Everyday Use By Alice Walker
The place where you hang your hat, where the heart is, is a link to the past,
and through its door one walks into the future: home can be many things t one
person. To many Georgians, home is the place where they come from, the place
where the famiy line can be traced from memories and keepasakes. In
“Everyday Use”, Alice Walker explores the importance of home to a
family of three women in Georgia. This story is told from the eyes of Mama, Dee
and Maggie’s mother. Walker uses Mama to characterize her daughters and herself
in an unbiased light that only a mother could love or know. Mam is a
“large, big boned woman wit rough, man working hands”, “who can
kill and clean a hog as mersilessly as a man”(1). Mama, a round cahracter,
lives a life that contradicts Dee’s ideas. Mama contributes it mostly to her and
Maggie’s lack of academis intelligence. She usually allows Dee to receive what
she wants because of this difference. By the end of this short story, Mama puts
her foot down. Mama describes Maggied, a dynamic character, with a tone of pity.
“She knows she is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passed
her buy”(3). Maaggies is accustomed to being pushed aside. Maggie is
characterized in this story by her actions rather than her words. Her sullen
attitude is seen in her mother’s descripion of her simply walking. “Have
you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog, run over soem careless person, sidle
up to someone who is ingorant enough to be kind to them?”(2). Dee seems to
be the cause of her angst. Near the conclusion, Maggie’s sullen attitude is
ahnged when her mother refuses to allow her to be pushed aside by Dee.
“Maggie smiled. . . But a real smile not scared”(7). Dee felt she was
different from the rest of her family. She was the olly one to attend college.
She favors what was popularized by the world outside of her home. “Dee
wanted nice things. . . at sixteen she had a style of her own”(2). Her
mother “offered her a qulit when she went away for college. She told me
they were old fashioned, out of style”(6). She is a static character. She
returns home unahnged, not willing to understand another point of view, but
wanting her family to change and bend to her ideas even after the short story
concludes. Symbolism, the association of a meaning or theme to an item, is used
in this novel to give ther reader a greater understanding of each characters
inner thoughts. Walker linked these characters with tow main contextual symbols:
the house and the two quilts. As the house burns, each character’s position
around the house directly related to how they feel about their family
background. Maggie felt that the house was a part of her For Maggie, the house
held memories of her and her family. As her dress fell off “her in little
black papery flakes” in the fire, parts of her were lost with the house(2).
Dee, on the other hand, was far from the ho;use, steadily concentrating on the
burning house until it was completely destroyed. Dee did not desire to be
associated with her family, like she did not want to be associated with the
house. Both were slow to change and confirm to the actions of the world outside
of her family’s own tight circle. The quilts had a similar meaning but meant
something different for Maggie and Dee. For Maggie, the quilt was a link to her
grandmother and her family’s past. Dee saw the quilt only as art that was
temporily valuable. Like the house, the quilt represented a family’s heritage.
Dee’s visit set the stage for many ironic statements. Irony or contradictions
between ideas and reality, can be seen in what Dee would like her family to be
and what really is. Waiting for Dee’s arrival, her mother co;ntemplates that
difference: “In real life,I am a large, big boned woman, with man working
hands. . . But of course all this does not show on television. I am the way my
daughter wants me to be, a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like and uncooked
barely pancake. My hair glistens in the hot, bright lights”(2). Iron is
also seen when Dee announces her death and new lifestyle, but still ate
chitterlings an other foods her mother cooked. In her new life these foods are
forbidden to eat, which Dee does not seem to acknowledge. Walker uses this irony
to show how artificial and temporary Dee’s interest in her heritage is. Dee’s
lsat statements demostrated Walker’s use of verbal irony: “You just don’t
understand. . . Your heritage”(7). In actualitiy, she was the one who knew
nothing about her heritage. Home holds one’s history and heritage. Like a tree,
stronger are one’s roots that run deep or know where one comes from. As Walker
displays in this short story, you can be lost if home is just put behind you. It
is an important part of one’s life.
