The irony of turning down one of these quilts before she left for college is lost on Wangero. Mrs. Johnson tries another tactic and tells her those quilts were promised to her sister Maggie, and Wangero states that Maggie cannot possibly appreciate them because she would put them to everyday use. When Mrs. Johnson hopes that Maggie will get some use out of them, Wangero is horrified at the thought of anyone using these suddenly priceless quilts. They are to be
For example, Mama understood how much Maggie values the quilts so she “‘promised to give them quilts to Maggie, for when she marries John Thomas”’(119). The quilts are valued tremendously by Mama and she entrusts Maggie to value them just as much when she promises to give the quilts to Maggie when she marries. Mama entrusts that Maggie will not only value the quilts, but that she will play her role in the family heritage by passing the quilts onto the next generation. In addition, Maggie has also shown a great desire in wanting the quilts as shown when Mama and Dee are in a dispute over who receives the quilts, “I heard something fall in the kitchen, and a minute later the kitchen
In Alice Walker 's’ short story “Everyday Use” she presents two different views on culture. The story is about Mrs. Johnson and her two daughters in Georgia during the early 1970’s. The story is narrated by Mrs. Johnson and describes a time when she must decide which daughter to give two family quilts to. Her oldest daughter, Dee, is visiting home from college and believes the quilts should be hung on the wall and preserved as a way to show off their culture to future generations. Maggie, the younger daughter, was promised the quilts when Dee originally turned down the quilts before she went to College.
We all come from different background. We all have a different story about our ancestors and heritage. In the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, Dee felt the need to go on a quest to embrace her roots. Dee’s actions symbolize that she wants to embrace her African culture. Dee does several things in order to connect with her roots by changing her appearance, changing her name, and wanting a family quilt.
(Pg.57, lines 210-211) It is considered one of the main conflicts because of how valuable the quilts are to Maggie and
The mother, Maggie, and Dee all have different views on their meaning of heritage. Dee seems more interested in material things, rather than having a true appreciation of her heritage and the value of the quilts. Maggie wants the quilts for sentimental value and as a representation of who she is and her past. She realizes the true value of the quilts, unlike Dee. In the story, Maggie states, “She can have them Mama, I can ‘member Grandma Dee without the quilts” (l77), meaning she understands her heritage and the value of the
As she looks at her quilts, Mama remembers that a certain patch came from her grandfather's paisley shirts, that some pieces came from dresses that Grandma Dee wore 50 years earlier, and even that there was a very small piece of her great-grandfather's Civil War uniform. From this, we can all see how and why they mean so much to her. To Dee, the quilts are a quaint "primitive" art. To Mama and Maggie, they represent more than that. They are family memories, very personal and very special mementos of loved ones who are gone.
In Alice Walker’s short story Everyday Use, readers are given a look inside the thoughts of Ms. Johnson as she is reunited with her daughter Dee or “Wangero” as she now calls herself. What makes this short story thought provoking is the way Walker depicts Ms. Johnson’s reaction to Dee’s new found identity and new found appreciation for a life she once despised. Ms. Johnson noted that as a child, Dee hated their previous home which burned down years ago: this also resulted in Maggie’s burn scars. The purpose of this essay is to explore the symbolism embodied in the family’s yard, Maggie’s burn scars, the trunk with quilts and Dee’s Polaroid camera. It is obvious in this story that Dee has untasteful intentions for the use of her family’s heritage for vain purposes.
Mama, a “big boned woman with rough, man-working hands,” awaits her daughter’s (Dee) return in the literary piece Everyday Use (70). When returning home, Dee’s only mission was to ask for two specific quilts with hopes of hanging her heritage on display. Ordinarily Maggie, Dee’s sister, was once a bright, generous, young girl with abundant potential. Explicitly, one day, Maggie was damaged significantly in a fire in which transformed her entire life. The fire turned a once intelligent, social undeveloped girl into a terrified, hopeless juvenile, along with the failed assistance of her family.
The setting of Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” reveals important aspects about the family in many ways. Without the enriched setting provided to the reader by Walker, this story would have had no foundation on which to be built. The first way Walker uses setting to let the reader get to know the family is through the detailed description provided to the reader about the family home in paragraph one. Walker describes the family’s front yard as being an “extended living room” (Walker 417)
She admires Dee's education and her desire to learn about her ancestors, but she is also aware of Dee's hatred for her family's way of life. Dee's hatred takes away from the true meanings of the quilts because those quilts represent their family's way of life. A life of not wasting dirty or “old clothes” but repurposing them into something beautiful and useful (Walker, 1973, para. 62). Then when it comes to Maggie, Mama feels a close bond with Maggie, who is more like herself in personality and interests. While also having learned the family traditions of learning skills that can be used around the house.
Dee’s desire to use her family’s treasures as decorations rather than practical objects to be used every day is evidence of her mindset that her family heritage is a thing of the past and no longer relevant to her life. Conclusion The story “Everyday Use” highlighted the lack of respect and reverence that Dee had for her family and her heritage. During the time period in which the story was set, this concept was important in Southern African-American culture and to Dee’s family.
“the quilts are the central symbol of the story representing the connectedness of history and intergenerational tries of the family” (“everyday use”). This means that the quilts mean heritage and remind the daughters of grand mom dee. The quilts are fought over at the end of the story because of the meaning of them. One daughter wants them for everyday use and one wants them just to have them because it means heritage to her. The mother at the end of the story agrees that they should be used for everyday use.
‘Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!’ She said. ‘She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.’ … ‘But, they're priceless!’ ” (172).
Maggie’s burns and scars are a representation of the African American’s journey through rough, hard times we still face in this time period. The quilt symbolizes each person in the Johnson’s family throughout history being passed down from Mrs. Johnson’s mother to her and now to Maggie, which shows their family’s tradition and culture. Maggie and Mrs. Johnson see it as an ordinary purpose, whereas Dee, being furious and in favor of the black history but not the slave history “you don’t know your heritage” (317) identifies this quilt to have more meaning behind as a representation of her culture that needs to be hanged up in a museum to show people how far the African American culture has come. Ultimately, the African American culture should be embraced as well as the African culture.
