excerpt from everyday use by alice walker essay

A Summary and Analysis of Alice Walker’s ‘Everyday Use’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Everyday Use’ is one of the most popular and widely studied short stories by Alice Walker. It was first published in Harper’s Magazine in 1973 before being collected in Walker’s short-story collection In Love and Trouble .

Walker uses ‘Everyday Use’ to explore different attitudes towards Black American culture and heritage.

‘Everyday Use’: plot summary

The story is narrated in the first person by Mrs Johnson, a largeAfrican-American woman who has two daughters, Dee (the older of the two) and Maggie (the younger). Whereas Maggie, who is somewhat weak and lacking in confidence, shares many of her mother’s views, Dee is rather different.

Mrs Johnson tells us how she and the local church put together the funds to send Dee away to school to get an education. When Dee returned, she would read stories to her mother and sister. Mrs Johnson tells us she never had much of an education as her school was shut down, and although Maggie can read, her eyesight is poor and, according to her mother, is not especially clever.

Mrs Johnson also tells us how their previous house recently burned down: a house, she tells us, which Dee had never liked. Dee hasn’t yet visited her mother and sister in the new house, but she has said that when she does come she will not bring her friends with her, implying she is ashamed of where her family lives.

However, Mrs Johnson then describes Dee’s first visit to the new house. She turns up with her new partner, a short and stocky Muslim man, whom Mrs Johnson refers to as ‘Asalamalakim’, after the Muslim greeting the man speaks when he arrives (a corruption of ‘salaam aleikum’ or ‘ As-salamu alaykum ’). He later tells Mrs Johnson to call him Hakim-a-barber.

Dee then tells her mother that she is no longer known as Dee, but prefers to be called Wangero Lee-wanika Kemanjo, because she no longer wishes to bear a name derived from the white people who oppressed her and other African Americans. Her mother points out that Dee was named after her aunt, Dicie, but Dee is convinced that the name originally came from their white oppressors.

Dee/Wangero now starts to examine the objects in the house which belonged to her grandmother (who was also known as Dee), saying which ones she intends to take for herself. When Mrs Johnson tells her she is keeping the quilts for when Maggie marries John Thomas, Dee responds that her sister is so ‘backward’ she’d probably put the special quilts to ‘everyday use’, thus wearing them out to ‘rags’ in a few years.

Although Maggie resignedly lets her older sister have the quilts, when Dee moves to take them for herself, Mrs Johnson is suddenly inspired to snatch them back from her and hold Maggie close to herself, refusing to give them up to Dee and telling her to take one of the other quilts instead.

Dee leaves with Hakim-a-barber, telling her mother and Maggie that they don’t understand their own heritage. She also tells Maggie to try to make something of herself rather than remaining home with their mother. After they’ve left, Maggie and her mother sit outside until it’s time to go indoors and retire to bed.

‘Everyday Use’: analysis

The central crux of Alice Walker’s story is the difference between Dee and her mother in their perspectives and attitudes. Where Mrs Johnson, the mother of the family, sees everything in terms of the immediate family and home, Dee (or Wangero, as she renames herself) is more interested in escaping this immediate environment.

She does this first by leaving the family home and becoming romantically involved with a man of African Muslim descent. She also looks deeper into her African roots in order to understand ‘where she comes from’, as the phrase has it: not just in terms of the family’s direct lineage of daughter, mother, grandmother, and so on (Mrs Johnson’s way of looking at it, as exemplified by their discussion over the origins of Dee’s name), but in a wider, and deeper sense of African-American history and belonging.

This departure from her mother’s set of values is most neatly embodied by her change of name, rejecting the family name Dee in favour of the African name Wangero Lee-wanika Kemanjo. Names, in fact, are very important in this story: Maggie is obviously known by a European name, and ‘Johnson’, the family name borne by ‘Mama’, and thus by her daughters, doubly reinforces (John and son) the stamp of male European power on their lives and history.

Dee, too, is very much a family name: not just because it is the name the family use for the elder daughter, but because it is a name borne by numerous female members of the family going back for generations. But Dee/Wangero suspects it is ultimately, or originally, of European extraction, and wants to distance herself from this. Dee’s rejection of the immediate family’s small and somewhat parochial attitude is also embodied by the fact that she reportedly hated their old house which had recently burned down.

