“Everyday Use” By Alice Walker
Introduction
On the book review of “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, different authors have expressed their views on the themes and symbolism expressed in the novel. I will discuss on the viewpoints of the different authors and compare to see whether there are any similarities and differences. The novel is written by an African American. It is set at a time in American history when the black community was trying to understand its identity.
Analysis of the Book Reviews
David White in 2001 published an article titled, “Everyday Use: Defining African-American Heritage” in the Purdue North Central Literary Journal where he discussed the theme of African- American heritage in the novel. He views the theme of the novel being central to a mother rejecting the views of the older, successful daughter and embracing the younger daughter’s authentic views on African American culture. The novel is set in the 1970’s when the African Americans were struggling with embracing their identity as Americans (White, 2001). The term Negros could no longer be used and the acceptable term at that time was blacks. The blacks at this time were fascinated by their African roots. However it was all superficial. Dee, the older daughter wants to cling to her African roots and discard her American culture. However her acts are superficial. First of all the names she chooses, Wangero and Kemanjo are wrongly misspelt. They are supposed to be Wanjiro and Kamenjo. They are from the East Africa Region, from the tribe of the Kikuyu. Her clothing is from West Africa showing an inconsistency in the approach she uses to embrace her African roots.
Hoel in her review article "Personal Names and Heritage: Alice Walker’s 'Everyday Use'." published in the American Studies in Scandinavia Journal emphasizes on the inconsistencies stating “the only Africans I have seen in traditional flowing dresses in East Africa are the Muslim women on the coast hiding inside their black bui-buis. Otherwise colorful traditional dresses are made of two pieces such as the kangas in Tanzania or have a distinct waist line with a sash, such as the busutis in Uganda” (38). Furthermore Dee has a boyfriend who is a Black Muslim who does not identify himself with the Black Muslims at that time in the area who are ranchers and farmers. Walker seeks to show that the appreciation of African culture is not genuine between Dee and her boyfriend. The truth is that they are only working to enhance each other’s image of being known as a black who appreciates his or her African roots. There is no affection mentioned in the book at all between Dee and her boyfriend. White argues that they are representative of the blacks in the Black Movement with no dedication in searching keenly for their African roots. Secondly, Dee does not appreciate the American culture and past such as the events that happened in the slavery period. She does not want to remain “backward”. She sees the sister and mother as backward. Walker has used Dee’s character to symbolize the Black Movement. She is beautiful, bright and self-centered.
White highlights the way the blacks at that time zealously wanted to embrace their African culture. There were many blacks ready to deny their American culture due to the painful memories of the past, specifically memories of the “slavery” period.
Hoel agrees with White “This was in the heyday of the Black Power ideologies when «Black was beautiful», the Afro hairstyle was in fashion and Blacks were seeking their cultural roots in Africa, without knowing too much about the continent or the routes of the Atlantic Slave Trade” (34).
Hoel further compares the events in the novel with the way at that time in history, blacks wanted to learn Kiswahili. She states that if they had bothered to learn history they would have known that the blacks were transported from West Africa where Kiswahili is not spoken. It would have made more sense for them to strive and learn a West African language (Hoel, 1999). Dee, representing the Black movement has a desire to do away with the things of the past. Cowart in his article, “Heritage and Deracination in Walker’s ‘Everyday Use’” in the Studies in Short Fiction journal, notes that Dee greets her mother in the Lugandan language seeing English as a language of slavery.
Wilson, in the book chapter, ““Everyday Use” and “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”: Escaping Antebellum Confinement”’ written in the book, Southern Mothers: Fact and Fictions in Southern Women’s Writing, notes that “Dee Johnson thinks that slavery has tainted her family and consequently strives to blot out the past. In her estimation anyone with a link to that past is inferior” (174).Dee wants to distance herself from the past. Cowart notes that “Wangero thinks that the African American past can only be rescued by being commodified. She wants to make the lid of the butter churn into a centerpiece for her table. She wants to hang quilts on the wall.
She wants, in short, to do what white people do with the cunning and quaint implements and products of the past.” (175) She is convinced that Maggie, her younger sister, due to her backward nature will put the quilt into everyday use (Cowart, 1996). Dee is ignorant of her inheritance. She refers to the quilt as something her grandmother alone made. “These are all pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear. She did all the stitching by hand” (Walker, 1994, pg 412). She is aware she has been named after her aunt but does not want to use the name anymore.
Dee fails to understand that the name goes back several generations. It is therefore a more important part of her heritage than an adopted African name. Her aunt was named after her grandmother who was named after another relative. Dee refuses her mother to name her child. The mother is uncomfortable with Dee’s superior attitude. On being told of her new name, she starts using the name Wangero at the beginning of the story. She uses it however with a hint of sarcasm. However as time passes and the conflicts continue, she sees the attitude in Dee’ attitude by the end of the story and stops using the name Wangero and simply refers to her as Dee. Since Dee has rejected her American culture, her mum also rejects her alleged African culture. Cowart agrees on the inappropriateness and superficiality of the name and says “this character has changed her given name “Dee Johnson” to the superficially more impressive “Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo”-and thereby created difficulties for the narrator (her mother), who recognizes the inappropriateness of the old name but cannot quite commit herself to the new.
She tries to have it both ways, referring to her daughter now by one name, now by the other, now parenthetically hybridized combinations of both.”(171) The maternal nature in the Mother is crushed and she runs to be with Maggie who she describes as a wounded animal (Wilson, 1990). Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him? That is the way my Maggie walks. She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle ever since the fire that burned the house to the ground. (Walker, 1994, pg409) Throughout the story, the mother had been ashamed of Maggie but now fully embraces her.
