Walker

"Everyday Use," by Alice Walker, begins as a story of conflict between a mother, her two daughters, and her heritage. When first read, the story tells of the mother who rejects the shallow values of her older, prettier and more successful daughter "Dee," in favor of the practical values of her younger, less fortunate daughter "Maggie." The mother describes herself 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 698). She also talks about having a second grade education, leading the audience to believe the mother takes pride in being a strong, practical woman with common sense. Her youngest daughter Maggie has received burns from a past fire which the family lost their home to. She is meek and often embarrassed of her burns, which she hides in her skirts. She is also smaller, and the mother describes her as "not bright" (Walker 699). Her older daughter Dee, on the other hand, likes nice things. She is pretty, bright, but self-centered. She stood outside of the burning house under a tree while her mother and sister fled from and watched it burn. As Maggie is trying on some clothes, Dee, who has long left the little house she still doesn't like, returns to visit. She's dressed up and now takes on a new, more African name. She begins taking pieces from her mother's house that represent her African American heritage. She takes a butter churning top that had been whittled by the family itself, but it is clear Dee is still shallow despite her interest in the culture, as she explains to a man she's with, "I can use the churn top as a centerpiece for the alcove table." (Walker 703) Dee also wants a quilt, who the author explains has been sewn out of pieces of grandmother's dresses and grandfather's shirts, as well as a piece of great grandpa's Civil War uniform. This upsets Maggie, who has been promised by her mother to receive the quilt for her marriage. The quilt itself is central to both the main character's and the author's concerns, because it suggests the strength to be found in connecting with her roots and past. Dee wants to hang it on the wall, as one would a museum, whereas Maggie wants to use it and can truly appreciate what it really means to their Southern, black roots. Maggie tells her mother that Dee can have the quilt, but she she looks at her daughter "hard," she sees in Maggie's scarred and hidden hands a heritage she should be proud of – not ashamed of. Her mother demands that Maggie keeps the quilt and Dee takes others, and Dee explains that it's "a new day" (Walker 705) for their heritage and that the both of them wouldn't know it by the way they live, dirty and poor. This irony could be considered that Dee actually doesn't know what her true heritage is, whereas Maggie and her mother are still experiencing their real, Southern heritage on a daily basis and not ignoring who they truly are. Overall, I fo9und the story to be a very strong piece of work, and both very easy and very difficult to analyze. You have the actual story itself of the daughters, and then you have the heritage undertones within the story. It is worth reading and really gives insight into a "fake" sort of culture versus a "real" culture.

Works Cited;

Walker, Alice. "Everyday Use." Literacies. 2^nd ed. Ed. Terence Brunk et al. New York: Norton, 2000. 697-705.