Essays on Everyday Use
Everyday Use is a short story written by Alice Walker that tells the story of an African American mother and her two daughters. The main characters are Mama, Dee (Wangero), and Maggie. This story explores the idea of heritage and how it can be viewed differently from different perspectives.The conflict in Everyday Use begins when Dee comes to visit her family after being away for some time. It becomes clear through dialogue between the characters that Dee has changed drastically since she left home. She now favors a more radical approach to life which includes changing her name to Wangero, wearing traditional African clothing, and wanting to take items from Mama’s house as part of her heritage collection. Mama and Maggie disagree with this notion which leads to tension between them all throughout the story.The themes explored in Everyday Use include identity, tradition, materialism, values, culture, pride and family relationships. Through these themes Walker shows how people can have varied opinions on what they consider their rightful heritage or legacy while also showing that these differences should not divide families but rather bring them closer together. By understanding each other’s point of view one can come to appreciate where others come from even if they do not necessarily agree with it themselves. Ultimately Walker shows us through this story just how valuable everyday things are within our lives such as quilts handed down generationally or certain pieces of furniture made out of sentimental value; these things become far more than just physical objects representing memories shared over time and contributions made towards building something bigger than ourselves like a family unit or community collective wholeheartedly embracing its past generations’ legacies in order to create further progressions into future ones unifying everyone together under one common umbrella: love & respect for one another no matter who may think otherwise because at the end of day we all want same thing-to feel accepted & appreciated for whom we truly are deep down inside no matter diverse backgrounds we might come from so let’s strive towards making world better place by celebrating our differences instead finding fault it.
Siblings can be alike in many ways, and yet the story, “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, features two sisters who could not be more adverse. Each area that one excels the other lacks in. Due to the characterization of humble Maggie, this does not forge a rivalry but rather frustrates the reader over such opposition. […]
Alice Walker’s short story, “Everyday Use,” characterizes Dee as condescending and insensitive to her own family by employing the character’s interaction with others along with her behavior and attitude. Dee is portrayed as insensitive towards her family by the way she talks and interacts with them. When Dee came home, she took a picture of […]
The story “Everyday Use” written by Alice Walker, a famous African American author, is a story where the whole meaning of the story is completely dependent on how different these two sisters are. Often time children raised together in the same household, then logic may dictate that these children will most likely have a similar […]
Is Blood Thicker Than Water? Throughout different cultures, heritage is most often thought to be a significant factor in the close-knit ties of a family. Although every culture differs, the generations following each preceding generation have completely different perspectives on what and how to express their heritage. Yet it is inevitable that most people in […]
Alice Walker’s family-oriented short story “Everyday Use” shows how materialism can divide a family. By using symbolism and point of view, Walker characterizes Mama’s hidden strength and shows that tradition overcomes the need for materialism. Through symbolism in “Everyday Use” Walker gives Mama more depth by exhibiting strength that she had not shown. The symbolism […]
Throughout history the question of entitlement has constantly been at the forefront of wars and battles. When people feel that they are entitled to a particular item, many people will exert much effort and time into attaining that particular item over other items even when they are not the best choice. It is as if […]
In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”, a mother narrates her oldest daughter’s visit back home. After being away for what we can assume was a very long time, the daughter, Wangero (once known as “Dee”, but changed her name) is now rich and successful, wearing fancy clothes and a fancy hairstyle; she is almost an entirely […]
“Everyday Use” is a short story written by a 1940’s African-American writer, Alice Walker. The plot circulates around Mama, Maggie, and Dee in a rural Georgia. Although the story is narrated from Mama’s point of view, Alice Walker skillfully crafts the character of Dee, to be the central character. Dee Johnson seems to change a […]
Alice Walker wrote a short story called Everyday Use, in that short story is a girl named Maggie. You would think character analysis would be super easy, but it is not. The hard part is picking the character to analysis out of the stories that we have read in the Mercury Reader. So after many […]
The Theme of Cultural Conflict in Alice Walker’s Everyday Use Every individual has a culture and every culture has a history. Cultural heritage is the expression of how the history of a culture relates to the present. Everyday Use by Alice Walker presents a conflict between a post-slavery African American and her daughter, who fights […]
