Critical Analysis of Everyday Use Essay

Critical Research Essay on Everyday Use by Alice Walker

It is argued that Dee Johnson is a shallow, insensitive, self- absorbed daughter and sister. Critics say she passed up her right to her true heritage for a false African heritage all because she has adopted an African name and she has failed to learn how to quilt, a skill that critics will have you believe is vital to Dees understanding of her true identity. Her hair and style of dress are called into question as though they are a deliberate slap in the face to her family. Dee is lambasted for wanting to protect and display everyday household items that were handmade by her now deceased relatives. She cannot even take a picture of her familys house without critics attacking this act as her need to prove where she came from. Dees generation is experiencing a Cultural Revolution and Dee is embracing these new ideologies. These accusations, along with others, are an unfair critical view of a sharp-witted, attractive, intelligent women who has used her God-given qualities to better herself, wish better for her family and try to identify not only with her present day heritage but also with the ancestral heritage that many black Americans share.

Not only do her critics find this display of cultural insight a slight to her true heritage but her Mama appears to have some reservations concerning her daughters motivations as well. Prior to Dees arrival home, Mama is recalling her recurring dream of how she thinks Dee would prefer Mama to look and act. It is unfair of Mama to assume that Dee would prefer her

a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like uncooked barley pancake (456). Mama is putting words in Dees mouth and intimating that Dee is shallow and critical of her Mamas appearance. Susan Farrell writes that it is Mama who is ashamed of her own appearance and very much seeks her daughters approval (1). I believe this to be true. The reader only has Mamas side of the dream; we have no reason to believe that this is Dees desire. Farrell concurs It is important to remember, though, that this Johnny Carson daydream is Mamas fantasy of a mother-child reunion, not Dees (2).

Dee and Mama seem to be opposites in many ways, for Mamas dream ends with her own self-debasing question of Who ever knew a Johnson with a quick tongue? (456). Yet, Mama recognizes, even as a young school girl, Dees ability to use words to her advantage. Mama remembers the effect Dee had over her friends with her use of the Well-turned phrase and scalding humor (457). Mama and Dee are cut from two different pieces of cloth. Mama is shy and nervous around white people, Who could ever imagine me looking a strange white man in the eye? (456) and she brags that Dee would always look anyone in the eye. Hesitation was no part of her nature (456). It is because of Dees self assurance and quick mind that Dee has been able to move from her humble beginnings to a world of modern thought and opportunity.

Mama laments Dees imagined negative assessment of the home that she and Dees sister Maggie share No doubt when Dee sees it she will want to tear it down (457). However, when Dee arrives at the house after greeting her mother and sister, Dee quickly goes back to the car to get a Polaroid camera. Dee takes several pictures of Mama and Maggie, even including a cow that is grazing nearby. Mamas comment of She never takes a shot without making sure the house is included (458) makes it sound as though Dee has some motive behind her picture taking. Many critics such as Joan S. Korenman delight in Mamas words using then as one more piece of evidence of Dees shallow trendiness(282). Of Dees wanting these pictures because the familys now quaintly fashionable tin-roofed house (282) is proof positive of her authenticity, her roots in the soil of rural Georgia (Butler2434). Could it be, however, that Dee, who lives far from her family and visits infrequently, just wants some current photographs of her mother and sister? Perhaps, Dee realizes that if the photos are not snapped as soon as she arrives home, she may lose the moment.

Upon Dees arrival, Mama is quick to dislike the dress Dee is wearing. It is too bright and too colorful, A dress so loud it hurts my eyes (458). Houston A. Baker and Charlotte Pierce-Baker are quick to condemn Dees colorful African styled dress by quoting Mama There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun. I feel my whole face warming from the heat waves it throws out (416). They neglect to include Mamas final assessment of the outfit, I like it (458) she says as Dee walks closer. Dee has always been stylish. It is not fair of Baker and Pierce-Baker to label her as manipulated by the style-makers (416). Her own Mama tells us At sixteen she had style of her own: and knew what style was (457). It would make sense that Dee, being immersed in the new African culture, would don a flowing colorful dress reminiscent of African fashion. Dee was a clotheshorse and fashion monger from early on. Mama recounts that Dee wanted A yellow organdy dress for graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit shed made from an old suit somebody gave her (457). It only seems right that she would dress to the nines to go visit her Mama. From the time Dee was a child Mama knew that Dee wanted nice things (457). Mama would expect nothing less from her daughter.

