Alice Walker
Everyday Use
Critically examine the representation of culture groups and communities in one or more texts studied.
I have chosen to focus my study upon the novel by Alice Walker, Everyday Use. From the texts studied Everyday Use appealed to me the most and stood out as being a great representation of different culture groups and communities, and ultimately how they affect identity. It is a complex story of different ideals and what it means to be part of a community or culture group, a story of what we inherit unintentionally and what we then choose to inherit when exposed to other cultures.
Everyday Use is almost an historical novel, based upon Dees family history. It is very much about African identity and Dees reaction to this having leaving home and moving to university. On one side there is the history of her immediate family, having lived through the civil war. However there is also the history of the culture and community in which her family belong to, dating back hundreds of years to the time of African slavery and oppression. Choosing to end the novel with 1973 also indicates that Alice Walkers wants the reader to place the texts historically, after the years of the apartheid in America, when segregation was law. It also means that the reader may then understand why Dee is so confused about her identity and why her family find it so difficult to move on and away from their southern African American routes.
Everyday Use is specifically from a womans point of view, it is a personal account of a womans experience of history. Quilting for example was a huge part of African American culture for women, often associated with the south. In the 1980s, partially inspired by Walkers works, many studies, including those by cultural and feminist critics such as Elaine Showalter, explored the relationship between the quilt as metaphor and American literature and culture Christian (1994:4) When Dee asked to take the Quilts back to university she appears confused about their history. She is aware of their significance but doesnt realise that quilts were often made and passed down through the family, telling the family story in pictures. If Dee took the quilt away the story would end as she is unable to quilt. If left with Maggie, the story of their family would continue.
Dee moved back enough so that I couldnt reach the quilts. They already belonged to her Norton Anthology (2007:3014).
Maggie cant appreciate these quilts! she said. Shed probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use Norton Anthology (2007:3015) Dee only now after being educated knows the worth of these quilts and in her opinion after studying them they cannot be put to use in everyday life but placed on her wall in a frame or in a museum to be admired. Maybe now she has discovered that with this time of change would soon come a fragmented history and the quilts along with the memories would soon be few and rare. She can have them mama Norton Anthology (2007:3015) It is as though Maggie knows history is instilled in her and her ability to quilt. Dee may have knowledge but Maggie will continue a history and it is in her very embodiment to do so, her calling. Its almost humorous with that Dee should say You ought to try make something of yourself, too Maggie. Its really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama live youd never know it Norton Anthology (2007:3016) Immediately Maggie and her mother know that Dee has just contradicted herself, she may be aware of her heritage but her heritage still exist today and is living in the form of her mother and sister. She wants them to move on and enter the western world yet she also wants to cling to their belongings which are essential to their everyday lives.
Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. Christian (1994:23) Dee now makes Maggie feel inadequate and almost ashamed that she has not broken free from her home and history. Yet there is also a sense that she is quite happy the way she is, if only Dee didnt remind her every time she came back to visit how slowly time had moved and how she was almost a part of history rather than the present.
The sense of contentment or rather a lack of desire to change is a theme throughout the novel. The fact that their shack burnt down and they had another rebuilt exactly the same. It is three rooms, just like the one that burned, except the roof is tin. Christian (1994:26) Dee in my opinion represents the outside world and almost her mothers only way of accessing it apart from the Television which they appear to have acquired which seems odd in a tin shack. Dee is the only nag her mother has to contend with, No doubt when Dee sees it she will want to tear it down. Christian (1994:27) Dee claims that they choose to live there. As we only have the mothers prospective it seems almost as battle of whom to believe.
Walker presents two worlds, the inside- the mothers world and the outside the daughters world. This could also represent how the mother has been raised, always feeling that something from the outside was trying to change her or enslave her because of the colour of her skin, because she was different.
