Persuasive Moves In Alice Walker's Short Story 'Everyday Use'

Christian Manarang
5th Period
1/19/2022
Pre-AP English 10 Final
Dee’s (Wangero) Persuasive Moves

Whether it be convincing our parents to buy us something or convincing ourselves that something is not as bad as it seems, people all tried to convince someone of something at some point or another. People do this in an assortment of ways, whether it be begging or well-reasoned arguments. In Alice Walker’s short story, “Everyday Use,” Dee (Wangero) tries to convince her mother to let her have the quilts, made by her grandmother and mother, instead of letting her sister have them. Dee (Wangero) is depicted as a meticulous person. This is seen through her particular care about how she would treat the quilts, accusing her sister of being, “... backwards enough to put them to everyday use.” She accuses her sister of not knowing how to properly care for such delicate and precious items, saying that under her sister’s care, the quilts would, “...be in rags.” This shows that Dee (Wangero) tries to convince her mother to give her the quilts through degrading. She makes her sister and her

Dee (Wangero) tries to convince her mother that the quilts are much too important to be used, saying, “But they’re priceless!” She then attempts to state that she would take amazing care and would hang the quilts, ‘...as if it were the only thing you could do with quilts.’ Here, she tries to use the persuasive mood of concern, trying to draw concern out of her mother for how the quilts should be cared for. Dee (Wangero) knows that her mother cares about the quilts and wants the best for them, but they have clashing views on how that happens, and Dee (Wangero) tries to tip her mother toward her perspective through appealing to her sense of worry on what could happen to the quilts since they seem to be the only connection presented to their