One of the chief complaints that critics have of Dee is that she has changed her ancestral American name in favor of an African name that has no ties to the Johnson family. Critic David Cowart decries: An American who attempts to become an African succeeds only in becoming a phony (289). So, does this mean that if I, as an Irish American, wish to learn Gaelic and step dancing, play Irish music, call my son Sean and serve corned beef and cabbage, I am a phony? Critics such as Joan S. Korenman deplore this name change saying Nowhere is Dees lack of real concern for her familys heritage more apparent than in her explanation of her change of name (282). I disagree. Dee changing her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo does come across as a bit of over kill and her defiant statement that I couldnt bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me is a bit dramatic. However, Dees point is well taken that even though her baptismal name can be traced for several generations the origin probably came out of the white society. Without much hesitation, Mama acknowledges this rational by her willingness to use the new name. Dee for her part shows respect to Mama by telling her You dont have to call me by it if you dont want to (459). Each woman seems to have a thin grasp of the others point of view and as Susan Farrell points out, Dee has much to learn about honoring her particular and individual family history, but Mama has much to learn about the history of African Americans in general, and about fighting oppression(3). Critics must give Dee some leeway, for she is awakening to a new and exciting revelation that black Americans can be who they want to be and not what their white oppressors want them to be. As Dee tells Maggie: Its really a new day for us (461).

The apex of this storys critical cry comes when Dee has the nerve to request the hand stitched quilts made by her Grandmother Dee and Big Dee. Quilts, that Mama, who is not willing to point out were offered to Dee prior to her leaving for college, has promised to Maggie. This is where critics like Korenman have a hay day accusing Dee of losing all her home spun heritage, because she would rather preserve these quilts then let Maggie use them as bed covers. Korenman correctly reiterates Dees original youthful sentiments of the quilts When her mother offered her the quilts some years earlier, she disdained them as old fashioned, out of style (282). Any teenage girl going off to a big city college would think her mother a lunatic at the suggestion she take the old home spun quilts with her. It has already been established that Dee works very hard at being stylish and arriving with old hand sewn quilts would not be considered an appropriate fashion accessory for a freshman. Korenman offers a simple explanation of Dees new found desire for the quilts:Dee covets them simply because such artifacts of the Southern black heritage are now in vogue (282). I must counter that Dee, being an intelligent woman, can see that such artifacts are disappearing from the homes of her countrymen and she has the foresight to want to gather them up and protect what she can so that future generations will be able to appreciate the labors of the past.

Dees inability to acquire the quilts does leave her disappointed and confused. She is exasperated that Mama can only see these quilts as blankets for everyday use and does not understand the importance of preserving her disappearing culture. A new day is dawning as Dee says, but for items such as Uncle Buddys hand hewn butter churn and the benches her Daddy made, the coming future is grim. Items such as these will soon be discarded to the junk heap in favor of new, improved, modern mass produced appliances and furnishings. Dee may w ell be a visionary in her attempt to deprive the landfills of her vanishing heritage.

The whirl wind that is Dee Johnson came and went in a matter of hours, leaving behind bewilderment in her wake. Mama can do nothing but catch her breath and settle back in her chair with Maggie at her side to ruminate over the words of her older daughter. Mama may never understand that Dees new found African heritage is not dismissing the importance of current generational teachings. Dees heritage is offering many black Americans an expanded knowledge of their cultural history. Overzealous as Dee may be, her wish for Mama and Maggie to improve their lot in life is not only for themselves, but more importantly, for future generations. Critics will always accuse Dee-Wangero of disrespecting her past, of forgetting where she came from and wanting to become someone she is not. They, like Mama, may refuse to see the love she has for her family heritage and her desire for opportunity.