Short summary of everyday use by alice walker. Everyday Use Summary & Analysis 2022-11-01
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"Everyday Use" is a short story by Alice Walker that was first published in 1973. The story is narrated by a woman named Mama, who tells the story of her two daughters, Dee and Maggie. Dee is the older daughter and is described as being ambitious and successful, while Maggie is the younger daughter and is portrayed as being shy and timid.
The story begins with Mama and Maggie preparing for a visit from Dee, who is coming home from college. Mama is excited to see her daughter and is proud of her success, but she is also anxious about the visit because she knows that Dee is very different from her and Maggie. Dee has always been ambitious and has always wanted to be successful, while Mama and Maggie are content with their simple lives on their farm.
When Dee arrives, she is accompanied by a man named Hakim-a-barber, who is described as being a "political" and "revolutionary" person. Dee has adopted a new name, Wangero, and has rejected her African heritage, much to the disappointment of Mama and Maggie. Dee looks down on their simple way of life and belittles their possessions, including a quilt that Mama has made with the help of her mother and grandmother. Dee wants to take the quilt with her and display it as a symbol of her African heritage, but Mama refuses to give it to her, saying that it is meant for everyday use and not just for display.
As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Dee and Mama have very different values and that they have a strained relationship. Mama is hurt by Dee's rejection of her African heritage and her belittling of their simple way of life, while Dee is frustrated by Mama's refusal to give her the quilt. In the end, Mama decides to give the quilt to Maggie, saying that she will be able to appreciate and use it in a way that Dee never could.
"Everyday Use" is a poignant and thought-provoking story that explores the themes of heritage, identity, and the importance of cultural traditions. It highlights the tension that can exist between generations and the importance of preserving cultural traditions and passing them down to future generations. Through the character of Dee, Alice Walker also addresses the issue of assimilation and the dangers of rejecting one's cultural heritage in the pursuit of success and acceptance. Overall, "Everyday Use" is a powerful and thought-provoking story that encourages readers to consider the importance of their cultural heritage and the ways in which it shapes their identity.
Summary Of Everyday Use By Alice Walker
Mama says that Maggie knows how to quilt and can make more. But, the flip side was the inability of some of the Afro-Americans to come to terms with this change in their conditions. The story if manufactures a contention between two separate perspectives about the heritage significance for the family, two sisters depict their differentiating family sees on what they see to be heritage. Another notable symbol of her heritage is the house that Dee hated, which burnt, almost as a way to signify a release from her family ways. Through this composition, Walker has done justice to this confusion. Dee is dressed in a beautiful, colorful, floor-length dress in African style.
The mother expresses anxiety about the upcoming visit as does Maggie and her fears become realized when Dee returns with a radical view of her culture and upbringing. Dee is somewhat rude and condescending when talking to Mama and Maggie and drops indirect insults all in the name of some chit chat. Alice Walker wants us to know more about Mrs. 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. She tells Dee to take one or two of the other quilts.
'Everyday Use' by Alice Walker: Summary and Analysis
The first daughter is named Maggie, who had been injured in a house fire has been living with her mom. She was more interested of the ideas of showing it off. As Dee wraps up the dasher to take away, Mama touches it and looks it over. Dee attempts to turn her family into an art object a well-composed photograph rather than authentically appreciating how they are as living people. The act of giving the quilts to Maggie by her mother etched a feeling of self-fulfillment within her. Mama thinks hard, looking at Maggie, taking in her snuff-filled lip, her burn-scarred hands hidden in the folds of her too-big clothes, her sad resignation that she will not be able to keep the quilts, and her lack of anger at Dee. She said that she would not like to be addressed by the name of her oppressors.
The main things that the story is revolving around is the heritage and how it is important, the relationship between the two sisters, how education makes a differences, and finally about how generations changed by time. Mama and Maggie are similar. After they say hello, Dee retrieves a camera from her car and takes pictures of Maggie and Mama with their house. She is also very envious of Dee, as she is everything that Maggie is not. She emerges as a new Afro-American, who believes that she has freed herself completely from the oppressive shackles of slavery. As they pull up in their car, Maggie tries to retreat into the house, but Mama stops her.
Summary, Themes & Analysis of “Everyday Use†by Alice Walker: Symbols & Setting – Short Story Guide
Mama, an elderly black woman and the first-person narrator, begins the story by saying that she is waiting for her daughter Dee in the yard of her house, which she cleaned the day before in preparation for her visit. We see this in Maggie and Dee who have different opinions on their African American heritage. During that period, the White people dominated the Black people. Johnson, Mama Mama, the narrator of the story, is a mother Mama of two daughters who are very different from each other. Mama and Maggie both pose, but are really shy and clueless about the state of affairs.
Dee and Hakim-a-barber seem to be taking part in a tradition of African-Americans returning to their African roots in an attempt to circumvent the history of white violence against black people. This story highlighted this feeling suffered by a mother of two very different daughters. By the time of her visit, Dee and she briefly mentioned friend have changed their names to traditional African ones in an attempt to appear to be connected with their roots, though it comes off as being insincere. Back then, Mama believed that Dee hated Maggie, until Mama and the community raised enough money to send Dee to school in Augusta. Work cited Walker, A.
"Everyday Use" by Alice Walker: [Essay Example], 549 words GradesFixer
Their mother is very excited but Maggie is quite nervous. This gave her a new sense of accomplishment. Mama tells Dee that she was in fact named after her Aunt Dicie, who was named after Grandma Dee, who bore the name of her mother as well. Dee steps out of the car wearing a floor-length, brightly colored dress, gold earrings, and jingling bracelets. In the story, Walker 2 used symbolic language to portray themes in the story. There was an exchange of heated words between Mama and Dee, when Maggie comes into the room and says that she is willing to give away those quilts to Dee.
Furthermore, the reader can see that Mama has a troublesome relationship with Dee by the amount of tension between them. Dee arrives accompanied by an Arab man. Mama, however, had planned on giving the quilts to Maggie. The three main characters each have their own meaning of what heritage means to them. They all go inside to eat. Dee had better education, yet full of confidence and ambition. Once again, Mama thinks about the house in a way that both emphasizes her affection for it she takes in all the details with an attentive consideration and her sense of trauma associated with it she constantly compares it to their house that burned down.
We are able to see both physical and psychological differences. Walker 2 gave her book a family setting where Mama and her daughters project different interests. Family traditions are not left behind in this short story. They carried out all work in the true traditional ways, rather than adopting modern ways. However, when Mama looked at Maggie, she was struck with a feeling she got when she was in church.
