Everyday Use, Alice Walker. Through contrasting family members and views in Everyday Use, Alice Walker illustrates the importance of understanding our present life in relation to the traditions of our own people and culture. Using careful descriptions and attitudes, Walker demonstrates which factors contribute to the values of ones heritage and Estimated Reading Time: 5 mins 1/7/ · In the short story Everyday Use, Alice Walker talks about the conflict that exists between Mama and Dee. This observation is shared by many. All the literary critic and commentator will agree that there is conflict between the mother and her eldest daughter. All of them will also agree that Mama chose to stand beside Maggie and supported her while 12/7/ · Essay, Pages 6 ( words) Views. In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, she introduces a rural black family who struggle with the meaning of heritage. To Mama, the narrator, and Maggie, the youngest daughter, heritage is whom they are, where they come from, and the everyday use of the things around blogger.comted Reading Time: 6 mins
Everyday Use by Alice Walker Free Essay Sample
To Mama, the narrator, and Maggie, the youngest daughter, heritage is whom they are, where they come from, and the everyday use of the things around them. Dee, the oldest daughter, has rejected her heritage from the beginning. She wants the better things in life and goes off to college to find them. On her return, she seems to have a newfound sense of heritage.
Walker portrays one meaning of heritage in her descriptions of Mama and Maggie. Mama says she is a big boned woman with man-working hands. She can also kill and clean a hog as well as any man. Likewise, Maggie is not a beautiful girl. She has burn scars on her arm and legs and does everything she can to hide them. Maggie is affected greatly as the first house burns to the ground. Maggie understands the connection to her heritage is burning with the house. Maggie knows how to quilt because Grandma Dee and Big Dee taught her, as they have taught Mama.
Through these descriptions, essay on everyday use by alice walker, Walker gives a sense of poverty, but also shows that the lessons taught to Mama and Maggie by their ancestors are what keep them alive. They can feed themselves, cloth themselves, and are self-sufficient, even if they do not have money. Mama and Maggie are proud of where they come from and the fact that they are keeping the traditions alive through their everyday lives.
Dee, on the other hand, has rejected her heritage from the beginning. Essay on everyday use by alice walker always wants nice things, remarks Mama. She wants black shoe for a green outfit and a yellow dress to wear to her graduation: even though these things are hard for the family to come by. Dee feels no connection to the house as part of her heritage and is glad to watch it burn. Dee also rejects her heritage by rejecting who her mother is.
Mama explains that Dee wants a mother who is a hundred pounds lighter and glamorous, essay on everyday use by alice walker. Dee does not appreciate the knowledge of her past that is living within and through her mother. At the first chance Dee gets, she runs off to college to distance her self from her family and the poor life she is leading. Dee does not realize the significance of this act as part of her heritage, nor does she care.
Dee has finally accomplished her goal, essay on everyday use by alice walker, getting away from the family and the traditions she despises. She takes pictures of Mama, Maggie, the house, and a cow that wanders by. The house that she despises has now become a focal point to her. Dee is intensely interested in the benches her father has built and the origins of an old dasher and turn top.
Dee now seems to embrace the heritage she so quickly distances herself from in the beginning. She gives a sense of appreciation for the things she once found to be vile and an appreciation for her mother and sister. Even though Dee is interested in her heritage, Mama realizes that Dee is still distancing herself from the family and the true meaning of her heritage.
Mama informs her that the name Dee can be traced back through the family tree to the Civil war and even before that. Dee dismisses this explanation. Through the changing of her name, Dee feels that she has connected with her African roots. However, she is truly disconnecting herself from the roots of her family. She tells Mama she will do artistic things with the item. All Dee can see in the items is the value they hold as art objects. Mama tells Dee she has promised the quilts to Maggie and Dee flies into a rage, essay on everyday use by alice walker.
Mama tells Dee she hopes Maggie will use the quilts because that is what they were made for. When Mama asks Dee what will she do with the quilts, Dee responds that she will hang them on the wall.
By hanging the quilts on the wall, Dee is further distancing herself from her heritage: turning essay on everyday use by alice walker into a piece of artwork. Mama has a revelation as Maggie walks into the room. Mama realizes that Maggie is the one that has a real meaning of their heritage. Maggie knows how to quilt because her ancestors taught her. Maggie knows the stories behind all of the things in the house that she and Mama put to everyday use.
Maggie essay on everyday use by alice walker the one that understand that heritage is the knowledge and memories that are inside her, not tangible objects. At this, Dee venomously tells her mother and Maggie that they do not understand their heritage. The irony is that it is Dee that does not understand her heritage.
Dee is once again hiding who she truly is behind a false façade that she has created: a creation that springs from the rejecting and perverting of her true heritage. Through Mama, Maggie, and Dee, Alice Walker gives a true definition of the word heritage. Heritage is what is inside Mama and Maggie, the memories and the skills they have inherited from their kindred. True heritage comes from the everyday use of the memories and skills that are passed down from generation to generation.
Dee personifies what heritage is not. Heritage is not hung on a wall, admired for its beauty, and then forgotten. Heritage is a living entity to be built upon by future generations. Mama realizes this in the end and sees that Maggie is the future of their heritage. Accessed May 19, Download paper. Essay, Pages 6 words. Top Writers. Verified expert. Cite this page "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker.
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Everyday Use By Alice Walker
, time: 4:31"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker: [Essay Example], words GradesFixer
17/3/ · Alice Walker short story, "Everyday Use" is built around three main characters Maggie,Mama, and Dee. These three main characters are crucial to understanding the primary concepts of the story and the historical background of the short story. Walker builds her underlying concepts through the use of the character’s/5(30) 12/7/ · Essay, Pages 6 ( words) Views. In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, she introduces a rural black family who struggle with the meaning of heritage. To Mama, the narrator, and Maggie, the youngest daughter, heritage is whom they are, where they come from, and the everyday use of the things around blogger.comted Reading Time: 6 mins Everyday Use by Alice Walker In "Everyday Use," Alice Walker stresses the importance of heritage. She employs various ways to reveal many aspects of heritage that are otherwise hard to be noticed. In the story, she introduces two sisters with almost opposite personalities and different views on heritage: Maggie and Dee
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