Alice Walker's Everyday Use
"Everyday Use" pieces together the story of two sisters who stand in opposition to their heritage. Maggie, the youngest, is shy and self-effacing but has grown roots that run deep into the family’s personal heritage, and thus knows the intimate history and significance of every heirloom in her home. Dee is modern, flashy, and self-assertive, and has sought to indentify herself with the grander tribe of her people. Dee has even changed her given name to an exotic African, for she did not want to be known by the name of her “oppressors.” Her mother takes Dee through a family history of her name, tracing it back a few generations. It does not impress Dee; she feels more connected to “her people” through the anonymity of her new African name, and looks down on her sister for not joining the new movement of African-American awareness and independence.
Dee has left home to go away to college, and this is her first visit home. However, she is less interested in her home and in her mother and sister than she is about the family heirlooms; but these have meanings for her only in an aesthetic sense. Conflict arises over which of the two sisters should have two quilts that had been sewn by the women in the family. Dee wants to take possession over these quilts and hang them as decorations in her apartment in the city. When Dee is told that the quilts have already been offered to Maggie, as a wedding gift by the mother, Dee scoffs at the thought, outraged at the idea of having the quilts put to their mundane everyday use. The quilts would be certain to be ruined. Maggie offers the quilts to Dee, telling her that she does not need the quilts to remember her aunt and grandmother. However, the mother takes the quilts away from Dee telling her she can choose from the other quilts in the house. Dee refuses because the other quilts have not been sewn by hand.
The mother could have chosen to give each of the daughters one of the quilts, but chose instead to give both quilts to Maggie, who knew their true value as family heirlooms, each piece of cloth came from a garment worn by her grandparents or great-grandparents. In giving them to Maggie the mother was trying to protect the integrity of the family heritage knowing full well that she would pass it on to her own children.
References
Walker, A. (2003). Everyday Use. Making literature matter: An anthology for
readers and writers. 2nd ed. Eds. John Schilb and John Clifford. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's,. 382-89.
.