As much as she was aware her daughter could not control the incidence of the fire, she had not appreciated the incredible strength Maggie had surmounted to be able to survive. When Maggie says that Dee can have the quilt, her mother looks at her. “I looked at her hard. She had filled her bottom lip with checkerberry snuff and it gave her face a kind of dopey hangdog look. It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught her how to quilt herself. She stood there with her scarred hands hidden in the folds of her skirt”. (Walker, 1994, pg413) Now the mother sees the grandmother and great grandmother and how they taught Maggie how to quilt. She looks at Maggie’s scarred arms and there is a lot of symbolism as she sees her relatives. Becky and Charlotte note the community use of quits actually brought the community together.
The mother realizes that the scarred arms present the heritage that she was ashamed of which should never be the case. She knows it is Maggie who should own the quilts and tells Dee clearly so.
The American heritage the black movement wanted to disregard is represented by Maggie’s character. The scars that Maggie has as the result of the house burning down are a symbol of the wounds and scars of slavery. The way she is shy around Dee is reminiscent of that time the blacks in slavery would have to refer to the whites as “Yes sir!” and “Yes madam!” The black movement would prefer that Maggie disappears or becomes inconspicuous.
Dee does not interact with Maggie at all till the end of the novel when she angrily leaves the house. As much as she is ignored, Maggie knows and totally appreciates her heritage.
She remembers how Aunt Dee’s husband whittled the dash. She also remembers the nickname of the husband was Stash but his real name was Henry. Furthermore she acknowledges that even though she does not have the quilt, she will always remember her grandmother Dee.
The mother in the story presents those people who were confused on how to reconcile their past; they wanted to move on however they were completely uncomfortable with the beliefs of the Black Movement. Wilson notes the superiority of Dee and the resilience of the mother and says “Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” is a poignant example of mother-daughter conflict and the attempt of the daughter in her incessant struggle for self-sufficiency, to relegate her mother to a prescribed position of inferiority. Dee Johnson is defeated in her efforts however because her mother ultimately displays strength, matrilineal sanction and spiritual power” (170).
The mother unlike her daughter has a deep respect for the people who came before her. Although she is uneducated she is wiser than her older daughter who because of her success chooses to ignore her ancestors and her American culture and heritage.
The mother appreciates the quilts as she remembers the precious people whose clothes were used to make the quilt. In both of the quilts there 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, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra’s uniform that he wore in the Civil War “Some of the pieces, like those lavender ones, come from old clothes [Grandma Dee’s] mother handed down to her,” The mother says in the novel. (Walker, 1994, p 412). White speaks of the quilt significance saying “Walker uses quilts to symbolize a bond between women. In “Everyday Use” the bond is between women of several generations” (2001). Baker and Charlotte agree on the symbolism of the quilt in their book “Patches: Quilts and Community in Alice Walker’s ‘Everyday Use” by saying “the quilt is as a thread connecting the present and the future” (310). The quilt is an important symbol of the past (Baker and Charlotte, 1993). Another item that shows the value the mother places on her ancestors is the butter churn which has several sunken marks made by people who had used it previously. When she touches it, she is reconnecting with her past. The mother has accepted who she is and her surroundings. She prepares the yard very well in preparation of Dee’s arrival at home and sees it as an extension of the sitting room. She considers the yard a great place since there is a great breeze outside that is not in the sitting room (Wilson, 1990). Alice Walker in “Everyday Use” shows the importance of appreciating both aspects of the African American culture. Furthermore she shows that when one denies their American culture they are being highly disrespectful and saying it was not important that their descendants struggled for freedom and liberty. White says in his article that “In “Everyday Use,” Alice Walker argues that an African-American is both African and American, and to deny the American side of one’s heritage is disrespectful of one’s ancestors and, consequently, harmful to one’s self” (2001). The two sisters’ argument on who should have the ownership of the quit is the novel’s central theme. Walker communicates that the responsibility for describing African-American heritage should not be in the hands of the Black Power Movement. African-Americans are urged to take ownership of their whole heritage, even the unpleasant memories.
Baker and Charlotte say in their review of the book that “the past cannot be embraced from the African culture by selecting only the pieces and bits that one finds attractive” (311).
Conclusion
All the authors have written the same conclusions on the review of the novel. The novel’s theme is on embracing the African American culture. They agree that the central theme of the novel is the acceptance of the American aspect of their history by the African Americans. The symbolism of the quilt cannot be ignored. The different characters in the novel represent different types of African Americans. At the end of the story Walker’s perception on the Black Movement is clearly communicated.
Works Cited
Baker, Houston and Charlotte, Pierce- Baker. “Patches: Quilts and Community in Alice Walker’s ‘Everyday Use.’” Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Ed. Henry Louis Gates and K.A.Appiah, p 309-16. 1993. Print.
Cowart, David. “Heritage and Deracination in Walker’s ‘Everyday Use.’” Studies in Short Fiction 33, p 171-84. 1996. Print.
Hoel, Helga. "Personal Names and Heritage: Alice Walker’s 'Everyday Use'." American Studies in Scandinavia, Vol. 34, p 34-42. 1999. Print.
Walker, Alice “Everyday Use.” New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. 1994. Print.
White, David. Everyday Use: Defining African-American Heritage. Portals. 2001. Web. 16th April 2011. <http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/alicew/davidwhite.htm>
Wilson, Charles E. ““Everyday Use” and “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”: Escaping Antebellum Confinement.”’ Southern Mothers: Fact and Fictions in Southern Women’s Writing. ed. Nagueyalti Warren and Sally Wolff. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, p169-81. 1990. Print.
