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Tamara Smith
Dr. Pittman
English 1010
November 2, 2009
Critical/Rhetorical Analysis
Of “Everyday Use”
“Everyday Use,” a short story written by Alice Walker in
1973, is about an African American mother and her two daughters.
The mother narrates the story which centers around the oldest
daughter, Dee, coming back home from college for a rare visit
with her family. Alice Walker utilizes everyday language to
introduce the members of the Johnson family and explain their
differences, particularly their conflicting views about the
meanings of family, tradition and heritage. To put it simply,
this story illustrates how some people ‘talk the talk’ and
others actually ‘walk the walk’.V
The story opens simply enough with the mother and her
youngest daughter, Maggie, working together in their yard, which
also serves as the family’s living room, trying to get it
cleaned up in preparation for Dee’s visit. In this introduction,
the author offers hints about the mother’s perception of herself
through the suggestion, “A yard like this is more comfortable
than most people know.
It is not just a yard,” (443).V
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While waiting for Dee to arrive, the narrator reflects on
the many differences between her two daughters. Dee, we learn is
“lighter than Maggie with nicer hair and a fuller figure,”
(Walker 444) and that her feet are neat looking as if “God had
shaped them with a certain style” (445). Poor Maggie, on the
other hand, has never left home and is not bright or attractive.
Her manner is compared to that of a lame animal and we learn
that she shuffles with her “chin on her chest, eyes on the
ground,” (444). Since the narrator’s tone remains matter of fact
throughout much of the story, she adds details that bring depth
to the characters to help the reader form opinions about them.
By describing Maggie in such a humble way, for example, the
author is able to evoke the reader’s sympathy for her.
The author makes great use of background information to
acquaint the reader with the characters and to build tension
about the reunion. We are slowly given details of events from
the family’s history, such as the fire that claimed their
previous house.
We learn that Maggie was burned during the fire
and that she has scars on her arms and legs.
Dee, on the other
hand, wasn’t the least bit affected by the fire because she had
always hated the house. In fact, Walker gives readers an insight
to the mother’s frustration at Dee’s attitude when she wonders,
“why don’t you do a dance around the ashes?” (444).
The mother
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speculates that Dee will probably want to burn the newer house
down because it is exactly like the other house but for the tin
roof.
Walker cleverly uses a dream as a method of revealing the
mother’s relationship to Dee. In the dream, the mother is
reunited with Dee on a television program where a teary eyed Dee
embraces her and pins an orchid on her dress. The mother
imagines herself as being thinner, with lighter skin and
glistening hair because she feels that this is how Dee wishes
her to look. The recounting of the dream is followed by the
mother’s realization of it’s absurdity. In reality, she is a
“large, big-boned woman with rough looking man-working hands”
(444) who, much like her ancestors, lives a simple life in which
being resourceful and practical is highly valued. She is proud
of the manual labor she performs to maintain her modest three
room house. She boasts about her ability to,“work outside all
day, breaking ice to get water for washing” (444) and how she
can butcher calves with a sledgehammer. She also points out the
fact that, unlike Dee, she has never been able to look anyone,
especially a white man, directly in the eyes.
Walker’s straightforward observations don’t always allow
readers to make simple conclusions about the narrator’s
sentiment. For instance, she tries to establish the fact that
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the mother is proud of her oldest daughter’s intelligence
through the revelation, “we raised the money, the church and me,
to send her to school in Augusta” (445). The author then follows
this with the narrator’s sense of disappointment in how Dee used
her education to alienate herself from the family, using her
book knowledge as a way to make herself appear superior. From
this, the reader must determine whether or not the mother feels
insecure about her own lack of education or if perhaps she
feels that education isn’t useful.
When Dee finally arrives, the mother is dismayed by her
bright flashy clothing and surprised to see that she has brought
someone with her.
The mother remembers how Dee once wrote a
letter to her stating that no matter where she and Maggie chose
to live, she would always manage to come see them but that she
would never bring her friends. This shows the embarrassment that
Dee has always felt toward her family.
The author highlights
the irony of Dee’s attitude by having her pull out a Polaroid
camera, in the manner of a tourist, to take several photos of
her mother and Maggie, making sure to capture the house and even
a cow that has wandered nearby.
By adding this information, the
author has shrewdly reinforced a strong message that she is
trying to convey about Dee.
The author wants the reader to
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understand that Dee is merely a spectator and not a participant.
She is an outsider looking in.
The author uses the characters of Dee and Maggie as symbols
for readers to evaluate. Dee symbolizes the modern and shallow
view that many young people had of their heritage during the
time this story was written.
She had no appreciation or respect
for the actual work and struggle that went into creating the
culture.
her.
The customs and traditions held no real meaning for
Instead, she focused on the material aspects of the
culture because it was considered hip and trendy to do so. Dee
tells her mother and Maggie that she has changed her name to the
African name Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo because she hates being
named after the people who oppressed her.
When the mother
explains to Dee that she was named after her aunt Dicie and that
this name had been passed on down through many generations,
Dee
fails to recognize the significance of this. The author shows us
that Dee is unable or unwilling to accept the connection to her
immediate heritage.
It is during the course of dinner that the narrator makes
the reason for Dee’s visit obvious.
Dee has come to collect
various items from the mother’s house with the intention of
displaying them as artwork. The mother and Maggie sit at the
table while Dee helps herself to a butter churn and a dasher.
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When Maggie tries to tell the history of the items, Dee seems
uninterested and jokes about Maggie having the memory of an
elephant. The author has kept Maggie’s character quiet up to
this point and because of this, her words seem more meaningful.
It is when Dee begins to gather up her grandmother’s hand
stitched quilts that the mother finally reacts.V She remembers
Dee refusing the quilts when they bad been offered to her before
because she considered them too old fashioned. The author points
out this action because it reflects the theme of the story. Dee
has no real respect or understanding of why the quilts are
important.
The grandmother made the quilts to serve
a purpose, as in the title of the story, yet Dee doesn’t want to
use the quilts; she wants to hang them.
The mother realizes that Dee has always been ashamed of and
uncomfortable with her heritage while Maggie has clung to it.
Maggie has acquired the skills that are necessary to preserve
her heritage, such as sewing, churning butter and passing on
details about her relatives.
Dee wants to project the image of
a proud cultured black woman only as it relates to a style, but
Maggie is a proud black woman who will continue the customs and
traditions of her ancestors.
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Works Cited
Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” An Introduction to Fiction.
Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 10th ed. New York:
Longman, 2007. 443-449.