391. DSC 251/4th Sem: Everyday Use (1)

"Everyday Use" is a short story written by Alice Walker, an Afro-American writer. She was born in 1944 in Georgia in the US. She was hugely influenced by Martin Luther King Jr and became an activist in the civil rights movement under his influence.

"Once" was her first collection of poetry. "Her famous novel "The Colour Purple" was made into a movie by Steven Spielberg. The story "Everyday Use" took place in the mid to late 1960s when Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech occurred in 1963.

Setting:

This era features the explosion of the civil rights movement when Malcolm X encourages African Americans to shake off the limitations of racism by any means necessary. He also helps establish the Nation of Islam while celebrating Black Nationalism.

Analysis:

The story "Everyday Use" has the themes of family, home, self-reflection, and tradition. The relationship between siblings and parents is dealt in this story. That is a major theme in the story. The plot of the story involves an African family in the Southern US which has a mother and her daughter named Maggie. The mother is the unnamed narrator of the story and much of the story takes place in the mind and thoughts of the mother. Maggie's older sister Dee comes to visit the family with her new boyfriend. She takes photographs of the house and family area and fights over quilts which were knitted by their grandmother. Dee wanted to hang them on the wall and display them to the people. Maggie wanted to take them with her in marriage. Both the sisters have an argument. When Maggie becomes happy to give the quilts to Dee, their mother intervenes and says that they were promised to Maggie. Dee becomes angry at this and leaves.

The other themes- race relations, heritage and art and style of writing involve the social and economic position of African Americans in the South, sibling rivalries, mother-daughter bonds, importance of a connection to cultural traditions, how to honour or respect ancestors, and the role that creativity and artistic objects play in forming identity.

The story has numerous details but readers may lose track of the plot. It has two kinds of over-riding conflicts between the characters- internal and external conflict between two sisters. Alice Walker created a fascinating woman out of the mother who has a certain kind of wisdom. Mama is the first person narrator talking about her relationship with her daughter Dee, an educated, young, African-American woman. They go to the Deep South to their childhood home. When Maggie changes her clothes, the Mama imagines getting back together with her daughter on a TV show by Johnny Carson. Mama then says that her dream isn't possible because she doesn't think that she's the kind of person who would be on a show like that. Mama looks around the yard and at Maggie while she waits for Dee. This makes her think of Dee's troubled youth in their house including her anger at the family when they were in their poverty. Dee's desire for better clothes and an education was more imtense. Her charm, confidence and beauty were also different. Mama thinks about Dee's attitude towards them, went from being angry to hurtfully condescending as she got a better education with money from Mama and the church. Mama compares Dee as a child to Maggie, a shy kind of ugly woman with a scar on her face. The story has other details of their house once burnt by a scary fire. We also witness Dee wearing an African styled dress that was beautiful and bright. She is not completely severed from tradition.

Maggie is a more genuine person, a kind of a black sheep, who truly respects her culture. Dee is with a boyfriend which was quite unconventional. Quilts are the symbol of tradition in the story and the African heritage included their celebration, respect, love and growth.

Structure, symbols, and characters:

The story is a set of two opposing forces between Maggie and Dee- wisdom and intelligence, everyday use and memorialising, etc. Mama is also among the main characters, and has to choose the best in each of these categories. She is a round character, dynamic and changes over the course of the story.

She witnessed an epiphany, witnessing Maggie submit before Dee. Here, she draws a choice. The house, quilts and the names are symbolic.