Everyday Use By Alice Walker Analysis

In Alice Walker’s classic short story, “Everyday Use,” the narrator tells a story of her two daughters, Dee and Maggie, and their conflicting ideas about identification and ancestry. Walker uses the difference in education and importance of family tradition to showcase conflicts between Mama and her daughters. Through these differences, Mama is forced to question the kind of women her daughters have become and ultimately choose one to take care of a significant piece of their family history. Mama is a gentle, but stern, strong female figure. “I am a large, big- boned woman with rough, man- working hands” (1531). She lives a tough life but provides for her family and does what she has to do. Through monologue, it is easy to see a glimpse of Mama’s unconditional love for her daughters despite her brutally honest, and sometimes critical, comments of them. While getting to know the narrator, the reader is

The quilts are most valuable to Mama and Maggie who view them as practical household items and not just art to hang on the wall. Dee claims that she wants to preserve the quilts and protect them from any harm Maggie could do if they were in her possession. “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts! She’d probably be backwards enough to put them to everyday use” (1536). In this moment, Mama realizes just how materialistic and distant Dee has become. The point of the quilts is to be of everyday use to their family. Just like Dee’s name that was passed down, and she changed, the quilts represent generations of their family history. Despite her poor education and lack of worldliness, especially compared to her daughter, it is Mama who is able to see just how shallow Dee’s motives really are. The quilt is a connection between generations that is supposed to be strong and, ideally,