Alice Walker's Everyday Use: Analysis and Symbolism
Alice Walker’s Everyday Use is told from the point of view of an unnamed woman called “Mama,” the matriarch of an African American family living in a heartland pasture. The story revolves around her daughter Dee’s visit back from her schooling in Augusta. The entire narrative takes the form of recollection and reflection, where she relives her memories of her daughters’ histories in relation to how they fare in the present. These reflections, in turn, function as the primary device through which the story fleshes out the characters by associating them with particular symbols, which is the genius of Walker’s story.
The Use of Symbols and the Contrast Between Maggie and Dee
Throughout, the narrative attempts to assign particular symbols to either Dee or Maggie, which it sees as polar opposites. For example, Maggie is described as having been deprived of “good looks, money, and quickness,” who walks “chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle”. Dee, on the other hand, was “lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure,” and “wanted nice things”. We see these features and tendencies fleshed out more in the story through the use of symbols, such as Maggie having burn marks for having been inside the house that burned down, whereas Dee was “under the sweet gum tree,” passively watching as the house went down in flames because “she had hated that house that much.” Another significant symbol is the quilt that Maggie would put to “everyday use,” but Dee would hang on a wall for display.
Maggie and Dee as Symbols of African American Futures
That being said, both Maggie and Dee are symbols in their own right. If the quilt is to be understood as African American heritage – the history of their family weaved together and passed down – then Maggie wants to put her heritage into “everyday use,” i.e., make practical use out of it. She would continue living as she is, as her family had been for generations. This is reinforced by her burn marks that she received from the house that burned down, and her ties with the current house, with all the artefacts from her history. Like all members of her family, she bears the marks of her past suffering and the culture that comes with it and is heir to their history of domestic Black women – a reading strengthened by the fact that she knows how to quilt. Dee/Wangero, on the other hand, sees her own heritage as something foreign to her, i.e., not a part of herself, and romanticizes it after seeing its real value through education. She is always depicted outside the house, and always wanting to tear it down or put it on a pedestal.
Different Futures for African Americans after Jim Crow
Maggie and Dee symbolize two futures for African Americans after Jim Crow – symbolized here by the house that burned down. The former represents Black people living as they have been up till that point, while the latter symbolizes Black people leaving behind their heritage and finding a new way to live. Neither choice is absolutely good or bad. The fact that Mama gives Maggie the quilts is not necessarily the story’s didactic way of telling the reader that Maggie deserves them. Rather, Mama sees too much of herself in Maggie – in her suffering, her lack of confidence, and her unblessedness – that she is frightened at the prospect that Dee/Wangero would take their heritage in a new direction. But of course, this can be interpreted in other ways. It could be read so that Mama sees Maggie’s way as the right way, because culture is meant to be put to ‘everyday use’ and not hung on a wall.
