Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

In this short story by Alice Walker, she sticks to the theme that reoccurs in her works of literature: the illustration of harmony and the struggles of the African-American culture. The writer captures the essence of the African-American culture through the different characters which she portrays in the story and how they interact with one another. The story focuses on Dee (the returning daughter who received a college education) and her male friend and their interaction with her mother and sister. The way the writer reveals the characters to reader shows why she is one of the prominent writers of her time. Each character plays an important role in this short story and helps the reader grasp the idea that culture and heritage are both parts …show more content…
Johnson’s daughters and is described as a shy and insecure woman due to the scars from a fire that plague her true beauty. Maggie, like her mother, is stuck in her traditional ways and she honors her ancestors. The writer explains this by saying that she is the daughter who learned to quilt from her grandma. Maggie is an unspoken soul and seems to hide in the shadows of her mother. She is embarrassed by her scars and this really affects her interaction with people. This is evident when her sister Dee brings her male companion home to visit and she cowers away behind her mother as a young child would around a stranger. Maggie is very rooted in her heritage and attached to her family. When her sister tries to take the quilts that her grandma quilted, she tells her mother that she doesn’t need those old things to remember her grandma and her heritage. Her mother saves her by stepping in and telling Dee that she will not be taking the quilts with her and that Maggie deserves …show more content…
She comes back to visit her mother and sister and treats them and their home like a tourist attraction instead of her family. She kneels down to take pictures of her family and the house as someone who was visiting a museum would do. She even had trouble finding the house because she had been gone so long. This in its self tells the reader that she has uprooted herself entirely from her family and her old life. Dee only wrote her mother twice in six years which lets the reader how distant Dee has become from her family. Dee seems to be so uprooted from her religious background and heritage. When her mother leads the prayer before the meal, Dee and her male companion make it evident that they do not want any part of it. The fact that she has denied her religious background hurts her mother. The church and her mother were the ones that helped raise money so she could get an education which makes it ironic that she no longer accepts her old religion. Dee takes it one step further when she denounces the family name, Dee, which was passed down generation after generation, referring to it as her “government name.” She is now calling her self Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. This tickles her mother and makes her laugh and even have some fun mispronouncing her new name. Dee tries to take items from the home of her mother and sister and this does not sit well with them. The real reason she wants the quilts and her families old belonging is