Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Ava Kerley

ENG 102, Professor Heine

Analysis Essay

March 27, 2023

Look, Do Not Touch

When I was little my brother would antagonize me until I retaliated. When I would fight with my brother my parents would separate us and make us sit on their bed until we had figured out what had happened and why. When we would do this my dad would say to every story there are two parts. There is what everyone thought happened and then there is the truth. He implied that usually there was going to be something flawed in each person's statement, making both wrong. However, as I've grown up I’ve realized that sometimes both parties are truthful and neither of them is wrong in their views of the same event. Alice Walker uses multiple literary elements in her short

Everyday Use is a short story written by Alice Walker that uses characterization to further the idea that the same culture can have different views on the same culture. In the story, there are two cultures at war, represented by Dee or ‘Wangero’ and Mama. Dee represents ethnicity or her roots and Mama represents heritage or knowing one’s family story. Dee is the character that comes off as high and mighty. She comes back from college and is wearing clothes that are more traditionally African. Mama describes it as “enough to throw back the light of the sun” (169). Dee has completely changed her appearance, including her name, to try and represent her roots more. She reasoned that she changed her name because she “could bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me” (170). However, in the process, she has neglected to learn her family history and where she as an individual came from. Dee was a family name that went pretty far back

The main symbols in this story are the yard, the butter churn, and the quilt. The house and yard show the reader that Mama is poor but has always made the best of it. Mama describes it as “an extended living room” (166). This shows us that while Mama is poor, her home is still her safe space and the yard especially is her happy place. Her home symbolizes Mama’s resilience because even though it burnt down she rebuilt it and made it a home again. Similarly, the yard symbolizes Mama’s peace. The other major symbols in this story are the butter churn, the dasher, and the quilts. All three of these are symbols of personal heritage. The butter churn top and the dasher were whittled out of a tree that stood in the yard. The churn was whittled by Uncle Buddy and the dasher was whittled by Stash. This dasher had been touched and used a lot by Mama’s family, shown by the visual wear in the wood. Mama states “you could see what thumbs and fingers sunk into the wood” (172). Finally, the quilts are the last large symbol. The quilts also represent the heritage and being proud of your culture. When one makes a quilt it is a long process and when someone finishes she is usually very proud of her work. However, quilts are made to be used to keep warm, not presented as an artifact. To Mama, these show her family history and she wants to use them accordingly, but to Dee, they represent her heritage and ethnicity in a very superficial way.