Everyday Use by Alice Walker
"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker is a poignant short story that explores themes of heritage, identity, and the contrasting values between generations. The narrative is centered around a mother and her two daughters, Dee and Maggie. The mother, a strong, hardworking woman, reflects on her life in a rural setting as she prepares for Dee's visit. Dee, who has embraced a more modern, educated lifestyle, returns home with a new identity and an appreciation for her cultural roots that she previously dismissed. This encounter reveals deep-seated conflicts regarding the meaning of heritage and the ways it should be honored.
Maggie, the younger sister, is portrayed as timid and scarred, both physically and emotionally, from past trauma. The tension escalates when Dee expresses a desire to take family heirlooms, including quilts that have been promised to Maggie. This conflict highlights different perspectives on cultural appreciation – Dee wants to preserve these items for their aesthetic value, while Maggie and their mother see them as integral to their everyday lives. Ultimately, the story culminates in a powerful moment of maternal defiance, as the mother asserts her own understanding of heritage. Through this narrative, Walker invites readers to consider the complexities of cultural identity and the significance of everyday objects in maintaining familial connections.
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Everyday Use by Alice Walker
First published: 1973
Type of plot: Social realism
Time of work: The late 1960's
Locale: Rural Georgia
Principal Characters:
The narrator , a middle-aged black womanMaggie , her younger daughterDee , her older daughterDee's male companion
The Story
"Everyday Use" is narrated by a woman who describes herself as "a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands." She has enjoyed a rugged farming life in the country and now lives in a small, tin-roofed house surrounded by a clay yard in the middle of a cow pasture. She anticipates that soon her daughter Maggie will be married and she will be living peacefully alone.
The story opens as the two women await a visit from the older daughter, Dee, and a man who may be her husband—her mother is not sure whether they are actually married. Dee, who was always scornful of her family's way of life, has gone to college and now seems almost as distant as a film star; her mother imagines being reunited with her on a television show such as "This Is Your Life," where the celebrity guest is confronted with her humble origins. Maggie, who is not bright and who bears severe burn scars from a house fire many years before, is even more intimidated by her glamorous sibling.
To her mother's surprise, Dee arrives wearing an ankle-length, gold and orange dress, jangling golden earrings and bracelets, and hair that "stands straight up like the wool on a sheep." She greets them with an African salutation, while her companion offers a Muslim greeting and tries to give Maggie a ceremonial handshake that she does not understand. Moreover, Dee says that she has changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, because "I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me." Dee's friend has an unpronounceable name, which the mother finally reduces to "Hakim-a-barber." As a Muslim, he will not eat the pork that she has prepared for their meal.
Whereas Dee had been scornful of her mother's house and possessions when she was younger (even seeming happy when the old house burned down), now she is delighted by the old way of life. She takes photographs of the house, including a cow that wanders by, and asks her mother if she may have the old butter churn whittled by her uncle; she plans to use it as a centerpiece for her table. Then her attention is captured by two old handmade quilts, pieced by Grandma Dee and quilted by the mother and her own sister, known as Big Dee. These quilts have already been promised to Maggie, however, to take with her into her new marriage. Dee is horrified: "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" she says, "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use."
Although Maggie is intimidated enough to surrender the beloved quilts to Dee, the mother feels a sudden surge of rebellion. Snatching the quilts from Dee, she offers her instead some of the machine-stitched ones, which Dee does not want. Dee turns to leave and in parting tells Maggie, "It's really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it." Maggie and her mother spend the rest of the evening sitting in the yard, dipping snuff and "just enjoying."
Bibliography
Banks, Erma Davis, and Keith Byerman. Alice Walker: An Annotated Bibliography, 1968-1986. New York: Garland, 1989.
Christian, Barbara. "Novel for Everyday Use: The Novels of Alice Walker." In Black Women Novelists: The Development of a Tradition, 1892-1976. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980.
Lauret, Maria. Alice Walker. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.
McMillan, Laurie: "Telling a Critical Story: Alice Walker's In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens." Journal of Modern Literature 23, no. 1 (Fall, 2004): 103-107.
Noe, Marcia. "Teaching Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use': Employing Race, Class, and Gender, with an Annotated Bibliography." Eureka Studies in Teaching Short Fiction 5, no. 1 (Fall, 2004): 123-136.
Parker-Smith, Bettye J. "Alice Walker's Women: In Search of Some Peace of Mind." In Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation, edited by Mari Evans. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1984.
Tate, Claudia. Black Women Writers at Work. New York: Continuum, 1983.
Willis, Susan. "Black Woman Writers: Taking a Critical Perspective." In Making a Difference: Feminist Literary Criticism, edited by Gayle Greene and Coppelia Kahn. London: Methuen, 1985.