Summary~
Everyday Use by Alice Walker is a story about a single mother (who is the narrator), and her two daughters Maggie and Dee. In the beginning of the story the Mother and Maggie, are awaiting Dee’s arrival, Maggie inside nervous about her sister’s visit. Dee arrives wearing long earrings, many bracelets and a long, crazy colorful dress, she is also accompanied by an Arabic man, “Hakim-a-Barber”, who is supposedly either her husband or fiance. The mother and Maggie are surprised by Dee’s appearance, she changed since the last time they saw her. Dee also changed her name to ” Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo”, which the mother was not pleased with because Dee was named after her aunt, grandmother and many other family members. Dee starts noticing many beautiful things around the house, such as the benches, as they sit down to eat. She begins to ask her mother for things she wants to take to her house, the turn top, the quilts. Her mother is hesitant to give her the quilts because she saved them for Maggie, which makes Dee very angry. She doesn’t believe Maggie can appreciate and savior something so precious. The story ends with Dee and Hakim leaving, but before they leave Dee tells Maggie to make something of herself. As soon as Dee is gone Maggie and the mother are once again happy.
Quote~
“She gasped as if a bee had stung her. “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!” She said. “She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use” (432). I chose this quote because I think it expresses the meaning Walker was trying to get at the most. This story is rich with meanings, but I believe it talks about the importance of family and heritage the most. Walker wrote this story at the time when the civil rights movement was going on, she herself was an African American, her parents were sharecroppers who raised cotton. I would believe that traditions, culture, heritage meant a lot to her, she had children and probably wanted to pass on her culture to them. In this story she expresses the importance of this through the quilts, through the relationship of the family. The quilts are very symbolic in this story, when African Americans were slaves they used quilts to send messages, some quilts mapped escaped routes out of a plantation or county, now quilts retain the culture and historical significance. When Dee returned home she was already different, she was becoming modern, accepting new ideas, and the mother didn’t like this. She was used to her family’s traditions and culture, that’s what the quilts symbolized. So when Dee asked for the quilts, yes the mother already decided to give them to Maggie, but I think she also didn’t want to give them to Dee because she was changing, she wouldn’t continue their culture, the culture that the quilts held. This quote is also important because it shows how low Dee thinks of her sister, she doesn’t believe she could keep something so sacred save.
Response~
This quote and story caught me off guard, it was very interesting yet hard to understand before I knew some background information of the author and the time this story was written. It was interesting to see how Dee changing impacted the mother and Maggie, nowadays this is very common in families. Personally in my family, my oldest sister left to college and when she came back she had different views on religion, culture and our traditions. My parents didn’t react well to this because they were used to their ideas, to their views and expected her to follow along the same lines, in this aspect I can relate to how Maggie felt. I also, stepped away from my parents views on religion and culture, so to speak “I became modern”, so I can relate to Dee and how it impacted her to step away. I believe each culture needs to grow in their ideas and views, the rest of the world is growing and changing, we also need to grow and change. That doesn’t mean leave behind the values of our heritage, our traditions and even our religion, instead just be open to more ideas and views.
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