‘Everyday Use’ was published in 1973, and Dee’s (or Wangero’s) search for her ancestral identity through African culture and language is something which was becoming more popular among African Americans in the wake of the US civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Indeed, a productive dialogue could be had between Dee’s outlook in ‘Everyday Use’ and the arguments put forward by prominent Black American writers and activists of the 1970s such as Audre Lorde, who often wrote – in her poem ‘ A Woman Speaks ’, for example – about the ancestral African power that Black American women carry, a link to their deeper roots which should be acknowledged and cultivated.

However, Walker does some interesting things in ‘Everyday Use’ which prevent the story from being wholly celebratory off Dee’s (Wangero’s) new-found sense of self. First, she had Mrs Johnson or ‘Mama’ narrate the story, so we only see Dee from her mother’s very different perspective: we only view Dee, or Wangero, from the outside, as it were.

Second, Dee/Wangero does not conduct herself in ways which are altogether commendable: she snatches the best quilts, determined to wrest them from her mother and sister and disregarding Maggie’s strong filial links to her aunt and grandmother who taught her how to quilt. The quilt thus becomes a symbol for Maggie’s link with the previous matriarchs of the family, which Dee is attempting to sever her from.

But she is not doing this out of kindness for Maggie, despite her speech to her younger sister at the end of the story. Instead, she seems to be motivated by more selfish reasons, and asserts her naturally dominant personality and ability to control her sister in order to get her way. The very title of Walker’s story, ‘Everyday Use’, can be analysed as a sign of Dee’s dismissive and patronising attitude towards her sister and mother: to her, they don’t even know how to use a good quilt properly and her sister would just put it out for everyday use.

We can also analyse Walker’s story in terms of its use of the epiphany : a literary whereby a character in a story has a sudden moment of consciousness, or a realisation. In ‘Everyday Use’, this occurs when Mrs Johnson, seeing Maggie prepared to give up her special bridal present to her sister, gathers the courage to stand her ground and to say no to Dee. She is clearly in awe of what Dee/Wangero has become, so this moment of self-assertion – though it is also done for Maggie, too – is even more significant.

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Literature › Analysis of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use

Analysis of Alice Walker’s Everyday Use

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 24, 2021

Probably Alice Walker ’s most frequently anthologized story, “Everyday Use” first appeared in Walker’s collection In Love and Trouble: Stories by Black Women. Walker explores in this story a divisive issue for African Americans, one that has concerned a number of writers, Lorraine Hansberry, for instance, in her play Raisin in the Sun (1959). The issue is generational as well as cultural: In leaving home and embracing their African heritage, must adults turn their backs on their African-American background and their more traditional family members? The issue, while specifically African-American, can also be viewed as a universal one in terms of modern youth who fail to understand the values of their ancestry and of their immediate family. Walker also raises the question of naming, a complicated one for African Americans, whose ancestors were named by slaveholders.

The first-person narrator of the story is Mrs. Johnson, mother of two daughters, Maggie and Dicie, nicknamed Dee. Addressing the readers as “you,” she draws us directly into the story while she and Maggie await a visit from Dee. With deft strokes, Walker has Mrs. Johnson reveal essential information about herself and her daughters. She realistically describes herself as a big-boned, slow-tongued woman with no education and a talent for hard work and outdoor chores. When their house burned down some 12 years previous, Maggie was severely burned. Comparing Maggie to a wounded animal, her mother explains that she thinks of herself as unattractive and slow-witted, yet she is good-natured too, and preparing to marry John Thomas, an honest local man. Dee, on the other hand, attractive, educated, and self-confident, has left her home (of which she was ashamed) to forge a new and successful life.

Alice Walker/Thoughtco

When she appears, garbed in African attire, along with her long-haired friend, Asalamalakim, Dee informs her family that her new name is Wangero Leewanika Kemanio . 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. Dee’s failure to honor her own family history continues in her gentrified appropriation of her mother’s butter dish and churn, both of which have a history, but both of which Dee views as quaint artifacts that she can display in her home. When Dee asks for her grandmother’s quilts, however, Mrs. Johnson speaks up: Although Maggie is willing to let Dee have them because, with her goodness and fine memory, she needs no quilts to help her remember Grandma Dee, her mother announces firmly that she intends them as a wedding gift for Maggie. Mrs. Johnson approvingly tells Dee that Maggie will put them to “everyday use” rather than hanging them on a wall.

