Everyday Use By Alice Walker Summary

In the short story, “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, Mama calls her daughter by Dee when she wants to show authority over her, and Wangero to address her as a new person Mama isn’t used to associating with in order to portray her attitude changes toward her daughter over the course of the short story. Wangero visits Mama and has a newly found passion for native African traditions and cultural items. Before, she never payed attention any of these artifacts in her mother’s home. She is walking around and pointing out objects, went she remembers the quilts her mom owned made of their grandma’s dresses and decides to ask for them, “‘That’s not the point,’ said Wangero. ‘These are all pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear. She did all this stitching by

hand. Imagine!’” (61).This shows the way Wangero has changed from a little girl who cared nothing about her culture and was supposed to hide it as a person of color, to a woman who seemed so interested in artifacts and relics from her ancestors.

The use of “that's not the point” signifies that Wangero wants to use the quilts as a way to show off her culture instead of putting it to actual use. Walker’s use of “ all this stitching by hand. Imagine!” shows the utter shock Wangero is in once she hears that the quilt was handmade and took effort. The enthusiasm Wangero is using shows that she is trying to get close to her culture just as a way to show off her exotic history. Wangero continues to persuade Mama to give her the quilts. She examines them and snatches them from her sister, Maggie, then Mama, “snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero’s hands and dumped them into Maggie’s lap” (76). This shows that Mama seems even more distant to Dee than ever. The use of “snatched” indicates that Mama is angry and clearly doesn’t want Wangero to have the quilts. The phrase “Miss Wangero” signifies that she feels as though she is talking to a stranger, as Miss is a phrase used to confront a person you have never interacted with

before. The anger Mama is feeling shows how she has changed her attitude toward Wangero being her daughter. Later, Mama is still explaining to Wangero why she can’t have them if she won’t put them to good use. Wangero keeps coming up with reasons to try and get it from Mama. Mama then tells her to take one of the other quilts that are less meaningful and not as ancestral by saying, “‘Take one or two of the others,’ I said to Dee. But she turned without a word…” (77-78). This implies that Mama still feels like she has control over Wangero, who is still her daughter and should respect her. The use of “Dee” in this quote shows that no matter what name Wangero decides to take on, Mama will still have power over her choices. Mama has changed attitudes and different ways of interacting with her daughter Dee, who decides to go by Wangero in order to elaborate on her African culture in the short story, “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker.