everyday use introduction essay

“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker Essay

Introduction, works cited.

“Everyday use” by Alice Walker is a fictional story analyzed years over, in academic and professional circles from an initial collection of In live and trouble (Donnelly 124). The story is narrated from a first person point of view (by a single mother, Mrs. Johnson) and dwells on the perception of two sisters regarding cultural artifacts (Wangero). Maggie has a shy personality but Dee is a representation of a pretentious native African identity.

Throughout the story, Walker develops a deep criticism of postmodern ideals through symbolism, with the story’s meaning going deeper than the surface analysis, because even the title “Everyday Use” is a representation of whether cultural heritage should be preserved and used on an everyday basis or not.

The quilt is especially mentioned as a representation of culture and heritage, especially when Dee wants to hang the quilts: she has essentially removed the artifacts from their everyday contextual meaning and creates some form of symbolic representation of the quilts.

This study therefore identifies there points; in that, Walker seeks to convey the principle that art is a living and breathing part of its origin, a significant cultural possession, and a critique of the postmodern treatment of cultural art.

The story asserts that art should be valued in the context of its cultural and heritage origin. The quilt is strategically used in the story as a representation of cultural art and its existence has a rich cultural significance. The quilt is later depicted as inseparable from its culture because the historical trace of the quilt essentially represents the history of the Johnson family. Walker specifically says “In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago.

Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell’s Paisley shirts and one teeny faded blue piece, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra’s uniform that he wore in the Civil War” (563). This shows that not only do the quilts represent the heirloom of the family, but they are a core factor in the family’s identity. The gist of this symbolism is that, not only is the quilt a representation of the Johnson culture but also an inseparable element from the culture itself.

How Mrs. Johnson treats the quilts shows that cultural artifacts should be treated as a significant cultural possession. Dee on the other hand views the quilts as financially and aesthetically valuable. When Dee realizes her mother intended to give them to Maggie; she exclaims that they were priceless.

Dee further adds that Maggie has the capability of wearing them everyday, something that she did not think was right for the quilts; implying that she viewed the quilts as an object instead of an item that should be used on a daily basis. Some sense of individualism is also noted from Maggie’s perception of the quilt, RO because in her opinion, the quilts bore some form of personal and emotional significance, which became clear when she said, “I can member Grandma Dee without the quilts” (Walker 564).

Maggie therefore implies that she perceives the quilt from its deep family connection. Moreover, she understood the fact that the quilts ought to “stay alive”, generations on end, through continuous renewal. Walker even points out that “Maggie knows how to quilt” (Walker 564), implying that she had the cultural significance of the quilts at heart.

The representation of the two sisters’ attitudes and perceptions of the quilts is a critique of the postmodern treatment of ancient artifacts and the way cultural art is treated in today’s society. Essentially, Dee’s perception of art for its monetary value represents the postmodern view of art while Maggie’s perception of the quilt for its personal significance is a representation of the contemporary view of art.

The author however does not leave us a in a huge dilemma of which perception is right because Mrs. Johnson snatches the quilts from Dee and gives them to Maggie thereby depicting the contemporary view of art as the right perception.

Walker’s literary piece is a good example of an educational piece that reflects the current perception of art, especially thriving in today’s commercially, oriented world. Basically art in its right form should be kept alive through generations on end in everyday use. This literally, “can be perceived”, through the short story, but should be perceived in a symbolic manner as a facet of conventional art (Factstaff 3).

Walker therefore shows that the true significance and meaning of art that can only be traced back to the culture or the root it came from. This is contrary to postmodern use of ancient artifacts as an object to be observed, by future generations, as Dee tries to express. Walker therefore shows that cultural artifacts should be used as a significant cultural possession, and be kept alive through generations.

Moreover, she didn’t write the piece with the intention of being microscopically analyzed, or to be quantified monetarily; her literary piece, despite being written in past decades, was meant to be explored, investigated, questioned and even debated by today’s commercially driven society where culture is slowly fading away and postmodern values are quickly catching up (Factstaff 4). In summary, the author says that cultural artifacts with a special reference to the quilt should be put into everyday use.

Donnelly, Mary. Alice Walker: The Color Purple and Other Works . New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2009. Print.

Factstaff. Quilts and Art in “Everyday Use” . 23 February. 2010. Web.

Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1994. Print.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, July 1). "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker. https://ivypanda.com/essays/everyday-use-by-alice-walker/

""Everyday Use" by Alice Walker." IvyPanda , 1 July 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/everyday-use-by-alice-walker/.

IvyPanda . (2020) '"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker'. 1 July.

IvyPanda . 2020. ""Everyday Use" by Alice Walker." July 1, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/everyday-use-by-alice-walker/.

1. IvyPanda . ""Everyday Use" by Alice Walker." July 1, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/everyday-use-by-alice-walker/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . ""Everyday Use" by Alice Walker." July 1, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/everyday-use-by-alice-walker/.

• Everyday Use by Alice Walker
• The Adinkra Clothing and African-American Quilt
• "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker Critical Analysis
• Parent-Child Relationships in "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker
• A visit to Grandpas Dylan Thomas
• "Everyday Use" Story by Alice Walker
• Analysis of Contrasting Views on Heritage
• African-American Heritage in the “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
• Conflict in Everyday Use
• Literature Studies: ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker
• Fences by August Wilson
• How Edward Abbey Uses the Desert "More as A Medium than As A Material" In A Book Desert Solitaire
• Role of cowboys in the book; The solace of open spaces by Gretel Ehrlich
• "Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82" by Elizabeth A. Fenn
• Reflection of "Conundrum" by Morris

A Summary and Analysis of Alice Walker’s ‘Everyday Use’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Everyday Use’ is one of the most popular and widely studied short stories by Alice Walker. It was first published in Harper’s Magazine in 1973 before being collected in Walker’s short-story collection In Love and Trouble .

Walker uses ‘Everyday Use’ to explore different attitudes towards Black American culture and heritage.

‘Everyday Use’: plot summary

The story is narrated in the first person by Mrs Johnson, a largeAfrican-American woman who has two daughters, Dee (the older of the two) and Maggie (the younger). Whereas Maggie, who is somewhat weak and lacking in confidence, shares many of her mother’s views, Dee is rather different.

Mrs Johnson tells us how she and the local church put together the funds to send Dee away to school to get an education. When Dee returned, she would read stories to her mother and sister. Mrs Johnson tells us she never had much of an education as her school was shut down, and although Maggie can read, her eyesight is poor and, according to her mother, is not especially clever.

Mrs Johnson also tells us how their previous house recently burned down: a house, she tells us, which Dee had never liked. Dee hasn’t yet visited her mother and sister in the new house, but she has said that when she does come she will not bring her friends with her, implying she is ashamed of where her family lives.

However, Mrs Johnson then describes Dee’s first visit to the new house. She turns up with her new partner, a short and stocky Muslim man, whom Mrs Johnson refers to as ‘Asalamalakim’, after the Muslim greeting the man speaks when he arrives (a corruption of ‘salaam aleikum’ or ‘ As-salamu alaykum ’). He later tells Mrs Johnson to call him Hakim-a-barber.

Dee then tells her mother that she is no longer known as Dee, but prefers to be called Wangero Lee-wanika Kemanjo, because she no longer wishes to bear a name derived from the white people who oppressed her and other African Americans. Her mother points out that Dee was named after her aunt, Dicie, but Dee is convinced that the name originally came from their white oppressors.

Dee/Wangero now starts to examine the objects in the house which belonged to her grandmother (who was also known as Dee), saying which ones she intends to take for herself. When Mrs Johnson tells her she is keeping the quilts for when Maggie marries John Thomas, Dee responds that her sister is so ‘backward’ she’d probably put the special quilts to ‘everyday use’, thus wearing them out to ‘rags’ in a few years.

Although Maggie resignedly lets her older sister have the quilts, when Dee moves to take them for herself, Mrs Johnson is suddenly inspired to snatch them back from her and hold Maggie close to herself, refusing to give them up to Dee and telling her to take one of the other quilts instead.

Dee leaves with Hakim-a-barber, telling her mother and Maggie that they don’t understand their own heritage. She also tells Maggie to try to make something of herself rather than remaining home with their mother. After they’ve left, Maggie and her mother sit outside until it’s time to go indoors and retire to bed.

‘Everyday Use’: analysis

The central crux of Alice Walker’s story is the difference between Dee and her mother in their perspectives and attitudes. Where Mrs Johnson, the mother of the family, sees everything in terms of the immediate family and home, Dee (or Wangero, as she renames herself) is more interested in escaping this immediate environment.

She does this first by leaving the family home and becoming romantically involved with a man of African Muslim descent. She also looks deeper into her African roots in order to understand ‘where she comes from’, as the phrase has it: not just in terms of the family’s direct lineage of daughter, mother, grandmother, and so on (Mrs Johnson’s way of looking at it, as exemplified by their discussion over the origins of Dee’s name), but in a wider, and deeper sense of African-American history and belonging.

This departure from her mother’s set of values is most neatly embodied by her change of name, rejecting the family name Dee in favour of the African name Wangero Lee-wanika Kemanjo. Names, in fact, are very important in this story: Maggie is obviously known by a European name, and ‘Johnson’, the family name borne by ‘Mama’, and thus by her daughters, doubly reinforces (John and son) the stamp of male European power on their lives and history.

Dee, too, is very much a family name: not just because it is the name the family use for the elder daughter, but because it is a name borne by numerous female members of the family going back for generations. But Dee/Wangero suspects it is ultimately, or originally, of European extraction, and wants to distance herself from this. Dee’s rejection of the immediate family’s small and somewhat parochial attitude is also embodied by the fact that she reportedly hated their old house which had recently burned down.

‘Everyday Use’ was published in 1973, and Dee’s (or Wangero’s) search for her ancestral identity through African culture and language is something which was becoming more popular among African Americans in the wake of the US civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Indeed, a productive dialogue could be had between Dee’s outlook in ‘Everyday Use’ and the arguments put forward by prominent Black American writers and activists of the 1970s such as Audre Lorde, who often wrote – in her poem ‘ A Woman Speaks ’, for example – about the ancestral African power that Black American women carry, a link to their deeper roots which should be acknowledged and cultivated.

However, Walker does some interesting things in ‘Everyday Use’ which prevent the story from being wholly celebratory off Dee’s (Wangero’s) new-found sense of self. First, she had Mrs Johnson or ‘Mama’ narrate the story, so we only see Dee from her mother’s very different perspective: we only view Dee, or Wangero, from the outside, as it were.

Second, Dee/Wangero does not conduct herself in ways which are altogether commendable: she snatches the best quilts, determined to wrest them from her mother and sister and disregarding Maggie’s strong filial links to her aunt and grandmother who taught her how to quilt. The quilt thus becomes a symbol for Maggie’s link with the previous matriarchs of the family, which Dee is attempting to sever her from.

But she is not doing this out of kindness for Maggie, despite her speech to her younger sister at the end of the story. Instead, she seems to be motivated by more selfish reasons, and asserts her naturally dominant personality and ability to control her sister in order to get her way. The very title of Walker’s story, ‘Everyday Use’, can be analysed as a sign of Dee’s dismissive and patronising attitude towards her sister and mother: to her, they don’t even know how to use a good quilt properly and her sister would just put it out for everyday use.

We can also analyse Walker’s story in terms of its use of the epiphany : a literary whereby a character in a story has a sudden moment of consciousness, or a realisation. In ‘Everyday Use’, this occurs when Mrs Johnson, seeing Maggie prepared to give up her special bridal present to her sister, gathers the courage to stand her ground and to say no to Dee. She is clearly in awe of what Dee/Wangero has become, so this moment of self-assertion – though it is also done for Maggie, too – is even more significant.

Discover more from Interesting Literature

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

• study guides
• lesson plans
• homework help

Introduction & Overview of Everyday Use

Everyday Use Summary & Study Guide Description

"Everyday Use" was published early in Alice Walker's writing career, appearing in her collection In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women in 1973. The work was enthusiastically reviewed upon publication, and "Everyday Use" has since been called by some critics the best of Walker's short stories. In letting a rural black woman with little education tell a story that affirms the value of her heritage, Walker articulates what has since become, as critic Barbara Christian notes, two central themes in her writing: "the importance of the quilt in her work ... [and] the creation of African American Southern women as subjects in their own right." When Mrs. Johnson snatches her ancestors' quilts from her daughter Dee, who wants to hang them on a wall, and gives them to Maggie, Walker illuminates her life-long celebration of rural Southern black womanhood. The motif of quilting has since become central to Walker's concerns, because it suggests the strength to be found in connecting with one's roots and one's past. As with many other stories by Walker, "Everyday Use" is narrated by the unrefined voice of a rural black woman, in the author's attempt to give a voice to a traditionally disenfranchised segment of the population.

Read more from the Study Guide

FOLLOW BOOKRAGS:

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Literature › Analysis of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use

Analysis of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 24, 2021

Probably Alice Walker ’s most frequently anthologized story, “Everyday Use” first appeared in Walker’s collection In Love and Trouble: Stories by Black Women. Walker explores in this story a divisive issue for African Americans, one that has concerned a number of writers, Lorraine Hansberry, for instance, in her play Raisin in the Sun (1959). The issue is generational as well as cultural: In leaving home and embracing their African heritage, must adults turn their backs on their African-American background and their more traditional family members? The issue, while specifically African-American, can also be viewed as a universal one in terms of modern youth who fail to understand the values of their ancestry and of their immediate family. Walker also raises the question of naming, a complicated one for African Americans, whose ancestors were named by slaveholders.

The first-person narrator of the story is Mrs. Johnson, mother of two daughters, Maggie and Dicie, nicknamed Dee. Addressing the readers as “you,” she draws us directly into the story while she and Maggie await a visit from Dee. With deft strokes, Walker has Mrs. Johnson reveal essential information about herself and her daughters. She realistically describes herself as a big-boned, slow-tongued woman with no education and a talent for hard work and outdoor chores. When their house burned down some 12 years previous, Maggie was severely burned. Comparing Maggie to a wounded animal, her mother explains that she thinks of herself as unattractive and slow-witted, yet she is good-natured too, and preparing to marry John Thomas, an honest local man. Dee, on the other hand, attractive, educated, and self-confident, has left her home (of which she was ashamed) to forge a new and successful life.

Alice Walker/Thoughtco

When she appears, garbed in African attire, along with her long-haired friend, Asalamalakim, Dee informs her family that her new name is Wangero Leewanika Kemanio . When she explains that she can no longer bear to use the name given to her by the whites who oppressed her, her mother tries to explain that she was named for her aunt, and that the name Dicie harkens back to pre–CIVIL WAR days. Dee’s failure to honor her own family history continues in her gentrified appropriation of her mother’s butter dish and churn, both of which have a history, but both of which Dee views as quaint artifacts that she can display in her home. When Dee asks for her grandmother’s quilts, however, Mrs. Johnson speaks up: Although Maggie is willing to let Dee have them because, with her goodness and fine memory, she needs no quilts to help her remember Grandma Dee, her mother announces firmly that she intends them as a wedding gift for Maggie. Mrs. Johnson approvingly tells Dee that Maggie will put them to “everyday use” rather than hanging them on a wall.

Dee leaves in a huff, telling Maggie she ought to make something of herself. With her departure, peace returns to the house, and Mrs. Johnson and Maggie sit comfortably together, enjoying each other’s company. Although readers can sympathize with Dee’s desire to improve her own situation and to feel pride in her African heritage, Walker also makes clear that in rejecting the African-American part of that heritage, she loses a great deal. Her mother and sister, despite the lack of the success that Dee enjoys, understand the significance of family. One hopes that the next child will not feel the need to choose one side or the other but will confidently embrace both.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” In Major Writers of Short Fiction: Stories and Commentary, edited by Ann Charters. Boston: St. Martin’s, 1993, 1,282–1,299.

Share this:

Categories: Literature , Short Story

Tags: African Literature , Alice Walker , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use appreciation , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use guide , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use notes , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use plot , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use summary , Alice Walker’s Everyday Use themes , American Literature , Analysis of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , appreciation of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , criticism of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , essays of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , guide of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , Literary Criticism , notes of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , plot of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , story of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , structure of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use , summary , themes of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use

Related Articles

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Everyday Use

Alice walker, everything you need for every book you read..

Everyday Use Introduction

It's pretty fitting that Alice Walker 's " Everyday Use " is included in a short story collection called In Love and Trouble . You know, because it's got love… and trouble, trouble, trouble.

Walker published this collection of stories in 1973, exactly a decade before she won the Pulitzer Prize for a little book you might've heard of called The Color Purple . Like that super famous novel, "Everyday Use" explores African-American women's struggles with racial identity and racism during a particularly tumultuous period of history (yeah, you guessed it, that's where some of the trouble comes from).

But the story is also about a much more basic conflict: good old-fashioned sibling rivalry. In "Everyday Use," Dee returns to her mother's home to lay claim to a couple of handmade quilts that she thinks would make really cool decorations for her new place. Dee's the kid in the family who's used to getting everything she wants so this shouldn't be any problem, except it turns out that her mother's been saving the quilts for her younger sister Maggie. All of this may not sound like a big deal, but if you've ever happened to catch an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians , you know just how intense sisterly quarrels can get. And this tale has more fireworks than the Fourth of July. Alice Walker was no stranger to sibling conflict herself. During a rousing game of Cowboys and Indians when she was a kid, one of her brothers accidentally shot her in the face with a BB gun, leaving her blind in one eye. Her bros then pressured her not to tell her parents the truth about what happened to her, so she ended up keeping the secret. Her experience telling this lie haunted her throughout her life. ( Source .)

On top of all this, "Everyday Use" manages to make quilts exciting. This alone makes it worth checking out, don't you think?

What is Everyday Use About and Why Should I Care?

Anyone who's planning to go off to college should probably study "Everyday Use" very carefully—and not just because it contains metaphors and symbolism , which are definitely good to be familiar with come college time. The story also offers a good lesson on how not to treat your parents after they've spent their time, money, and energy trying to help you have a better life; it's like a primer on how to show gratitude to the people who gave you so much, no matter how brilliant you think college makes you.

Dee, one of the story's central characters, would probably have been that person voted Most Likely to Succeed in high school. We don't exactly know what she does, but her mother assures us that she's made it. Dee's success is due in large part to her mother, who raised money with the church to send her to a fancy private school. Just think about the number of cupcakes (mmm… cupcakes) this lady and her church pals probably had to sell just to cover one year's tuition—that's a whole lot of frosting.

Instead of gratitude though, Dee shows up one day to give her mother major attitude (yeah, that rhymed).

You see, now that she's gotten her fancy education and become totally enlightened about the world, she decides it's high time to teach her mother a thing or two. But rather than looking smart, she mostly just ends up looking like a jerk. Warning: things are going to get ugly in this story. But your parents may thank you for reading it.

Tired of ads?

Cite this source, logging out…, logging out....

You've been inactive for a while, logging you out in a few seconds...

W hy's T his F unny?

Everyday Use

By alice walker, everyday use study guide.

Everyday Use was first published in 1973 as part of the short story collection In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women . These stories span multi-generational periods and interconnect Black women from the American South, New York City and Uganda.