Dee leaves in a huff, telling Maggie she ought to make something of herself. With her departure, peace returns to the house, and Mrs. Johnson and Maggie sit comfortably together, enjoying each other’s company. Although readers can sympathize with Dee’s desire to improve her own situation and to feel pride in her African heritage, Walker also makes clear that in rejecting the African-American part of that heritage, she loses a great deal. Her mother and sister, despite the lack of the success that Dee enjoys, understand the significance of family. One hopes that the next child will not feel the need to choose one side or the other but will confidently embrace both.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” In Major Writers of Short Fiction: Stories and Commentary, edited by Ann Charters. Boston: St. Martin’s, 1993, 1,282–1,299.

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Summaries, Analysis & Lists

“Everyday Use” Theme, Analysis & Summary by Alice Walker: (Like Sparknotes, Cliff Notes)

Can’t find Sparknotes or Cliff Notes for Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”? You’re covered.  This short story from 1973 is one of her best known. It’s frequently anthologized and is a popular short story for students . It’s about a mother who’s expecting a visit from her daughter, Dee, who’s pursued education and distanced herself from her background. This analysis starts with a summary then looks at “Everyday Use” themes and questions.

“Everyday Use” Summary

Mama Johnson tells us she’s expecting a visit from her daughter Dee. Her other daughter, Maggie, still lives at home with her. Mama plans to wait in the freshly cleaned front yard.

Maggie will be nervous and self-conscious during the visit because of her burn scars and Dee’s advantages.

Mama sometimes dreams of being on one of those TV show where someone who’s succeeded is surprised on air by their parents. She would be brought out and a man like Johnny Carson would compliment her daughter. Dee would hug her and they’d have a loving and tearful reunion.

On the show, Mama would be the way Dee would want her to be—slimmer, lighter skinned, with glistening hair and a quick wit. Mama knows this is wrong even in a dream. She’s a large, heavy woman who wears practical clothes and works hard and can kill her own food. Dee is bold and confident. She’s lighter skinned than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure.

Maggie gets dressed for the visit and comes into the yard. She’s been extremely shy and diffident ever since the fire that burned their other house. She was burned but Dee wasn’t. Dee hated the old house and Mama thought she hated Maggie too, before she went off to school.

With the church’s help, Mama raised the money to send Dee to Augusta to school. She overwhelmed her Mama and Maggie with what she learned, and lorded her education over them. Dee wanted nice things and had her own style.

“Everyday Use” Summary, Cont’d

Mama only has a second grade education. Maggie reads to her sometimes, but she can’t see that well. Maggie is engaged to John Thomas and will soon be out of the house. Mama will be free to sing to herself, although she’s not good at it. She’s always been better at man’s work.

The new house is a lot like the old one—three rooms, holes for windows and built in a pasture. Maggie will probably want to tear it down. She said she wouldn’t bring friends there, but she’s never had many friends. She found so much fault with her old beau that he ran off to marry a girl from the city.

Dee pulls up to the house with a guest, a short, stocky man with long hair and a long beard. Dee wears a long, loud dress with long earrings and other accessories. Her hair stands up like wool and has stylized pigtails. Maggie tries to go inside but Mama stays her.

Dee uses an African greeting and her guest uses a religious Muslim one. Dee tells Mama not to get up. She goes back to her car for a camera. She takes several pictures of Mama and Maggie, making sure to get the house in as well.

Maggie recoils from a hug offered by the guest. He tries to give her an unusual handshake but gives up.

Dee has changed her name to Wangero Lee-wanika Kemanjo. Her old name was given by her oppressors. Dee is named after her aunt, and Mama traces it back to the Civil War. The discussion peters out. The man’s name is longer and harder to pronounce, so they settle on Hakim-a-barber.

Mama associates him with the beef-cattle farmers nearby who use the same greeting. He agrees with some of their teachings. Mama doesn’t know if Wangero and Hakim are married, and she doesn’t ask.

They sit down to eat. Hakim doesn’t eat pork and doesn’t want the collards. Wangero loves everything. She also admires the benches made by her father, and Grandma’s butter dish and dasher, which were whittled from a tree. She wants to take the dish and dasher for display.

After dinner, Wangero goes to Mama’s trunk in her bedroom and takes out two old family quilts that she wants to take. Mama suggests taking other ones that have better stitching, done by machine. Wangero wants the hand-sewn ones and acts like they’re already hers. Mama has promised them to Maggie when she gets married.

Wangero can’t believe this because Maggie would just use them daily until they’re worn out. Wangero wants to hang them up. They argue over who should get them.

