Alice Walker 's Everyday Use

In "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, Walker shows differences in human character, just by the way they act towards family members. The main character in the story, Mother, has two daughters that she treats very differently, and they treat her differently. One daughter looks down on Mother in a condescending manner, and the other is obedient and kind. In "Everyday Use", Walker shows that in relationships between a mother and daughters, adaptation to change can sometimes be very hard, which leads to pride and protecting what one has accomplished, and finally shows how un-appreciation can hinder these relationships.

In “Everyday Use”, Alice Walker presents an everyday average family which involves a single mother with two daughters, one who seems to have life handed to her, and the other who is shy and lacks confidence in herself due to a family tragedy. Alice Walker gives some interesting stories behind each of her main characters: Mrs. Johnson, Dee (Wangero), Maggie, and Hakim Akbar (Asalamalakim). Among the characters in the story, Mrs. Johnson stands out because she loves her daughters equally, she accepts them both, and she overcomes her conflict with Dee.

In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" Mama is the narrator. She speaks of her family of two daughters Maggie and Dee. Through the eyes of two daughters, Dee and Maggie, who have chosen to live their lives in very different manners, the reader can choose which character to identify most with by judging what is really important in one’s life. Throughout the story three themes consistently show. These themes show that the family is separated by shame, knowledge, and pride.

Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” is a short story about the family relationship between a mother and her spoiled daughter. The mother, who is affectionately called “Mama” throughout the story, lives with her younger daughter, Maggie. The older child is Dee, who has not lived at home since she was sent to Augusta to school. She is preoccupied with advancing her social status and acquiring nice things. “Dee wanted nice things. A yellow Organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit…” (Walker,492). The story revolves around Dee’s visit to see Mama and Maggie, an event which obviously does not happen often. Dee only seems to visit the family in order to claim items that Mama has not yet given to her children. As usual, Mama allows Dee to come inside the home and take whatever she wants. Yet, the relationship between Mama and Dee is a complicated one. Others may say that their relationship is strained because Dee burned their first house down. However, there is no direct proof that Dee is responsible for the fire. Their relationship is contentious and uneasy because Dee is very selfish, she wants to advance her life without considering others, mainly Maggie, and she resents that Mama is satisfied with a simple life.

The title, "Everyday Use", has a specific meaning that lashes on to the story. When the narrator, Walker

“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, is a story of a black family composed of a mother and her two daughters: Maggie and Dee. Walker does an excellent job illustrating her characters. There are all types of characters in this short story from round to static. Dee is a flat character, yet Walker uses Dee’s character to warn people of what might happen if they do not live properly. Walker describes Dee’s character as arrogant and selfish, and through Dee’s character one is allowed to perceive the wicked effect of an egotistical world.

     In the story "Everyday Use" the narrator is telling a story about her life and two daughters, who are named Dee and Maggie. The narrator is very strong willed, honest, compassionate and very concerned with the lives of her two daughters. Her daughter Dee is not content with her lifestyle and makes it hard on Maggie and the narrator. The narrator is trying to provide for her family the best way she can. The narrator is alone in raising the two daughters and later sends her daughter Dee to college. The longer the story goes on the more the narrator shows how intelligent and how much she loves her two daughters.

Everyday Use Essay In the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker the character Dee changes from being ashamed of her culture to loving everything about it, this affects the theme “The true meaning of heritage”. This story mostly takes place in the mama's yard while Dee confronts whether she sees herself as from her birth family or from Africa. At the beginning of the story Mama describes Dee by saying ”No is a word the world never learned to say to her”.

In the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker the story is being told in Mama’s point of view. The theme of the story which is brought up throughout the whole story is how Dee, Dee’s mother and her sister Maggie have different views of their heritage. Alice Walker uses characterization in the story to help shape the theme of the story. By Walker doing this it helps the reader to understand how the narrator sees her daughters and why her daughters take certain action within the story. In the story Dee sees her heritage different than her mother and her sister Maggie.

Family is important in the lives of every human. There can be good, encouraging families but their can also be ones of the negative type. Despite the personalities of the family that a child has, they have shaped the child to be the way that they are in the present and will most likely forever impact them in some way or another. There has always been a special connection with mothers and daughters, whether good or bad. Sometimes, the child feels that the mother expects too much from them and other times, the mother believes the daughter just does not care enough.

The way that Mama, the narrator of the story, emphasis on the way the yard look “so clean and wavy” (Waker) let the readers know the attachment that she and Maggie have to their home and that they spend every day of their lives taking care of their house and the thing inside it because they have an important value. As she explained, for her and Maggie the yard is “an extended living room”(Walker) because they spend most of their days in it. Maggie and Mama shared a variety of things, and one of those things is that they accept who they are and that they know about their past and culture. Maggie, like her mother, honors the memory of her ancestors. On the other hand, Dee is virtually Maggie`s opposite, she has moved toward other traditions because she never conformed with what her family provides. She never paid attention to the everyday details, like the chairs her dad made. However, after she spends time away from her home, she suddenly attempts to recover her ancient roots. Nevertheless, at the same time, she refuses to accept her immediate heritage, the heritage that her family offered. The heritage that her mother and sister

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.

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 one's heritage and culture; she illustrates that these are represented not by the possession of objects or mere appearances, but by one's lifestyle and attitude.

A daughter who uses her mother's gifts in contrast to a daughter who preserves them, is far more valuable just like in “Everyday use” by Alice Walker because heritage values can be preserved. From here on, Walker utilizes a prideful tone which later shifts into an authoritative tone by illustrating a proud mother who becomes defensive because of her modern daughter’s opposing views.

“Everyday Use” demonstrates real life struggles during the period is was written and published (1973), by using historical criticism, we can see that people are often disconnected due to their education. Alice Walker successfully shows the disconnection of heritage value by having one character well-educated and young, and another character who was not able to get an education and is much older. Taking the historical context, plays a major role in the way this short story is viewed. It was a time where people of color had a different and difficult experiences getting an education. The narrator was talking about not being able to get an education, so it was important her daughter get an education; The narrator wanted to be on a television show with her daughters to demonstrate how successful she became. However Dee the narrator's daughter sees her mother and Maggie her sister differently as if they do not know how to appreciate things for their valuable history. One example is, when she wanted the quilts that were suppose to go to Maggie; Dee gets upset that she cannot have them and her mother does not understand why she wants to put them on display.