Tradition And Tradition In Alice Walker's The Lottery

The quilts have a different value for each daughter. In Maggie case, “it was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught her how to quilt”, her mother promised her the quilts after she was married, and because they were meant to be used and appreciated. Maggie hints that she thinks of the quilts as a reminder of her aunt and grandmother when she says, “I can ‘member Grandma Dee without the quilts” (321 Walker). Dee/Wangero sees the quilts as “priceless” (320 Walker). Before she went away for school, her mother offered her a quilt, but she said “they were old-fashioned, out of style” (320

The quilts had a very special meaning to Mama and Maggie, that Dee did not understand;she viewed the quilts as a priceless piece of history. They were indeed pieces of history because they were made up of fragments of history, such as scraps of dresses, shirts, and uniforms of past family members, that made up the family’s culture, heritage, and value. Dee viewed these pieces of history as art; however, that was not the real case because the quilts were made up of everyday use

Alice Walker’s Everyday Use (rpt. in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature Sound and Structure 11th ed [Boston: Wadsworth, 2012] 166-173) is a short story told by the mother of two daughters, Mama. The story tells the tale of the return of Mama’s oldest daughter, Dee, and the problems that Dee’s return causes for Mama and her youngest daughter, Maggie. This short story includes humor and irony, displays detailed characterization, and portrays a very effective point of view. These three literary elements contribute to this story by giving insight into the past and the true personalities of the characters, and the way the characters have changed over time.

In the first paragraph, it is already stated that the world had never learned to say no to Dee (46): her mother especially. Dee wants a dress for graduation; Mama buys it for her (49). She wants Mama’s butter churn; she obtains that too (53). Compared to Maggie, Dee is much more fashionable. She wants to use the ancient quilts, steeped in family heritage, to be put on display instead of using them as the blankets that they are (55).

In the short story, “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker uses her contrasting characters of Maggie and Dee to show a cultural split. Dee, the eldest daughter, comes home to visit her family who lives a very traditional way of life. Dee has gone to college and lives a more modernist lifestyle, whereas her sister Maggie has not gone to school and lives a more traditionalist lifestyle. This difference between the sisters shows the division in the 1960s between a traditionalist and modernist lifestyle through the characters Maggie and Dee. During the 1960s some African-Americans began to replace their birth names with names of African or Muslim descent, but what was the reason behind this change?

To her realisation, she learned that her grandmother was sick. She moved back to Cavendish, her grandmother’s house, to take care of her grandmother. During this period, she was inspired to write stories; unfortunately, her grandmother passed away. Lucy is famous for writing books that has outstanding characters, by expressing her personality.

In this novel, Everyday Use by Alice Walker, Mama decides that she will wait in the yard for her daughter Dee’s arrival. Mama knows that her other daughter, Maggie will be nervous throughout Dee’s stay, self-conscious of her scars and burn marks and jealous of Dee’s much easier life. Maggie, the daughter at home, is shy and scared and remains by her mother's side as an obedient shadow. Her motherwhile she is not physically attractive or stylish. Dee, on the other hand is as being light skinned, and with very nice hair.

A short story called “Everyday Use” is written by Alice Walker. The main character of the short story Mama is the narrator. It consists of a mother and her two daughters experiencing a change in their normal behavior during this story. The mother had a permanent change in character by refusing to let Dee have the quilts she was asking for. The character Mama decided that she had enough of her eldest daughter Dee(Wangero) getting whatever she wanted while her youngest daughter Maggie stood by in fear.

Twyla- Twyla is introduced at the very beginning of the story as the girl with the mom that “danced all night” (Morrison,1), she is also the Narrator and a main character. Twyla mentions her mother at the beginning of the story. Mary has neglected her daughter which is why she ends up in the orphanage. Twyla’s mother has taught her daughter to be prejudice against people of Roberta’s race saying that “they never wash their hair and they smelled funny” (Morrison,10), throughout the story some of these prejudices disappear and come about again when the two women meet again and again over long time spans.

The quilts in “Everyday Use” may seem to show a heated argument about possessions between a household, but they actually show a deep cultural and racial divide and the difference in values between generations of the same family. These rifts are shown by the way each member of the family reacts to discussions of how these quilts would best be used, and the attitude each takes on the value of them. When Wangero comes to visit, she asks her mother if she can have two quilts that had been made by her grandmother and Mrs. Johnson tries to offer her machine-made quilts. Wangero does not want these quilts, indicating that she would rather have the hand-stitched quilts of her grandmother.

The short story “everyday use” by Alice walker is a story about a mother and her two daughters Dee and Maggie. The story capitalize on the upbringing of two siblings, and how they can be raised under the same conditions and rules but still manage to have different outcomes. Dee belittles her family and many ways, and she believes she is better than her past. She believes that she know and understand the true meaning of her past.

In “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker, the theme, the meaning of heritage and how it is remembered, is established through the symbolism of the quilts. The author uses symbolism to imply the true meaning of heritage and how it is remembered is shown through the creation of the quilts as shown in the text, “In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn...pieces of grandpa Jarrell's Paisley shorts. and one teeny faded blue piece… that was from great grandpa Ezar’s uniform that he wore in the Civil War,” (Walker 139). The quilt that was made of the objects listed above that symbolized the different generation of family being stitched together through Grandma, Big Dee, and Mama’s hands a person from each generation stitching the family together. This shows the bonding of the

In the short story “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker shows the conflicts and struggles with people of the African-American culture in America. The author focuses on the members of the Johnson family, who are the main characters. In the family there are 2 daughters and a mother. The first daughter is named Maggie, who had been injured in a house fire has been living with her mom. Her older sister is Dee, who grew up with natural beauty wanted to have a better life than her mother and sister.