Symbolism In Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Alice Walkers short story, Everyday Use, is about the conflicts and struggles that are present in African-American culture. The story is about the Johnson family and the oldest daughter, Dee, who comes to visit her mother and younger sister Maggie. Dee arrives with a male companion named Asalamalakim. Walker uses a large amount of characterization and symbolism when describing the differences between mama and Maggie’s way of living and Dee’s way. By using all of the characterization and symbolism, Walker is able to show that culture and heritage are both major parts of daily life. Walker takes her time to characterize mama at the very beginning of the story. Walker describes Mrs. Johnson as “a large, big-boned woman with rough man-working hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day, I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man.” (Walker 1531) Walker also points out that even though mama is known for her unconditional love, she resents all of the education, sophistication, and the sense of superiority that Dee has gained throughout the years. Mama and Dee seem to be very different characters and it does seem as though that Walker does, in fact, want readers to view Dee as the antagonist of the story.

As soon as Dee arrives at her mother and Maggie’s home, she tells them that her name is no longer Dee.

“ “Not ‘Dee,’ Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!” What happened to ‘Dee’?” I wanted to know. “She’s dead,” Wangero said. “I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.”” (Walker 1534). Her mother then goes on to explain why she was named Dee and who all in their family had the name Dee as well as her. This is one of the first examples that shows Dee/Wangero’s hostile personality. It seems as though whenever mama is describing Dee/Wangero she always describes her in a negative way, thus allowing readers to assume that Dee/Wangero is the antagonist in the

story.
The main example that shows Dee/Wangero being viewed as the antagonist is after dinner when she began to go through mama’s things asking if she could have certain items. Wangero began to go through the trunk that was at the end of mama’s bed. She later came back out of the room with two old quilts that mama said had been made by Grandma Dee. They each had old scraps from some of Grandma Dee’s old dresses. Even though these quilts were supposed to be handed down to Maggie when she was older Wangero asked, as mama described “sweet as a bird.” (Walker 1535), if she could have them. Mama insisted she take some of the other quilts instead of the ones for Maggie, but Wangero insisted that she wanted these because they had pieces of dresses that Grandma Dee wore. It is peculiar that Wangero would want something that was once Grandma Dee’s when she was named after Grandma Dee and then she changed her name to Wangero because she did not want to be named after the people who oppress her. If she did not want to be named after “the people who oppress her” (Walker 1534) then why would she want things that once belonged to her? If Dee (Wangero) can not even understand the heritage and importance behind her own name then she will not be able to understand the heritage and importance behind the quilts as well. Mama proceeded to try and get Wangero not to take the quilts because she had promised to give them to Maggie when she got married. Wangero responds by saying, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!…She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.” (Walker 1536) Mama also said that she even had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went off to college, but Dee (Wangero) told mama that quilts were old-fashioned and out of style. Yet here she is insisting that she has to have these two quilts that belong to Maggie. Maggie, later on, says that Wangero can have the quilts, and that is when mama took the quilts from Wangero and gave them to Maggie and told Wangero that if she wanted some quilts she would have to get some of the others.
When Wangero was leaving mama told her that she does not understand her heritage. The quilts symbolize pieces of history and they represent lives from previous generations and the trials that they each had to go through. The quilts also serve as testaments to the family’s struggle and their pride. Since mama did not have a lot of education growing up and since she lives a life a poverty, she thinks of her personal history as one of her biggest treasures in life. In today’s world, many people are given a financial inheritance from their older relatives; however, mama was given quilts instead of money which ultimately have more meaning and importance behind them than money does. These quilts have more meaning and value behind them that Dee, regardless of all of her education and desire to care from the quilts, is not able to understand which is why mama does not allow Dee to have the quilts.