Alice Walker Essay

359 Words2 Pages
“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker has many symbols; she uses symbolism to represent two different perspectives on the looking of one’s heritage. The two different perspectives could be Dee, Mama, and Maggie. Through this story you will find how each person feels toward their heritage. A symbol she uses was the quilt. The quilt is described as,” They are all pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear.”(75). Dee perspective was she think Maggie could not appreciate them as she does, but she wants it to use to decorate and display in her home as a piece of her loss heritage. While Mama said,” I promised to give the quilts to Maggie for when she marries John Thomas.” (75). Mama’s perspective is she knows Maggie is going to use them every day not like Dee. Another symbol is the churn use for the butter. The butter churn is describe as,” Didn’t Uncle Buddy whittle it out of a tree you all have.”(74). However Dee wants the churn only use the churn as a piece for the alcove table and wanted the dasher to make something artistic. From Dee perspectives she does not want the churn as something as a part of her family heritage but as a decoration. While Mama and Maggie were using the churn for everyday cooking which were made from their ancestors, and they do not want to let it go. Dee wants the churn as a decoration, Mama and Maggie still uses it. This shows the differences between them that she use. The last symbol was the name Dee. She use Dee name as a symbol by,” Not ‘Dee’, Wangero Leewanika Kemajo!” (73). From Dee’s perspective she uses the name Wangero to reflect on her African heritage and to use as more as a white name. But for Mama, “You know as well as me you was named after your aunt Dicie.”(73). Mama did not want Dee to personally change her real name, because it was a name that was passed down form their ancestors. These are the different symbols from two
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