Analysis Of Everyday Use By Alice Walker

890 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay about everyday use by alice walker

Alice walker’s “ Everyday Use” : The value of heritage and different types of personality. In the short story “Everyday Use”, by Alice Walker, is about an African-American mother and her two daughters. This story is written from the mother’s perspective of her daughters, Dee and Maggie. Dee does not live with her mother and sister and is returning home to visit them. In the story , it introduces Maggie and Dee as completely opposite of each other. Maggie is portrayed as ignorant,and a homely girl. On the other hand, Dee is seen as beautiful,boastful, and an intelligent woman. However, the story has more to it rather than the differences between the two sisters. The short story mainly deals with the two sisters in ways in which they …show more content…

Mama sees the quilts as the most valuable assets crafted by her ancestors. She insists that the quilts are used for what they are really made for and be treated with respect. Instead, Dee sees the quilts as a work of art and want to preserve them. After maggie overheard Dee and mama’s commotion about the quilts , she decided to let her sister Dee keeps them. But Mama refuse to hand them down to Dee. She believes giving them to the wrong daughter is destroying something that is so special to their ancestors. To make Mama feel at peace, she made sure Maggie receive the quilts instead of Dee. The thought that Dee does not fully understand her culture is devastating because she wants the most important assets that was made by her ancestors but does not want to use it for everyday use. Moreover, Dee seems to lack respect for her mother’s ancestors. Dee claims to be appreciative of her ancestors but she is still degrading her family. Throughout the story, Dee made everything seems difficult and negative. She has not shown her love and respect to her love ones around. At the end of the story, she attacked her mother and Maggie because they choose to remain in old ways of thinking and living. She sees them as uneducated and worthless. In the article fight vs flight : a re-evaluation of Dee in “Everyday Use” , Alice Walker says , Dee obviously holds a central place in Mama 's world. The story opens with the line: "I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon" (47). I must say agree with Alice’s statement because mama use of language about Dee seems to be very harsh, but she secretly admires and has more preference towards Dee than her younger daughter

Show More
Related

  • Mama And Dee In Everyday Use

    762 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout “Everyday Use” mama compares the two sisters very often. For instance, “Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure. She is a woman now” (744) Mama is saying Dee is much more attractive than Maggie and how she has the figure of a grown woman, it also shows that Dee is more cherished and appreciated because she is light skin. In the slavery days, Dee would have been an in-house slave while Maggie would have been an outside slave which is based on their physical appearance. Mama also showed bias when she said “Dee feet were always neat looking like God himself shaped them with a certain style.” (745). Mama put Dee on a high pedal stool while she always brought down Maggie, like when she said “she isn’t bright . . . good looks. . . passed her by”. Mama has shown bias between the two sisters since the very beginning of “Everyday Use” comparing the two physical traits. Mama was vey bias throughout the story but between her bias Maggie’s potential and her ignorance tied together brought family themes in this

    Read More

  • Mis And Insecurity In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dee is unappreciative and disrespectful to her own mother and eventually, as with nearly everything; enough is enough and Mama stood up for herself, completely transforming herself as a character. It is necessary in life to treat others the way that you would like to be treated. This seems to be a saying that Mama lived by, but her daughter didn’t reciprocate back to her. “Everyday Use” teaches the reader many lessons of the importance of a family and how easily individuals could be shaped by the world around

    Read More

  • Imagery And Symbolism In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    578 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” centers on a mama, Mrs. Johnson, and her two daughters, Maggie and Dee, and how they view their heritage. In “Everyday Use”, the author, Alice Walker, uses symbolism not just to convey imagery and increase the story’s emotional impact, as is typical for most literature, but also to tell parts of the story, be more descriptive with her depictions of characters and objects within the story, give back story, and communicate more of her characters’ personalities. Like most writings, “Everyday Use” contains symbolism in the form of objects and actions, but the symbolism in Everyday Use is very notable and striking because it is materialized in rather unorthodox ways and places, such as characters’ names, in the back

    Read More

  • Family Heritage In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the short story “Everyday Use” Alice Walker portrays the difference in African American heritage between two sisters. She shows a special emphasis on a handed down tradition from generation to generation. She has two daughters which she loves very much, one who believes value is money and the other who cherishes her family heirlooms. Although the mother is not as wordly as her daughter Dee has become, her instinct in the end to side with her less fortunate daughter is her way of preserving their heritage over superficial cultural misguidance.

    Read More

  • Everyday Use by Alice Walker: A Look at Symbolism and Family Values

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hoel , Helga. ""Personal Names and Heritage: Alice Walker’s 'Everyday Use'." 2000." . Trondheim Cathedral School, 30 January 2000. Web. 1 march 2014. Cowart, David. “Heritage and Deracination in Walker’s ‘Everyday Use.’” Studies in Short Fiction 33 (1996): 171-84.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in the Short Story "Everyday Use"

    571 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alice Walker is a well-known African- American writer known for published fiction, poetry, and biography. She received a number of awards for many of her publications. One of Walker's best short stories titled "Everyday Use," tells the story of a mother and her two daughters' conflicting ideas about their heritage. The mother narrates the story of the visit by her daughter, Dee. She is an educated woman who now lives in the city, visiting from college. She starts a conflict with the other daughter, Maggie over the possession of the heirloom quilts. Maggie still lives the lifestyle of her ancestors; she deserves the right of the quilts. This story explores heritage by using symbolism of the daughters' actions, family items, and tradition.

