Growing up in the same environment does not always mean that siblings will grow to be the same person with the same values and beliefs. Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" is about the conflict that multi-generational families have with understanding the importance of identity and ancestry. The story focuses on the relationship between a mother and her two daughters, Dee and Maggie, over their grandmothers quilts. Unlike Mama, Dee is educated and is envied, Maggie, who was scarred in a house fire when she was little. Dee has returned from a long trip away from home and now determines her culture by the things she gathers from the house like the quilts and butter churn but in the end Maggie is the one with the right idea about her heritage.
The most significant objects in the story, which Dee wanted to have, are the two hand sewn quilts that were created by Grandma and Aunt Dee. These quilts are full of history; contain pieces of dresses worn by Grandma Dee and a piece of Dee’s Great Grandfather’s Civil War uniform. The quilts had already been promised to Maggie for when she married John Thomas, but Dee feels the quilts should be hers. Dee saw the quilts as objects to be shown off and kept in perfect condition, while Maggie had an emotional connection to the quilts that would last even without them. “‘She can have them, Mama,’ she said, like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her.
Though Dee has moved away and changed everything about herself, she seems to lack the attention from others where she is from. Dee is quick to come home during the civil rights movement and tries to gather photos and items that “embrace her heritage” to show to others. While at the house Dee takes pictures and tries to gather items that she can take back for display. One of these items is a set of quilts her grandmother had hand sewn. These quilts consisted of her family’s heritage through pieces of civil war uniform and some her grandmothers dresses.
This narrative is full of symbolism. The quilts in everyday day use are the main symbols, and they represent the connection of heritage and the family. Dee just wants the quilts to hang them; she says that Maggie, her sister cannot comprehend her heritage and she is not capable of appreciating these quilts, although she does that when she memorizes her Grandma Dee having the quilts. Thoughtfully, Maggie decides to give Dee the quilts so as not to initiate a conflict. Maggie is appreciates her heritage whenever she uses the quilts, with heritage she means the natives she came from.
In the text Dee, Maggi’s sister comes back to the house and wants Maggie’s two quilts. Maggie didn’t want Dee to have them because that was a part of Maggie’s heritage. Maggie needed the quilts because it was a part
The last character I feel is important in this story is Nanny Crawford, she is Janie’s grandmother. Mrs. Crawford raised Janie, she worked as a slave and the things she experienced made her a strong black woman. She wanted Janie to be responsible and understand everything she needed to know about money, love, and just being responsible. Janie didn’t’ like the way her grandmother tried to raise her because she independent and wanted to love who she wanted to love. She didn’t want to marry because of money but because she loved him.
She thought it just a disgrace to her family and their ancestors. In the film Mrs. Walker, says “ I deeply respect and admire the Walkers who transformed the meaning of Walker and to transform the meaning of the word Christianity ” ( Stitches ). Mrs. Walker went to Africa and learned about her culture. She respected and embraced the struggle that Walkers had endured to make her the woman that she is today. When discussing Dee
She writes in order to redirect the generations of misguided African Americans. Her story preaches to her readers that it is crucial to keep and preserve the culture and history of their ancestors. African American history should be as the quilt in the story; it represents the bond of African Americans, “sewn” together, as patches on a quilt. Each patch represents a different generation bonded through cultural tradition. In the story, the quilt illustrates a tale of the struggle of the family’s ancestors, and just as a piece of stitching comes loose Dee helps her family to learn a lesson that keeps the quilt (a family’s ancestral history) intact by sharing it so that others too may learn to become educated in their history and take pride in it.
When Mama informs Dee that these quilts are for Maggie, Dee’s response follows, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She said. “She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use” (Walker, 75). Something about both Dee’s and Maggie’s reactions made Mama see things more clearly. All of the sudden, both Dee and Maggie could be seen through the eyes of their Mama for exactly who they
Achieving the writer’s duty is a goal that every author of literature must keep in mind. Writer’s duty is to convey his or her message to the audience. William Faulkner and Rick Bragg both achieved their purpose through the definition of writer’s duty. According to Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Speech, writer’s duty requires not giving up writing, because every piece of writing has a purpose that needs to be achieved. In Rick Bragg’s All Over but the Shoutin’, Bragg’s duty as a writer is to portray his mother as the admirable, hardworking woman that she was.