“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…
This form of redemption takes place as an epiphany: You realize that what can save you isn't out there, but has been nearby all along, beside you, even in you, but never noticed, never heard, or never given a second thought” (Whitsitt 43). One instance of Dee’s attitude and loss of heritage is when they are all about to eat and she notices the hand-stitched quilts, which belong to Maggie, and demands that they be given to her. The attitude she has about wanting the quilts shows that she is a selfish person, and she obviously has no respect for her sister or mother or she wouldn’t have caused such an altercation. The quilts can symbolize many different events, but the true meaning of the quilts can only be decided from the readers’ past experiences. “The story shifts abruptly to the past tense immediately after Dee declares that she has changed her name. Up until now, Mama has been caught in the tension between her annoyance with Dee and her instinctive desire to be "the way my daughter would want me to be." Yet when Dee goes so far as to disown her family identity, Mama reaches a watershed”(Tuten…
Dee mostly doesn’t want Maggie to get the quilts because she thinks that Maggie will be “dumb” enough to use them in everyday use. Mama protests the idea by stating that she would at least see enjoyment out of them because Maggie also knows how to quilt, which means she knows how to recreate them or create new ones if she wanted too. Dee only wants to hang up the quilts and use them for decorations even though she told Mama that the quilts were old and out of fashion when Dee went to…
The family heirlooms are the true tokens of Dee’s (Wangero Leewamika Kemanjo) identity and origins, knows little about the past and the essential facts about how the quilts were made and what fabrics were used to make them, she pretends to be deeply connected to this folk tradition. Her desire to hang the quilts, in a museum like exhibit, suggests that she feels reverence for them but that to her they are essentially foreign, impersonal objects. Mama believe that Maggie should have these quilt not Dee because Maggie will have better use for them. At the end of the story Dee stated that Mama and Maggie do not understand their heritage (page 429, 75), the turn of event it’s actually Dee herself who does not understand her heritage.…
The story starts shifting when Dee tells her mother she has changed her name. Near the end, the mother realized that Dee is a fantasy child who is still frivolously careless of other peoples’ lives. (Baker, Pierce-Baker). Mama finally gains increasing emotional distance from Dee and is ultimately able to tell her “no.” (Hirsch). Mama snatches the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie, which makes Maggie smile sincerely. Mama knows that Maggie will truly appreciate and use the quilts instead of hanging them as a wall mounting as a symbol of a “simple upbringing”. Mama realizes that Maggie has had a better understanding of the meaning of heritage from the very…
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…
She remembers her daughter as a self-centered girl that lacks the understanding of the identity of her family. Once the daughter shows up and greets the mother and sister, she eventually informs them that she has changed her name to an adopted African name. In the story the mother wants to give the grandmothers quilts to Dee, who wants to hang them as she is thinking she would be preserving them. The mother gets upset and snatches them from Dee and gives them to Maggie. Dee is not happy about that and insists that Maggie will ruin them with “Everyday Use” (Farrell, 1998). This is one of several points in the story where there is drama. I don’t think it is so much that Dee has a lack of identity or disrespect for her ancestors, but she just feels that she has a different way of doing things or looking at things. This is normal among people in our societies. Parents always feel they know what is best for their children, but sometimes the best lesson is the lesson learned the hard way. I enjoy the story of Alice Walker; she is a great example of perseverance. She is a woman who came up in the mid 1940s, but when she was eight she was shot in the eye by her brother with his BB gun. She lost sight in one of her eyes, but this did not hold her back. She persevered and was valedictorian in high school. After high school she pursued secondary education and attended Spellman College and Sarah…
Dee asks Mama Johnson if she could take the butter churn with the butter still intact as the style has become fashionable to decorate with heritage pieces. She also demands two quilts, made by her grandmother from scraps of fabric that were once memorable articles of clothing. However, Mama Johnson has already promised these quilts to Maggie for her impending marriage. Mama Johnson now has to decide whether to yield to Dee’s demands or keeping her promise to Maggie. This is the pivotal point in the story when Mama Johnson rises against Dee and tells her no, and Dee “gasped like a bee had stung her” (Welty 556). Mama Johnson thinks, “I didn’t want to bring up how I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college” (Welty 556). Those quilts were insignificant when she went to college; however, she has now become worldlier and realizes their value. Dee’s dissatisfaction with her name is another illustration where she doesn’t accept her heritage. She had never been denied anything in her past, and when Mama Johnson denies Dee the quilts, Mama Johnson has shown how Maggie is just as vital to her and puts up a boundary with Dee. Her visit illustrates how Dee still suffers from being self-important, and that her family…
I’m an African-American woman, I grew up in the rural South, the characters of Mama, Dee, and Maggie remind me of my mother, my sisters, and I. The three of us look alike, share some DNA, and have spent most of our lives together, but other than that, we have nothing in common. While it would be expected for three closely related women to have much in common, Mama, Dee, and Maggie each have a very different life story, perspective on life, and concept of history. Walker informs mothers and daughters that bonding between family members is important by her endearing tone, the symbol of the quilt and the relationship between mothers and daughters.…
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.…
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…
Throughout the short story, there are many things that have a more symbolic meaning, such as the making of the quilts and Dee becoming Wangero. The quilts are a great representation of the family’s heritage. The quilt actually creates tension in the story between Maggie and Dee because Mama has to pick which one she is going to give it to. Mama felt it was best that Maggie should receive the quilt because she knows Maggie has a better understanding of their actual meaning. Maggie knows how to sew them, so she is able to continue to pass the tradition down from generation to generation.…
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…
In this essay I will be analyzing the character in the Fiction Everyday Use by Alice Walker. This was is an excellent short story that takes place in the rural southern parts of America. The exact location of this story is not made known to the reader but subtle clues such as jargon used, description of the environment, and content of the conversation allows the reader to decipher the which geographical region of the world thee story is taking place in.…
The culture of African American quilting is approximately as old as the United States of America. Alice Walker, the author of Everyday Use, contributes quilting to the story, and adds important symbolism and meaning to the story and the plot. In the literary selection, Everyday Use, Alice Walker highlights the story by the use of embellished style and a sense of realism, and the theme of heritage.…