Alice Walkers Everyday Use

300 Words2 Pages
Summary of Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” is the story of a mother and her daughters. When the oldest daughter, Dee, wants a quilt that Mrs. Johnson has already given to her younger, plainer daughter, Maggie, the worth of something is put to the test. Dee comes home for a visit from college, with her new husband. Mrs. Johnson, who has always wished to have more of a connection with Dee, learns that her daughter has changed her name. When they go into the kitchen for something to drink, Dee gets up and starts packing the butter churn that her mother still uses. Mrs. Johnson just lets her be, with out saying anything or trying to stop her. Dee proceeds to go through the chest of her mother’s quilts. When she finds the quilts that her grandmother made, she tries to tell her mother that she is taking them to hang up and display in her home. When Mrs. Johnson tells Dee that she cannot have them because she has already given them to Maggie; Dee gets furious that Maggie could come before her. Dee tries to argue that Maggie will ruin the quilts by using them everyday. Maggie tells Dee that she can just have the quilts, but Mrs. Johnson won’t have it. Dee gets mad that she did not get her way, and says hateful things to her sister and mother as she is leaving. You see, one person’s glamour, may be another’s misery; just as what someone may display, someone else could put to personal everyday use. (Alice Walker 108-114) Work Cited Alice Walker. “Everyday Use.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ninth ed. Eds. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Pearson, 2009.

More about Alice Walkers Everyday Use

Open Document