Maggie timidly says her sister can take the quilts. Mama is struck by Maggie’s appearance and demeanor in the moment. She hugs Maggie and brings her into the room onto the bed. She takes the quilts from Wangero and gives them to Maggie, telling Wangero to take some of the others.

Wangero leaves without a word and goes to the car with Hakim. Mama and Maggie see her off. Wangero talks about their heritage and tells Maggie to make something of herself.

Maggie smiles and the car pulls away. Mama and Maggie sit contentedly in the yard until bedtime.

(End of “Everyday Use” summary)

“Everyday Use” Theme Analysis: Heritage and Identity

The crux of “Everyday Use” is a consideration of heritage and the broader issue of identity.

Dee’s attitude toward her heritage undergoes the most obvious change, but it’s only a superficial one. As a young person, she’s not happy with where she’s from.

Dee hated the old house that burned down. Her distance from it was mirrored by her standing away from it and her family after it burned. She doesn’t like the new house, either, which is very similar to the old one. She’s said she won’t bring friends there.

Mama believes Dee hated Maggie when they were kids. Maggie personified the traditional family background, being darker skinned and without any desire to leave or pursue education.

When Dee visits, her attitude toward her family background seems to have changed. She takes several pictures, being sure to get the house (which she had previously disparaged) in them. She delights in the traditional Southern food. She sees the benches her dad made with fresh eyes. She also wants the butter dish and dasher that were hand whittled.

These things all build up to the most significant scene of the story. Dee wants the hand-stitched quilts made from some old patches of clothing from Grandma and Grandpa.

Despite the newfound appreciation Dee has for her heritage, it proves to be superficial. As she leaves, she says to Maggie, “It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live, you’d never know it.” Dee’s attitude toward her family heritage seems to be the same. So why is she so interested in it?

Dee wants to display the items she takes, including hanging up the quilts. We get the sense that Dee wants them as conversation pieces, so she can talk about her background as something she rose above, to show that she’s “made it”. She wants symbols of her heritage, but doesn’t want to live it.

Her view is made clear when she says Maggie couldn’t appreciate the quilts, that she’d be “backward enough to put them to everyday use.” Mama and Maggie are living their heritage. Dee thinks they’re backward, and only wants her heritage represented by objects. It’s not going to be a part of her daily life.

Dee also rejects her family heritage by adopting an African name. She views her family name as coming from oppressors, which is a valid view, however, it’s not the only valid view. Mama traces the family history of Dee’s name, viewing it as coming, not from oppressors, but from people who loved, taught and paved the way for her.

As Wangero, she says that Dee is dead. Symbolically, she has killed Dee, and her connection to her family heritage. Literally, we see that the old Dee is still very much alive; her attitude is the same as always. The new name hasn’t changed her identity.

In contrast, Maggie is steeped in her family heritage. She’s marrying a local man and will continue to live in the area. She knew the dasher’s provenance—who carved it and what people called him. This is probably something Dee heard many times, but she didn’t care to remember it. Maggie has learned from her family how to quilt, and can continue to make them, even if they wear out from daily use.

Other Themes in “Everyday Use”

Change could be considered as an “Everyday Use” theme:

• Dee has changed her educational level, where she lives, and her name and hair style to emphasize her African heritage.
• Mama is facing a significant change as Maggie is soon to married, so she’ll be living by herself.
• Maggie’s life will change when she marries. She also experienced a change during the story, as she genuinely smiles at the end. (see question below)

Assertiveness could also be considered as an “Everyday Use” theme:

• Dee is highly individual and makes her preferences clear, even among white people.
• Maggie is the opposite—nervous, ashamed and painfully shy.
• Mama is the most balanced but not as assertive as she would like. She wouldn’t look a white man in the eye. When she goes to see the Muslim farmers who are taking a stand against white oppression, we see that Mama approves of this and would like to have more of this quality.

Irony in “Everyday Use”

Some examples of irony include:

• It was Dee’s mother and church (parts of the heritage she rejects) that allowed her to go to school in Augusta, setting her up to leave it behind completely.
• When Dee connects with her African roots, she ignores her family roots.
• Dee wants to display objects from her grandparents but disdains their legacy.

Why does Maggie smile at the end?

As Dee prepares to drive away, “Maggie smiled; maybe at the sunglasses. But a real smile, not scared.” The explanation given, that she smiled at Dee’s sunglasses, is possible but there’s probably more to it.