Told in first person by Mama , Everyday Use is set in the late 1960’s, a time when Black America was undergoing a great transformation. Through the Civil Rights movement, black Americans began ushering in a new era for themselves. The old life of the rural black farmer immersed in the aura of sharecropping and spectre of slavery is quickly being rendered obsolete.

The conflict in the story is centered around the clash between these two worlds, which Walker’s character Dee straddles. Dee increasingly rebukes her own heritage for the ideas and rhetoric of the new Black Pride movement. Walker weaves themes of African cultural nationalism with a narrative steeped in family conflict. On another level Alice Walker provides a unique perspective on the struggle of the African-American woman to find both identity and voice from the shadows of the past, as well as a rapidly changing future. Everyday Use continues to be included in definitive anthologies of American Literature.

Everyday Use Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Everyday Use is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Everyday Use by Alice Walker

From the text:

I never had an education myself. After second grade the school was closed down.

In paragraphs 61-72, how does the conversation between Dee and Mama about the quilts develop the theme?

I'm sorry, please provide the text in question.

I saw my brother sneaking out of my room, his (1) movements slow and silent. When he saw me the poor kid was flinching, practically (2) under my gaze. "I was just looking at your CDs," he told me. At least he admitted he had been (3) _. annoyed, I decided

Is this related to the book Everyday use? What are you asking here?

Study Guide for Everyday Use

Everyday Use study guide contains a biography of Alice Walker, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Everyday Use
• Everyday Use Summary
• Character List

Essays for Everyday Use

Everyday Use essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Everyday Use.

• Identity Confusion in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use"
• The Black Empowerment Movement within Bambara's "The Lesson" and Walker's "Everyday Use"
• Pride and Heritage in “Everyday Use”
• "Everyday Use" from an Antipatriarchal Perspective
• A Comparison of Dee and Mathilde

Wikipedia Entries for Everyday Use

• Introduction
• Publication details

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Everyday Use — Author’s Craft on “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker

Author's Craft on "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker

• Categories: Alice Walker Everyday Use

About this sample

Words: 678 |

Published: Dec 3, 2020

Words: 678 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Introduction

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

3 pages / 1465 words

3 pages / 1353 words

2 pages / 887 words

3 pages / 1406 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Everyday Use

Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" follows the lives of a family from rural Georgia. The story highlights the complexities of heritage and cultural identity through the contrasting attitudes of the three main characters, [...]

In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use," the characters of Maggie and Dee serve as illustrations of how individuals from the same background can develop different identities and worldviews. Through Walker's portrayal of [...]

The dynamics and complexities of family relationships have long been a subject of interest and significance in literature. In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use," the relationship between the two sisters Maggie and Dee is [...]

In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use," the theme of heritage plays a central role in exploring the complexities of family relationships and cultural identity. Through the characters of Mama, Dee, and Maggie, Walker delves [...]

In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use," the author explores the complex theme of cultural heritage through the contrasting perspectives of two sisters, Dee and Maggie. Through the examination of their divergent [...]

“Everyday Use”, a short story written by Alice Walker, is told in the perspective of Mama. Mama is described as “a big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands”. The story begins with Mama waiting on her oldest daughter Dee to [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Everyday Use

33 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

In “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens,” Walker writes, “And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see.” Discuss “Everyday Use” in light of this quote.

Compare and contrast Walker’s physical descriptions of Dee and Maggie . How does Walker use physical appearance as a means of characterization?

When Mrs. Johnson reminds Dee that Maggie could make new quilts if the old ones fell apart, Dee insists, “The point is these quilts, these quilts!” (Paragraph 70). How does this statement reflect Dee’s understanding of art and heritage?

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now

Related Titles

By Alice Walker

By the Light of My Father's Smile

Alice Walker

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens

Possessing the Secret of Joy

Strong Horse Tea

The Color Purple

The Flowers

The Temple of My Familiar

The Third Life of Grange Copeland

The Way Forward is with a Broken Heart

To Hell with Dying