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Átirat

Voice and Diction

The narrator, Mama, starts the story in a voice that makes her seem submissive and subservient. She does everything in order to gain Dee's love. By the end of the story, Mama has gained some sense of reason, knowing that Maggie, her true family, is more important than Dee and the lifestyles she tries to shove their way.

Walker utilizes language that gives insight to Mama's life: a life in a farm setting. The diction is rough-and-tumble. Mama speaks and narrates with wise words, but there are times when she slips to the side of her that Dee kept trying to fix in the past. ("... Asamalakim wants to shake hands but wants to do it fancy.") The imagery further cements the bucolic nature of the setting.

Questions?

Theme(s)

Presentation by Allane Roc and Sayeed McPherson

The significance of family identity seen in objects deemed by others to be only for everyday use

The barrier created by education and knowledge between the ignorant and the intellectual

The sentimentality felt for familial possessions

The differences in opinion regarding importance of heritage over family identity and vice versa

A mother's realization concerning which is more important, buying an estranged daughter's love, or continuing the family's tradition

Irony

Dee (Wangero) is the surprise in the story. Before her arrival, she is described as having hated her mother and sister's lifestyle, and from just that she can be seen as pretentious and arrogant. When she is introduced, she says, "Wa-su-zo-Tean-o!" This is a greeting in the Luganda language that means, "How did you sleep?" (It's a pre-noon daytime greeting.)

Her words, actions, and change of name all say that she is a new person. But upon entering the house, she tries to take everything that reminds her of her heritage, including the quilts. The irony is that in the end, Dee condemns her family for not understanding their heritage, when in truth it is she who has lost sight of her family's heritage. She tells Mama and Maggie to stop living in the past, but she is the one who tells them to appreciate the objects that remind them of their heritage and past.

"Everyday Use"

What do you think the title of the story pertains to?

Symbolism

  • The quilts

They are the historical artifacts of Mama's family, in that they have belonged in the family for generations. Dee's aunt before her quilted, and Dee's grandmother before her quilted, using pieces of dresses and soldiers' uniforms as fabric for the quilt. In this way, the family's history is literally quilted together. Maggie would continue the tradition, and with it she would add to the quilt more of the family's story.

  • The yard

The story begins and ends with the yard. To Mama, "it is not just a yard. It is like an extended living room." It's where Maggie and she spend their days together. The yard symbolizes their peace. Although they are not in touch with the heritage Dee wants them so much to grasp, they are at peace in their own places, in their home. In the yard, they are calm and relaxed. It's the place they can just be.

By Alice Walker

Characterization: Dee

  • "She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts. Her eyelids would not flicker for minutes at a time."
  • "Impressed with her they worshiped the well-turned phrase, the cute shape, the scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in lye."

Dee arrives halfway through the story, clad in a flowy dress and wearing various jewelry. When before, she was content enough to watch their house burn to the ground, now she takes pictures of her family with the house. She's returned with the idea that her family needs to join her in soaking up their African heritage. In the process, she becomes ignorant of her own family's identity.

Characterization: Hakim-a-barber

Hakim-a-barber is a minor character, the tag-along Dee brought with her in her transformation. When asked if he belonged with the beef-cattle peoples, he simply stated that farming and such tasks weren't his style. In the story, Walker makes him the representative of the misapplied. He prides himself to be a Muslim man with a heritage, but he doesn't belong with the others because he has more modern, laidback views. He is among those who respects the doctrine but would rather pick his own ways. It called to the changing of the times.

A Biography: Alice Walker

Point of View

Characterization: Mama

  • American author, poet and activist
  • Born February 9, 1944 in Putnam County, Georgia
  • Grew up when the Jim Crow Laws were still in effect, with a father who participated in sharecropping and a mother who worked as a maid to help get her to college
  • Began to write privately at 8 years old, keeping her words to herself to minimize scrutiny
  • Became half-blind when she was shot (in 1952) by a BB gun on the right eye

As narrator, Mama provides the reader with information about the other characters. Mama is a dynamic character, in that her story begins with her dreams of reunion with her daughter Dee. She would do anything just to have Dee love her. Even though she is large and big-boned, she says that "I am the way my daughter would want me to be."

By the end of the story, Mama no longer complies with all of Dee's wishes. She prefers the simple life she lives with Maggie over the lifestyle Dee tries to instill in them.

"Everyday Use" is told with shifts in point of view.

The narrator is Mama, providing a first-person point of view of the story. However, there are some shifts in the story wherein Mama says "you", addressing the reader. ("You didn't even have to look close to see...") This cements that the story is more personal, more of an account, similar to the way a narrator would address an inanimate journal he or she writes their feelings in.

Characterization: Maggie

  • "... she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed..."
  • "She has been like this, chin on chest, eye on ground, feet in shuffle..."
  • "Maggie's hand is as limp as a fish, and probably as cold, despite the sweat..."

Maggie is the younger daughter, characterized to be the weak, always-shuffling child, who mumbles and never maintains eye contact. She treats the world like there is always something to be feared, be it a stranger knocking on the door or a random event on a normal day.

A Biography: Alice Walker

What do you think made Maggie the way she is? Was there an event in the past that transformed her, or is her demeanor the product of her insecurity and other factors?

Author Alice Walker

  • Went to Spelman College, and later on to Sarah Lawrence College
  • Took part in the US Civil Rights Movement as an activist
  • In 1965, Walker and husband Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal became the first legally married inter-racial couple in Mississippi (only to divorce in 1976)
  • Threatened and burdened by whites and the KKK
  • Most widely known today for her novel The Color Purple, which has won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award (1983)
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