There is a contrast between the cultures is not just the physicality of a woman, the shape of the bodies or the roughness of their hands but their appearance in terms of clothing. The clothing you choose to wear can speak volumes as to what culture or community you belong to. Dee returns home reflecting the University culture, flamboyant clothing, growing, fast moving society, following trends that last merely weeks. Dees mother however reflects a culture and history that dates back hundreds of years and has seen little of a revamp since the British landed on African soil. Her mother recalls how Dee would make suits for her graduation out of her old clothing. Dee wanted nice things. A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit shed made from an old suit somebody gave me, Christian (1994:26) Dee was determined almost to fit into another culture that even though financially her family couldnt afford it she would make every effort to ensure she fitted in and had the right attire. At sixteen she had style of her own: and knew what style was. Christian (1994: 26) The cutting up of her mothers clothes in my opinion was almost Dee sub-consciously saying if her mother wasnt going to make use of the suit she had been given then Dee certainly would. The fact her mother had a suit sitting in the closet in the first place illustrates a lack of want to move on in terms of education and even sophistication. A suit in my opinion represents an authority or class worn by people who are often successful, professionals. Dee mothers chose not to wear the suit she had been given, possibly because a suit would be incredibly impractical applied to her everyday life, she could not chase after hog and kill it in a suit. Yet Dee could easily apply the suit to the life style she would soon acquire. However you could argue that it is not Dee that is image obsessed but in fact her mother, it is her account after all. She spends a lot a time describing in detail what Dee is wearing when she returns home, The dress is loose and flows, and as she walks closer, I like it Norton Anthology (2007:3012)
Mama when did Dee ever have friends? Norton Anthology (2007:3012). It was almost as if Dee was ashamed to bring her friends to her home, that the image she obtained at school did not match the image of her home life and she didnt want her friends to associate her with a certain culture.
Dont get up Norton Anthology (2007:3013). Dee wants to picture her family in their natural habitat, truly as they are. Only now, now she is part of the western world she wants to take pictures to show her friends, pictures of a shack that once she wouldve danced around the ashes had she the opportunity. She never take a shot without making sure the house included, (2007: 3013) ironic really, but now she is at a safe distance from this community she can take pictures as if a tourist.
Dee informs her mother that she has changed her to name to Wangero Lee- anika Kemanjo, I couldnt bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me (2007:3013) Dee now belongs to another community, the religion of Islam. Founded in the 1930s in Detroit, the faith of Islam was renowned for members such as Mohammed Ali around the time that this novel was written. Black Americans who followed the Islamic faith believed that integration was wrong and that they no longer wanted to live amongst white people or be governed by them. That God will bring about a universal government. Louis Franklin a founder of the faith said, White people are potential humansthey havent evolved yet. It is ironic in a sense that Dee belongs to this community; she changed her name because it was seen as a slave name but in doing so became very much part of a white community, almost treating objects used in everyday life as souvenirs to show her friends at university. Dee therefore was very much part of the integration, maybe she wanted to abolish her Black African American name and Islam was an easier route to do so fewer questions would be asked of her.
I had never had an education myself. After second grade the school was closed down Christian (1994:26) Dees mother belonged to a community where the closing of school was not protested, if anything it would mean the children could return to their duties milking the cows or catching dinner. The mother doesnt appear to have any regrets about not receiving an education in fact she claims Colored asked fewer questions than they do now Christian (1994:26) It was a privilege for a short while but not a necessity, Dees mother knew what was essential to live. Dee also knew what was essential for her to live, mentally, almost like the story described by Virginia Woolf. The story of the woman who was not able to use her talents would surely go insane. In order for a woman to write fiction she must have two things, certainly: a room of her own (with lock and key) and enough money to support herself. Christian (1994:42) Dee was a gifted intelligent child she had the drive unlike her sister Maggie, yet would she have half witch half wizard Christian (1994:43) had she not been able to use her talents. But how could this be otherwise? Captured at seven, a slave of wealthy, doting whites who instilled in her the savagery of Africa they rescued her from Christian (1994:43) How indeed could it be otherwise for Dees mother and grandmother. Maybe they didnt have the talents of Dee so therefore did not feel a desire to be educated or a desire for change but had Dee been born in their era she would have known little of education. Barbara. T Christian describes the story of a young girl Phillis Wheatley a slave in the 1700s a very gifted young lady unable to use her talents and instead died of malnutrition, neglect and who knows what mental agonies Christian (1994:43)
This is very much a story of conflicting ideologies. I dont believe Dee (Wangero) intended to turn her back on the history she had inherited but instead she lost it for a short while whilst trying to find her own identity. Then when it came to picking up the pieces again it seemed she was making rather a mess and upsetting her family who had never been on that path to discovery or had the opportunity. I believe Walker very cleverly invites the audience think from one perspective and then another. I at first felt as though the mother should in fact move on from their rough and tough lives and days of slavery. I felt that Dee had been bold and made a huge step in taking every opportunity now accessible to her. I understood how hard it mustve been for Dee to see her family still living what seemed an oppressed life when they could be getting an education, living in a home with a dishwasher, windows, a television and buying cheese from a supermarket rather than churning it yourself. However towards the end of the novel I realised it was not that Dees mother and Maggie did not want to move on from the days of slavery and oppression but in fact they did not want to abandon the culture and community they had always known.
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