wants Dee to appreciate her heritage but just cannot stop Dee’s…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker's Everyday Use
    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” Mama, the narrator of the story, is rather distant with her daughter Dee and dreams about reconciling with her on a television show. Specifically, she imagines Dee expressing gratitude for all that she has done for her, while embracing her (Mama) “with tears in her eyes (Walker 315).” It is obvious that Mama doesn’t understand her daughter’s life choice to adopt an African lifestyle and feels that Dee is rejecting her origins and family. Furthermore, the reader can see that Mama has a troublesome relationship with Dee by the amount of tension between them. This strained relationship becomes clear when Dee “went to the trunk at the foot of (Mama’s) bed and started rifling through it (Walker 320).” The narrator…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker Essay
    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker Essay

    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
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Alice Walker Story Everyday Use
    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Alice Walker Story Everyday Use

    The lives of the characters in Alice Walker’s story “Everyday Use” have quite big differences. The three main characters are “Mama,” Maggie, and Dee. The events that occurred in each other’s lives developed growing up in a unique setting. Mama never made it out of the second grade so therefore she was less educated. Dee made it to college and was always smarter than Mama and Maggie. Maggie was always self-conscious growing up because of the scars and burns she received from the fire.…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker
    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    “Everyday Use” is a short story by Alice Walkers that centers around the Eldest daughter visiting her mother, the narrator, and little sister, Maggie. While she is visiting she notices her family’s quilts and wants to take them and put them on display at home. Her mother disapproves of her actions because Dee is treating the object as artifacts as if her family’s origins are completely dead. Mama can no longer take it and yanks Maggie to the side along with quilts. Mama tells her the quilts as her, while Dee drives off.…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mathilde vs. Dee
    • 622 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Mathilde vs. Dee

    In the story “Everyday Use”, Dee is portrayed as a girl who “made it”. She was seen by her mother and Maggie as a talented girl. Her only flaw was her selfishness towards her younger sister Maggie. In the story, she pays a visit to Maggie and her mother and have dinner. After dinner, Dee goes rifling through a trunk and two quilts catch her eye. She demands her mother to hand them to her. Although they were to be passed onto Maggie, she allows Dee to keep the quilts. In the end, Dee gives the quilts back.…

    • 622 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics