Influence Of Culture In Alice Walker's Everyday Use

In the poem “Daystar”, Dove illustrates the daily life of her grandmother who is a mother and a wife. We can relate this to Dove and her grandmother because they are both mother figures in the family and each grow up from different generations. Poet Biography Rita Dove is an African American poet born on August 28,1952 in Akron, Ohio, who is married to a German writer, Fred Viebahn whom she had met in college, and a loving mother to Aviva Dove- Viebahn. (Biography.com Editors, "Rita Dove") Dove was raised in a well

Generation gap and heritage In the short story “Everyday Use”, Alice Walker has tried to show us the gap between our generations and the importance of our heritage. The story focuses on a small family consists of Mama, sister Maggie, and sister Dee. They all grew up together in the same house and was raised by their mother who was the father and the mother for them. There are conflicts and struggles that clearly shows the gap between different generations, the importance of our heritage, and the educational status. One of the main important symbols that represents the whole story is the quilt which I will take about later and explain what it symbolizes exactly.

While Mama “represents the traditional prescribed domestic role assigned to the women of her generation”, her daughter-in-law Ruth Younger represents “a generation in transition”. (Guzzio) She values the traditional role of a housewife and mother; however, she is faced with the decision of terminating her pregnancy in order to provide a better life for the child she already has. Including this topic is a very bold feminist move from Hansberry, since in the 1950’s abortions were illegal. This was “one of the first American plays to address abortion”, which Ruth sees as a way to keep the family together. (Bloom) This scene “reveals Ruth 's independence, expressing her right to choose and to assert control, yet it also depicts the desperation of a working-class woman who cannot afford to have another child.” (Bloom) Mama greatly opposes Ruth getting an abortion.

Mama even discusses the use of “scraps from dresses that Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago” (1193). Each piece of fabric represents the life and struggles of Mama’s ancestors. The quilt is a piece of history passed down from generation to generation, which embodies long lasting memories and legacy. Wangero asked, “Can I have these old quilts” (1193). Mama was not happy about the request and suggested other quilts.

“Everyday Use” The story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is a story between a mother and her two daughters. The story is mainly about a mother and one of her daughters Dee. The conflict is how they both see the world differently. There is a lot of symbolism in this story because of Dee. In Walker’s writing, redemption will take one away and bring one back, in a perhaps humbling but empowering way, to something close to home.

Everyday Use is written in first person point of view. The narrator is Mama, so everything that is written from her point of view. This perspective allows the readers to see some of Mama’s inner thoughts and personal commentary about that is happening. An example of this is, “I didn’t want to bring up how I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she has told me they were old-fashioned, out of style,” (490).

In “Everyday Use”, Alice Walker guides her audience through a story about her family and the African American heritage, simple her heritage. “Everyday Use” focuses on the three main characters Dee, Maggie, and their mother the Narrator. This story is about a mother who focus on her older daughter Dee more than the younger one Maggie, even though she is the one that stayed and took care of her. Walker describes the mother as a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands as. She than compare Dee and Maggie, who is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and fuller figure.

This exemplifies to the readers that through the mother's eyes, Maggie was so extremely upset that Dee was once again going to win by taking the quilts because Maggie truly understands the meaning of the quilts and deserves to not be defeated by Dee. The author also reveals Maggie through her mother's eyes and how she already was going to give Maggie the quilts. While the mom was talking to Dee she fortifies that ,"I promised to give them quilts to Maggie"(Walker 64). This depicts how the mother grasps the fact that Maggie is particularly familiar with the family's heritage and culture that surrounds the meaning of the quilt. The mother believes Maggie recognizes the quilt's importance to the family by it symbolizing the family's heritage and the pride and memories it

Christine Kerr states “The mother narrator reminisces how Dee always “wanted nice things” even as a tennager.” Throughout Everyday Use, Dee shows a pattern of wanting things, such as her heritage to be shown. This is why Dee changes her last name. Christine Kerr demonstrates how Dee has more than one perspective on things within her family. For example, Dee wants the quilts not just because she thinks her mother and sister don't use them properly, but because she wants to show her heritage, and to own something nicer and maybe has more

A Mother’s Promise Telling someone you love “no” might be one of the hardest things in life to do. In Alice Walker’s short story, “Everyday Use,” (re-printed in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 12th ed [Stamford: 2015] 147-154), Mama had to do that very same thing. The story is about a daughter named Dee coming back home to visit her mother, Mama, and her sister, Maggie. Dee has left home and pursued an education, which no one else in her family ever obtained. Through background info and how the visit unfolds the reader can realize that Dee has never been told “no” in her life.

Maggie, the younger daughter, was promised the quilts when Dee originally turned down the quilts before she went to College. Maggie has been living at home and understands exactly what the quilts mean to her family but plans to use the quilts with her future family.