The struggles of a mother raising two girls while living under the oppression of a white-dominated society are depicted in Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use," which depicts the realities of life for African-Americans in the southern United States in the middle of the 20th century. Jim Crow laws and the dominant southern white mindset at the time in the southern United States were designed to make life for African-Americans oppressive and difficult while continually reminding them of their inferior status. Mama and Maggie continued to experience white tyranny, much like African-Americans in the South had done for decades following their emancipation nearly 100 years earlier. Dee/Wangero had always aspired to escape the life she lived and had accomplished this to a certain extent by going off to college in Augusta and being able to change her life by becoming a follower of the Black-Muslim movement. Even though Dee/Wangero had managed to escape the persecution of the South, she was still struggling with her new life. While Dee/Wangero had freed herself from the subjugation of her former life, she still wanted to possess things from her past for the connection she still felt with her heritage.
Before departing on the analysis of Walker’s work, it is necessary to know a little about the woman Alice Walker. Walker grew up in circumstances not unlike the characters she portrays in “Everyday Use.” She was born into the Jim Crow South in Georgia in 1944 and writes from the perspective of a struggling but empowered black woman in most of her works. Walker even invented the terminology which best describes her, womanist. Per the research of Donna Allen, the main meaning of the term womanist is “From womanish. (Opp. Of “girlish,” i.e., frivolous, irresponsible, not serious.) A black feminist or feminist of color. From the black folk expression of mothers to female children, “You acting womanish,” i.e., like a woman. Usually referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous or willful behavior. Wanting to know more and in greater depth than is considered ‘good’ for one” (1). This description sets the stage for the characters and places with which Ms. Walker constructs her stories.
Almost from the very beginning of the story, the oppression which African-Americans faced in the Jim Crow South is put on display by the narrator (Mama) when she mentions the condition of her youngest daughter Maggie. Mama describes Maggie’s perception of herself as “homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs” (Walker 315) and later explains Maggie’s deformed condition by comparing the way she walks with that of “a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car” (Walker 316) and further by stating “she has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground” (Walker 316). Mama makes one final mention of Maggie’s injuries when she describes carrying her away from the burning house that night some “ten, twelve years” hence by saying “Sometimes I can still hear the flames and feel Maggie’s arm sticking to me, her hair smoking and her dress falling off her in little black peppery flakes” (Walker 316). From the description of Maggie’s condition and the burns she had suffered, it is obvious that she had been caught in a fire which was probably set by white supremacists. Mama’s description of Maggie’s condition as she was carrying her “arm sticking to me, her hair smoking, and her dress falling off her in little black peppery flakes” illustrates a severely (probably 3rd degree) burned child most likely nearly cooked by the fire. The fire probably also accounts for the lack of a father in the story. He was probably killed in the fire or more likely drug off and lynched by an angry mob which was the common means of punishing “uppity niggers” in the Jim Crow South after they torched the house and made him watch as his family burned. Mama never makes mention of what happened to her husband, probably because “people just did not speak of such things” for fear of more reprisals by the whites. Such was the state of fear and oppression which African-Americans lived under in the South.
The next portrayal in the story conveys the propaganda of the status quo. The perception Dee/Wangero holds for her home is expressed in the way in which she wants to frame the situation while avoiding being a part of it. Raimund Borgmeier describes the situation with the Polaroid camera that Dee/Wangero pulls out at the beginning of her visit by stating “It is as if before entering that scene Dee wants to make sure that she has a picture of herself not being part of the picture. She wants to frame that world, define its borders, give it wholeness which then allows her to handle it without being a part of it” (qtd. in Sarnowski, 2012, p. 276). Dee/Wangero puts on a good show for the crowd (Mama and Maggie) about how her life is so much better now by her actions but Sam Whitsitt catches Dee/Wangero’s real intent when he states, “the Polaroid camera which Dee uses, even before she has greeted her mother, to take pictures, is an expression of a decorative taking-in and unfeeling consumer attitude” (qtd. in Sarnowski, 2012, p. 276) which expresses her keeping of the status quo of the society in which she is trying to fit but never quite does. Ironically though, Dee/Wangero fiercely refuses “to meekly accept the status quo” (Farrell 181) of her upbringing but happily accepts the status quo of her new life
Returning to the oppression theme, not only are Maggie and her Mama subjugated by the society that they live in which is dominated by the white man, they are also weighed down by Dee. Maggie especially feels the pressure from her more “beautiful, smart, light-skinned, stylish and ambitious” (Martin 37) older sister. Dee seems to Maggie to be a person of extreme privilege as exemplified by the way in which Mama describes it “She [Maggie] thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that ‘no’ is a word the world has never learned to say to her” (Walker 315). However, unbeknownst to even Maggie, she has a power within her grasp which is much more powerful and substantial than anything Dee possesses, the “trinity of power” (Martin 37), sisterhood, quilting, and empowerment. She currently holds the first two pieces of the trinity, sisterhood, from her quilting experience with her mother, grandmother, and aunt; and quilting which is the creativity to patch together something beautiful out of scraps of old cloth; but she lacks the last piece of the trinity, empowerment, which has apparently been kept out of her reach by the domineering character of her sister Dee.
