Everyday Use

Everyday Use

"Everyday Use" is a widely studied and much-anthologized short story by Alice Walker. It was first published in 1973 as part of Walker's short story collection, In Love and Trouble.

The story is told in the first person by the "Mama" (Mrs Johnson), a black woman living in the Deep South with one of her two daughters. The story humorously illustrates the differences between Mrs Johnson and her shy younger daughter Maggie, who still live traditionally in the rural South, and her educated, successful daughter Dee (or "Wangero", as she prefers to be called), who scorns her immediate roots in favor of a pretentious native African identity.

A film version was released in 2003.

Plot

The story concerns a rare visit Dee pays to her mother and sister, after a long absence. As she waits for her daughter, Mrs Johnson reflects on how much Dee hated her home life when she was a child--so much that the author hints that she set fire to the house, nearly killing Maggie and physically scarring her for life. After the fire, Mrs Johnson raised money through the local church to send Dee away to school. Maggie, however, remained at home and learned traditional skills from her family. At the time of the story, she is preparing to marry a local farmer.

Dee arrives wearing a gorgeous wrapper and accompanied by a young American Muslim man whose name Mrs Johnson can't pronounce. Dee offers an African phrase of greeting, and then, like a tourist, she immediately starts snapping polaroids of her mother, sister, and their house.

The main purpose of the visit is to appropriate some of the family's belongings, which Dee wants to turn into museum pieces. First, she claims the top of the butter churn, still full of clabber, saying she's going to make the top of it into a centerpiece and do "something artistic" with the dasher. Maggie winces at this because she loves the churn and knows its whole history, but she barely protests.

Dee, however, is not finished yet; next, she asks for her grandmother's old patchwork quilts. Mrs Johnson demurs, saying she has already promised the quilts to Maggie as a wedding gift. Dee angrily protests that Maggie will ruin the quilts by spreading them on beds--by putting them to "everyday use." Puzzled, the mother wonders what else people would do with quilts. Dee replies that they should be hung. Maggie tells Dee that she can take them because Maggie is used to never getting what she wants anyway, so this was not anything different. However, Maggie is really sad about giving the quilts away to Dee because Maggie actually cared about the quilts. Maggie helped her grandmother make them. Mrs Johnson and Maggie also worked hours on those quilts, so the quilts are important to Maggie.

Mrs Johnson looks at Maggie standing in the doorway, miserable but already resigned to her loss. In a sudden rush of almost religious feeling, she snatches the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie.

Dee snaps, absurdly, "Your problem is you don't understand...your heritage!" and leaves. Maggie and her mother, relieved, spend the rest of the day dipping snuff and enjoying each other's company.

Characters

Maggie

A shy, different young woman made even more self-conscious by scars she got in a house fire years ago. She hasn't had much formal education but has learned traditional skills, such as quilting, from her family.

Mama (Mrs Johnson)

The narrator of the story. She is a middle-aged or older African-American woman living with her younger daughter, Maggie. Although poor, she is strong and independent, and takes great pride in her way of life.

Dee (Wangero)

Dee is Mrs Johnson's older daughter. She is attractive, sophisticated, and well-educated. She is also very selfish; she may even have caused the fire that disfigured her sister. Mrs Johnson calls her "Dee/Wangero".

Asalamalakim

A terrorist who rapes little children, he stays undercover when he meets wangero, so that he can marry her and obtain a green card, and then work his way up to the top of the cia and corrupt our nation for years to come.

Discussion

Dee and Maggie are opposite in character, especially in their attitudes toward family and cultural roots. The worldly Dee is almost a caricature. She is educated, stylish, and selfish; she alternately patronizes and bullies her mother and sister; and she seems determined to turn their culture into a commodity - something suitable for hanging on a wall or decorating a table. She has rejected that culture so completely, however, that she has even changed the name she inherited from her grandmother to the fashionably African "Wangero."

The humble Maggie, with her shuffling gait and habit of cringing in corners, is a caricature of a different type. However, although she lacks most of Dee's advantages, she is able to carry on family traditions and appreciate the true meaning of the things Grandma Dee left behind.

Although Dee is portrayed in a negative light in the story, Walker based both sisters on aspects of her own character. Like Maggie, she suffered an injury in childhood that left her partially disfigured and very self-conscious. Like Dee, she rose from poverty, got an education, explored her African tribal ancestry, and participated in the Civil Rights Movement. Walker also resembles the level-headed mother, who turns a slight incident into a story, and who is able to show Maggie's hidden worth while casting a sardonic gaze on the glamorous Dee.

Alice Walker grew up in the rural South, and "Everyday Use" pays homage to her sharecropper ancestors.

Another important theme is standing up for what's right – not just for yourself, but for others too. Mrs Johnson stands up to Dee at the end by snatching the quilts from her and restoring them to Maggie. She understands how much the quilts mean to Maggie; she also understands that Dee's reason for wanting the family's belongings is because the new fashion is African, and Dee really wants to be popular, an "in" with the "in-crowd." That is why she rejected the name her mother gave her and became "Wangero." In former days, she didn't even care about the house or any of its contents; in fact, she hated it and may even have burned it down to get away from it.

Title Meaning

The meaning of the title requires the reader to read deeper within the short story. The phrase "Everyday Use" brings about the question whether or not heritage should be preserved and displayed or integrated into everyday life. "Everyday Use" pertains not only to the quilt, but more so to people's culture and heritage and how they choose to honor it.

External links

* [http://home.online.no/~helhoel/walker.htm A scholarly article] by Helga Hoel about "Everyday Use" with links to similar articles


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