It seems more likely her smile is related to the scene that just played out. Maggie feels Dee has had all the advantages in life, that “‘no’ is a word the world never learned to say to her.” Mama has just given her a definitive “no” over the quilts, to Maggie’s advantage. She could be smiling at this role reversal, at this affirmation of her worth.

Where is the story set?

“Everyday Use” is set in small town rural Georgia, as Dee was sent to school in Augusta.

What do the quilts symbolize?

The quilts symbolize the Johnson family heritage.

I hope this look at “Everyday Use” themes, analysis and summary was helpful.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Everyday Use — Literary Analysis of Everyday Use by Alice Walker

Literary Analysis of Everyday Use by Alice Walker

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Published: Feb 9, 2023

Words: 705 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

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Everyday Use

Alice walker, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

In “Everyday Use,” Mama , the story’s first person narrator, describes her relationship to her daughter Dee as Dee, an educated young African-American woman, returns to visit her childhood house in the Deep South. The story begins as Mama and Maggie , Dee’s sister and Mama’s younger daughter, prepare for the visit. Maggie changes her clothes as Mama fantasizes about reconciling with her daughter on a television show hosted by someone like Johnny Carson. Mama then dismisses her fantasy as unrealistic, because she believes she is not the kind of person who would appear on such a show.

As she waits for Dee, Mama looks around the yard and at Maggie, triggering memories of Dee’s troubled childhood in their house—her anger towards her family and their poverty, her hunger for higher quality clothes and an education, her charisma, assertiveness, and her beauty. Mama thinks about how Dee’s attitude towards them changed as she became educated thanks to money from Mama and the Church, turning her from hateful to hurtfully condescending. As she remembers Dee as a child, Mama contrasts her with Maggie—a diffident, kind, homely young woman with a scar on her face from the house fire. Mama recounts the traumatizing fire, which burnt down their home, and forced them to build a new one, exactly like it, where they now live.

At last Dee and her partner, Hakim-a-Barber , arrive at the house. Dee is dressed in a beautiful, colorful, floor-length dress in African style. She introduces herself as “Wangero,” not as Dee, stating that she changed her name so she would not be named after her “oppressors.” Mama is originally skeptical of both these choices, but decides that she likes the dress. Mama reminds Dee that she is, in fact, named after her aunt Dicie, but agrees to call Dee by her chosen name.

Dee takes pictures of her family with their house. She and Hakim-a-Barber eat with Mama and Maggie, and while Hakim-a-Barber is unenthusiastic about the family’s fare, Dee enjoys the collard greens and pork with relish. Dee, who, as Mama mentioned, once disdained the family’s possessions, now unexpectedly covets them. She admires the worn stools, coos over her grandmother’s butter dish, and demands to be given the top of the family’s butter churn to use as decoration in her house. Mama acquiesces, and gives Dee the churn.

After dinner, Dee insists on taking home her grandmother’s quilts as well, to hang on her walls. Mama, however, had planned on giving the quilts to Maggie. When Mama refuses, saying that she promised them to Maggie, Dee becomes angry. She insists that Maggie cannot appreciate the quilts, and will wear them out with “everyday use.” When Mama brushes Dee’s anger off, saying that Maggie can simply make new quilts since she knows how to sew, Dee insists that the quilts are “priceless” and that Mama does not “understand” her heritage. Still, Mama refuses to give Dee the quilts, and dumps them on Maggie’s lap. The story ends with Dee’s departure, leaving Mama and Maggie alone together in the house.

“Everyday Use” Short Story by Alice Walker Essay

In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, the author places two sisters side by side for an afternoon of visiting. One of these sisters, Maggie, lives with her mother in a small, poorly built shack on the edge of the country and is planning to marry a somewhat unattractive but dependable man in their small town. As a child, she was caught in a fire and still bears significant scarring on her legs and arms, a fact that makes her shy and withdrawn.

The other sister, Dee, lives a beautiful life in the city with her good looks, her outgoing charm, and her refusal to be denied. She is described as having lived a charmed childhood, easily able to get her way with other people as a result of her natural charm and good looks while her brains enabled her to attain a higher level of education than either her mother or her sister. Her status with the man she travels with is unknown, but her attitudes and behaviors are that of a middle-class urban black woman attempting to recapture a sense of her heritage. Walker’s brilliant characterization illustrates that while both girls can be seen to honor their past and the cultural heritage from which they descended, their approaches to this past are as different as their appearances.

