Analysis of Everyday Use Essay

Everyday Use Analysis

Everyday Use is a compelling story of a mother's conflicting relationships with her two daughters. Maggie, which the mother feels contains more practical and traditional ways of living life and then Dee her oldest and most promising daughter, who she feels has broken away from tradition and has lost a lot of their heritage. At first glance you would see this as the normal mother daughter spat of maybe the wild child versus the little miss do right. This story holds a much deeper and important meaning. Everyday use tells the struggle to keep hold of African American culture in the late 1960s early 1970s, when most African Americans were searching for their roots. Many African Americans abandoned the thought of also being an American; they were separating themselves and only claiming the African heritage. The Author Alice Walker contends that African Americans are just that African and American, and that to neglect part of your heritage is unethical.

Mamas character is the one who defines the meaning of African American culture, in the beginning of the story mama shows envy and also resentment towards her daughter Dees candid but overall superficial ways. Dee is portrayed as a bright, intelligent and outspoken individual with all the eccentricities of the black power movement. Mamas character shows love for her daughter but also hatred for her new found identity. Mama at one point in the story imagines her and Dee being reunited on a talk show and the scene playing out like most would, with lots of tears and embraces of love. But even before she imagines this pleasant scene mama saysWhat would they do if parent and child came on the show only to curse out and insult each other? Mamas envy is also expressed through a thought were she truthfully admits that she could not look a strange man in the eye, referring to Johnny Carson hosting the reunion show and then goes on to say Dee, though. She would always look anyone in the eye. Hesitation was no part of her nature. This represents the confusion many African Americans felt from the new found Black Power Movement mama wants be reunited with her daughter with love but on the other hand still has her reservations, mama envies the attributes of her daughter but still is withholding. This is same thing many African Americans did during this era in relation to the movement.

Mama is also faced with Dees new name change. During the Black Power movement many African Americans changed their names in order to shed the America culture they felt was forced upon them. In Everyday use when Mama calls Dee by the name she has given her at birth, Dee responds Not Dee, Wangero Leewaika Kemanjo! Mama was taken aback and asked her well what happened to Dee? Dee stated Shes dead; I couldnt bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me. Mama next felt alienated just how many African Americans did, see Mama named Dee from a long line of heritage in her family and Dee had rejected it and cut off the lines of heritage. In fact when Wangero asked her mother were the name came from Mama replied that if traced I probably could have carried it back beyond the Civil War though the braches. Mama in this part of the story reflects the sadness from the loss of heritage that many African Americans neglected on their journey to find a place in the world.

As soon as Dee entered the house she began to pillage the house for things that would represent her culture. She found the churn top and the dash, she felt its handprints with excitement of the past and claimed that she must have them. But never fully realized this also symbolized the plight of her ancestors, the self-engraved hand prints symbolized the work put into the fields during slavery. Dee even had to ask Didnt Uncle Buddy whittle it out of a tree you all used to have? She did not know herself, and when her boyfriend (or husband) asked who also made the dasher. She couldnt reply, instead Maggie did stating Aunt Dees first husband whittled the dash, and that His name was Henry, but they called him Stash. This is an inherent meaning that with the transformation to the Black Panther movement our heritage was being forgotten.

The quilts in this story represent African American heritage, they symbolize the pain, tears and struggle African Americans had to go through in the United States. The sisters conflict over who should have the quilts shows the struggle between the Black Power movement and the African American, and who should define its heritage. Dee when asked what she would do with the quilts, she stated Hang them. Dee also vagrantly argued that her sister Maggie would use put the quilts to everyday use. See Dees argument represents the Black Power movement by using the quilts to hang as a status symbol, to remind her of the social and economic status she has currently obtained. Maggies use symbolizes the African American culture to purely remember the heritage not to rank with statuses or to compare. Alice Walker distinctively allows us to know which argument she feels is right when in the story Mama grabs the quilts out of Dees hands and places them in Maggies lap.

I believe that Alice Walker was genuinely trying to alert African Americans to remember their entire heritage and not to only embrace the Black Power movement because it seemed more pleasant. African American culture came with pain and struggle and yes, heartache but that is what makes us African American. We cannot truly embrace where we came from unless we accept all of it. All of our past is what has made us who we are today, not just a portion. Alice was trying to get us to realize the importance of our full line of heritage and that to cut some of it off is not only hurting ourselves but is disrespectful to our ancestors who got us this far.