    Read More

  • Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    Velazquez, Juan R. "Characterization and Symbolism in Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use.'" Lone Star College System. Lone Star, n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Essay on the Setting of Everyday Use

    609 Words  | 2 Pages

    The objects that lead to the final confrontation between Dee and Mama are the old quilts. These quilts are described as being made from old material by family members, which enhances their value to Mama, and the detail with which they are described increases the sense of setting.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Everyday Use by Alice Walker

    628 Words  | 2 Pages

    The story 'Everyday Use', written by Alice Walker, is a story of heritage, pride, and learning what kind of person you really are. In the exposition, the story opens with background information about Dee and Maggie's life, which is being told by Mama. The reader learns that Dee was the type of child that had received everything that she wanted, while Maggie was the complete opposite. The crisis, which occurs later in the story, happens when Dee all of a sudden comes home a different person than she was when she left. During the Climax, Mama realizes that she has often neglected her other child, Maggie, by always giving Dee what she wants. Therefore, in the resolution, Mama defends Maggie by telling Dee that she cannot have the household items that she wants just to show others, instead of putting them to use like Maggie.

    Read More

  • Maggie And Dee In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dee is shallow and manipulative. Not only does her education separate her from her family identity and heritage, it prevents her from bonding with her mother and sister. If Dee could only push her arrogance aside, she would be able to develop a deep connection with her family. While connecting with her family, Dee would also develop a deeper understanding of her heritage. Maggie and Mama did not give in to the “whim of an outside world that doesn’t really have much to do with them” (Farrell par.1). In the attempt to “fit” in, Dee has become self-centered, and demanding with her very own family; to the extent of intimidation, and

    Read More

  • The Importance of Personal Identity in Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    Author Alice Walker, displays the importance of personal identity and the significance of one’s heritage. These subjects are being addressed through the characterization of each character. In the story “Everyday Use”, the mother shows how their daughters are in completely two different worlds. One of her daughter, Maggie, is shy and jealous of her sister Dee and thought her sister had it easy with her life. She is the type that would stay around with her mother and be excluded from the outside world. Dee on the other hand, grew to be more outgoing and exposed to the real, modern world. The story shows how the two girls from different views of life co-exist and have a relationship with each other in the family. Maggie had always felt that Mama, her mother, showed more love and care to Dee over her. It is until the end of the story where we find out Mama cares more about Maggie through the quilt her mother gave to her. Showing that even though Dee is successful and have a more modern life, Maggie herself is just as successful in her own way through her love for her traditions and old w...

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    When Dee finds out that her mama promise to give the quilts to her sister, Dee gets very angry and says that she deserves the quilts more than Maggie because Maggie would not take care of them like she would. Dee feels that she can value and treasure heritage more than her sister Maggie. Dee does what she wants, whenever she wants and she will not accept the word no for any answer. “She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that "no" is a word the world never learned to say to her.” Maggie is used to never getting anything. Throughout the entire story, it says that Maggie gives up many things so Dee can have what she needs or

    Read More

  • The Mother-Daughter Relationship In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is what a true mother-daughter bond is supposed to be like. When Dee and the mom were arguing over the quilts the narrator said “like somebody used to never winning anything, or having reserved for her,” which is something that mama has a favorite daughter and she lets Dee have whatever she wants without letting Maggie have anything. It seems like mama wants Dee to be happy when she comes down so she will want to come home. Mama even was going to call her by her new name instead of not going to she tried to because it comes off as Dee is her favorite daughter which is why their mother-daughter relationship is different from Maggie 's and mama’s relationship. Even when Dee took what she wanted like when she just went through mama’s things without asking her. That 's something that only a favorite daughter or someone with a very good mother-daughter relationship would do.

    Read More

  • Heritage in Everyday Use, by Alice Walker

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    The quilts play an important role in depicting symbolism of heritage because they signify Dee’s family origins. For instance, Dees’ significant family members all have pieces of their fabric sown on to the quilts as a remembrance of who they were and their importance in the family. Nevertheless, Dee is overlooking important facets of her family history because she does not see the quilts her ancestors made as valuable, hand-made, pieces of fabric that should be passed down and taken care of to keep their history alive. As Mama stated, “In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty years and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell’s paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra’s uniform that he wore in the civil war.” (1129). Despite her family’s history, Dee continues to misinterpret the...

    Read More

  • Everyday Use Culture Analysis

    960 Words  | 2 Pages

    The culture difference is finally revealed. Dee is much more outgoing and modern. It was quite evident that Dee was not the same Dee anymore. Though the readers do not know what Dee was like before, Mama explains it will. She recalls an instance when Dee used to be cultured and conservative. “She used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks ' habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice” (424). This quote simply implies that Dee wanted to be the best, even when she spending time with her family. Now returning from college, all she cares is materialistic things. For example, Mama recalls how Dee always wanted nice and different things. “Dee wanted nice things. A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit she 'd made from an old suit somebody gave me…” (425). Now that she is educated and does not live with her family, she has “grown up.” Even more and wants to be stylish and show off her heritage. She has become more womanly and selfish at the same time. Even her attitude has changed. Mama continues her recall thinking about Dee’s new attributes. “She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts. Her eyelids would not flicker for minutes at a time. Often I fought off the temptation to shake her. At sixteen she had a style of her own: and knew what style was” (425). Clearly, Mama was annoyed with Dee’s new

    Read More

More about Analysis Of Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Open Document