Throughout the story, both girls are seen to have a strong appreciation for their past. Whether it is to make fun of the scene later or to truly appreciate where she came from, one of the first actions Dee makes on her arrival is to grab her camera. “She stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me. She never takes a shot without making sure the house is included.

When a cow comes nibbling around the edge of the yard she snaps it and me and Maggie and the house.” Dee happily accepts the traditional food her mother makes for her, the same food the mother and Maggie tend to eat all the time, which is also singled out as unacceptable by her companion. Dee’s reaction too much of the events of the visit are reminiscent of a person’s reaction to a historic theme park, attempting to make a connection with a way of life she has transcended yet feeling a sense of loss as a result, which is a connection Maggie lives every day of her life.

Both girls know and appreciate the many things around the house that have been created by one relative or another, Dee is able to recognize “Grandma Dee’s butter dish” and “the benches her daddy made for the table when we couldn’t afford to buy chairs” while Maggie tells her “Aunt Dee’s first husband whittled the dash … His name was Henry, but they called him Stash.” Despite the similarities, the girls’ interest in these things seems to hail from different sources.

The type of interest Dee shows in her surroundings is immediately depicted as approaching cultural awareness from a distance, like a theme park belonging to someone else’s world. While she apparently loves her mother and sister, “She wrote me once that no matter where we ‘choose’ to live, she will manage to come to see us. But she will never bring her friends,” it is also apparent that she takes little or no ownership in her own past. However, that she takes pride in the heritage as it is imagined in the city is revealed as she announces to her mother that she’s taken on an African name, “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me” although she was truly named after her aunt.

The items she takes from the house are all strongly associated with her culture and past, but she intends to put them to alternate uses within her home, “’I can use the chute top as a centerpiece for the alcove table,’ she said, sliding a plate over the chute, ‘and I’ll think of something artistic to do with the dasher.’” She can’t understand why her mother might not allow her to ‘properly’ take care of something as valuable as the heritage quilt she’s dug out of her mother’s trunk.

Despite Dee’s overwhelming presence, Maggie is the first girl to be introduced in the story as it is she who has apparently helped her mother to make the yard “so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon. … It is not just a yard. It is like an extended living room.” Thus, a part of the family’s heritage is revealed as sitting out in this type of yard, looking up into the old elm tree, and enjoying the evening’s breezes as compared to the more refined activities Dee might be involved in. Strongly contrasted against Dee in the education department, Maggie is more like her uneducated mother.

While she attempts to read to her mother in the evenings, “she stumbles along good-naturedly but can’t see well. She knows she is not bright.” She is apparently accustomed to doing things the way her mother did them, understanding the feel of the “small sinks; you could see where thumbs and fingers had sunk into the wood” of the dasher for the butter churn, and is comfortable living in the same way her mother has for years. In the argument over the quilts, Dee correctly assumes Maggie “would put them on the bed and in five years they’d be in rags.” Maggie is thus seen as a quiet girl, unassuming and meek, who nevertheless has practical ideas and plans of her own.

Through characterization, Walker is able to depict two very different sisters not just in the way they are described physically, but also through their different approaches to life. While Dee is active, constantly in motion, and constantly adapting the world to her own uses, Maggie is quiet, often in the background, and ready to employ the tools of the world to practical uses. Dee wants the top to the butter churn because of its cultural significance, its obvious age, and its personal family history.

While Maggie appreciates all of these qualities as well, she values the churn top because without it, the rest of the churn is useless and she can no longer make butter. In the same way, Dee appreciates the hand-pieced quilts because of all the work and care that went into them as well as the historical significance of the fabrics used while Maggie appreciates them for all this history as well as the possibility of them keeping her warm in the winter nights and making her beds beautiful in the daytime.

Works Cited

Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” 2008. Web.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, September 24). "Everyday Use" Short Story by Alice Walker. https://ivypanda.com/essays/everyday-use-short-story-by-alice-walker/

""Everyday Use" Short Story by Alice Walker." IvyPanda , 24 Sept. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/everyday-use-short-story-by-alice-walker/.

IvyPanda . (2021) '"Everyday Use" Short Story by Alice Walker'. 24 September.

IvyPanda . 2021. ""Everyday Use" Short Story by Alice Walker." September 24, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/everyday-use-short-story-by-alice-walker/.

1. IvyPanda . ""Everyday Use" Short Story by Alice Walker." September 24, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/everyday-use-short-story-by-alice-walker/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . ""Everyday Use" Short Story by Alice Walker." September 24, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/everyday-use-short-story-by-alice-walker/.

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