In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” she writes about how people’s life experiences can affect the way they view the world. She uses the characters of a mother and two daughters, Maggie and Dee. The mother starts off thinking about how her children used to be, Dee would be ashamed to bring her friends to the house and distanced herself from her family. Maggie was shy and cared a lot about her family and heritage, she even burned herself saving some of her grandmother’s quilts while Dee watched from the yard safely. After the mother is done recollecting she sees her daughter Dee pull up in her car from college. She steps out in highly fashionable clothes and her husband Asalamalakim. After introductions Dee explains that she has changed …show more content…
The mother sees it as who she is and remembers her family with her culture. There is a quote where Wangero sees a dasher and wants to use it for her art and the mother sees the history behind the dasher. “Wangero said, laughing. "I can use the chute top as a centerpiece for the alcove table," she said, sliding a plate over the chute, "and I'll think of something artistic to do with the dasher."... I took it for a moment in my hands. You didn't even have to look close to see where hands pushing the dasher up and down to make butter had left a kind of sink in the wood. In fact, there were a lot of small sinks; you could see where thumbs and fingers had sunk into the wood. It was beautiful light yellow wood, from a tree that grew in the yard where Big Dee and Stash had lived.” When Wangero see this dasher she doesn’t think about how other people think about the dasher just what she thinks of it. She doesn’t think that it could have significance for Maggie and her mother which it does. Wangero even treats her heritage …show more content…
Wangero says that she changed her name because she didn’t want the name given to her because of its poor origin. “Wangero said. ‘I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.’” When wangero says this she refers to the slave owners that owned her family and gave the name Dee to one of the women when they were freed. The name was then passed down through generations. Wangero took this name away from her trying to keep her from being connected to the origin of her family. She probably did this while her mother and sister didn’t because of the different ways they were raised and grew
It follows the story of three women in chronological order. The story begins with the narrator who is known as “Mama” describing the preparations she and her daughter Maggie are making for when her other daughter Dee visits (345, 346). Now, Dee arrives at the house in a car dressed in traditional African attire, and with her a man named “Asalamalakim”, a short man with long hair. Dee introduces him to Mama and Maggie, and then they move into the house (347,348). This is when Dee informs the family that she has changed her name.
Mama tells Dee, “You know you only wrote me two letters the whole time you were gone for those 5 years, what have you been doing that I couldn’t get more letter. ”(Walker) Dee (Wangero) says, “I’ve been busy Mama.” This shows how Wangero can go that extend of time and only two letter to her mother. It was almost as if, the placed that she used to call home is now a fading facade of what it used to mean to her.
Everyday Use is about a black poor family. She is good-hearted, kind and dutiful. Rather than anger her intimidating sister, she is willing to let Dee have the quilts that had originally been promised to her. Dee is an older sister who renamed herself Wangero. Dee is educated, worldly, and deeply determined, not generally allowing her desires to be thwarted.
The point of view in the story “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker plays a big part. Throughout the story, one of Mama’s daughters came to visit. The way Mama and Maggie see her is not in a very pleasant way. In fact, they are scared to tell her no when it comes to anything. From Mama’s perspective Dee seems like this rude, stuck up, spoiled child because she had the opportunity to go out and expand her education, while Mama and Maggie continued to live their lives on the farm.
This is also evident from the character of Dee who has chosen to change her given name and then also connect with her provided roots of Africa while her mother is also seeing herself as been within the network of her immediate family traditions. Dee also depicts the idea that how she lacks the given understanding of her own heritage. She has rejected the idea of her immediate family but however puts the values which the quilts have made. She also
Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo [Dee] is a fascinating character in “Everyday Use” written by Alice Walker. The story is over an African American mother and her two daughters. The story focuses on one daughter, Dee that is coming home to visit her family. She grew up wanting to become a different a person, and she hated how she lived when she was with her mom and sister. Dee is spoiled, tenacious, and ignorant in this short story.
Since, Maggie has been under her mother’s protection for most of her life she has acquired a lifetime skill of quilting, which has been past down from generation from generation. So when Dee/Wangero demands to obtain the quilts made by her grandmother in that instance Maggie realized that she will be more connected to her heritage than her older sister will every be. "She can have them, Mama," Maggie said, like
The short story, Everyday Use, is written by Alice Walker. This short story tells about the narrator, mama, and her daughter Maggie wait for a visit from Dee, mama’s older daughter. Throughout this short story, the reader can see the distraught relationship between mama and Dee. The reader can see how Dee is different than mama and Maggie; she thinks that she knows way more about her heritage than mama and Maggie, when she really does not. In the short story, Everyday Use, Walker uses imagery, symbolism, and point of view to show that heritage can only be understood when one is true to their roots.
Alice Walker wrote what Mama said about Dee or Wangero, “Dee wanted nice things.” Mama describes Dee as a lavish person who is only interested in herself and her fulfilling’s. Dee had changed her name to show that she is not accepting that a “white person” named her ancestors in way, so it can be passed down. Walker describes Mama as someone who is satisfied with what they have. “I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon,” Walker demonstrates how Mama is pleased with nature where her life takes place in.
The Symbolism of Quilts in Everyday Use Alice Walker’s 1973 short story, Everyday Use, is about a rivalry between a mother and her daughter, and how they have a complicated relationship in regards to their heritage. The two characters named Mama who narrates the story and Dee who was the annoying, selfish one have a complex relationship. The issues both of them had was that Dee cares about her life and being smarter than caring about her family, and Mama became upset. Mama with the help of her sister, and mother has decided to create clothing called quilts. The quilts were handmade, used for bedding, and portrayed the artistry of the family.
In “Everyday Use”, Alice Walker guides her audience through a story about her family and the African American heritage, simple her heritage. “Everyday Use” focuses on the three main characters Dee, Maggie, and their mother the Narrator. This story is about a mother who focus on her older daughter Dee more than the younger one Maggie, even though she is the one that stayed and took care of her. Walker describes the mother as a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands as. She than compare Dee and Maggie, who is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and fuller figure.
For example, the author uses the quilts to serve as a universal and a cultural symbol because it represents the seamless, multi-generational bonds in the family. In addition, Walker uses quilts in order to release tension in the relationship between the mother and the daughter. Another contextual symbol is Dee’s new name, Wangero, which exemplifies the extent to which she feels superior to her family in an ironic attempt to appreciate her heritage. Before the reader even sees Dee, her mother tells the reader that she was always the kind of person who would “look anyone in the eye” and that “hesitation was no part of her nature”. From this, the reader can infer that Dee or Wangero feels no limitations in a liberated manner towards all people.
Dee has broken away from her family and has adopted a life on her own, even having a partner by the name of Hakeem-a-barber and changing her name from Dee to Wangero, even though she was named after her Aunt Dee. Dee forgot about her culture and wants the family quilt for the having it as part of the trend. Maggie
She stated that “Dee” was dead and her new name was “Wango Leewanika Kemanjo.” Unlike her sister, Maggie wasn’t very attractive, mainly because of the scars she had obtained from the house fire, and she had a low self-esteem. Maggie seemed to like her home and traditions and didn’t want a different lifestyle. She did not care for all of the materialistic things as Wango (Dee) did. Maggie saw more sentimental value in things that Dee would see as useless or as something to take advantage of, like when Dee asked her mother for the “old quilts” (7).
(pg. 1512). Dee, described in this quote as “her”, is an outsider to Mrs. Johnson. She is simply a stranger - a guest that she is preparing to host. By allowing the reader to witness the divide that Mrs. Johnson and Maggie have with Dee, it sets up a platform for Walker to illustrate her views of memory and tradition. Dee’s mother and sister