Mama also experiences the oppression of the situation she finds herself in, raising two daughters alone in a society that would just assume shoot her as look at her. Mama delves into her own background beginning with her childhood and this shows the life which African-Americans led and continued to lead up until the 1960’s. Mama notes that her only schooling only lasted until the second grade but after that the school was closed down. In her words “Don’t ask me why: in 1927, colored asked fewer questions than they do now” (Walker 316). One can only speculate as to why Mama’s school was closed down but it is a safe bet that it was due to it being objected to for one reason or another by the white community. Whites in the South at that time were only 60 years removed from a time when they could own an African-American and dictate to them as they wished. The culture of cruelty was still fresh in the minds of many. Mama also notes her struggle to provide for her children when she mentions that she “was always better at a man’s job” (Walker 316) denoting the fact that she was made to assume her husband’s role after he was gone. She backs this up with facts stating “I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. I wear… overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as any man… I can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing… One winter I knocked a bull calf straight in the brain with a sledgehammer and had the meat hung up to chill before nightfall” (Walker 315). Even though the system is rigged against her success, she struggles and wins to be strong for her children.
Even Dee/Wangero has her bouts with oppression. However, instead of being passive and accepting her fate, as her mother, her sister and many other African-Americans did, she was one of the next generation that was not going to put up with being treated as chattel. From the very beginning her mother noted that “She would always look anyone in the eye” adding “Hesitation was not part of her nature” (Walker 315). Dee/Wangero built on this boldness when she went away to school, building on her independent nature she changed her entire image, adopting a Black-Muslim lifestyle and throwing conformity completely out. Although she was fiercely independent, Dee/Wangero also took advantage of the system by her affluence and her lighter skin color. This was a practice known at the time as “passing” in which lighter skinned African-Americans were seen as more acceptable than the darker skinned to the white populations in the South. Dee/Wangero also exhibits another classic form of Marxist theory of rugged individualism by the fact that “She was born into poverty and, with the help of her community, went to college and made something of herself. She no longer belongs to the poor community in which she was raised” (Kendrick). Another aspect of Dee/Wangero is her perception that she has achieved the American Dream by the fruits of her actions. This is another ubiquitous part of Marxist theory that this story clearly points out. Per Kendrick, those who have not achieved the American Dream are considered to be “shiftless and lazy or in some other way undeserving of decent living conditions.” This is how Dee/Wangero now views her mother and Maggie. This is also why she gets into such a row with them just before she leaves because she wants the quilts that her mother saved for Maggie. In her mind, these poor people will just waste these precious family heirlooms by using them as “Everyday Use” items and not appreciate their intrinsic value as artifacts of a bygone era.
Overall, as mentioned above, the story of “Everyday Use” is one of oppression of the poor and working class, which is a staple of Marxist Theory, topped off with a firm look at the American Dream and Rugged Individualism as demonstrated by Dee/Wangero. Even though Mama and Maggie had their own sort of subjugation to deal with, it is important to note the achievements of Dee/Wangero’s in Marxist Theory because of the shining example of two very important ideas that the theory expounds. Even with her successful struggle though, Dee/Wangero completely abandons her family and what they hold dear, the everyday use items which she sees now only as decorations, artifacts, or mementoes of her African-American history. In the end, this is a sad commentary on the growth and change in the African-American community where substance and principle eventually gave way to the materialistic ways of those that they had despised for all those many years.
Works Cited
Allen, Donna E. Toward a Womanist Homiletic, edited by Donna E. Allen, Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/lib/apus/detail.action?docID=1215172. Accessed on April 5, 2017.
Farrell, Susan. "Fight Vs. Flight: A Re-Evaluation of Dee in Alice Walker's “Everyday Use”." Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 35, no. 2, Spring1998, p. 179. EBSCOhost, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=6297587&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed April 5, 2017.
Kendrick, Kelly. “Everyday Use: African-American, Marxist, and Psychoanalytical Theories.” Kelly K.'s EN 122 Blog, 21 February 2011, WordPress, https://kellykendrick122.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/everyday-use-african-american-marxist-and-psychoanalytical-theories/. Accessed April 6, 2017.
Martin, Jennifer. "The Quilt Threads Together Sisterhood, Empowerment and Nature in Alice Walker's the Color Purple and "Everyday Use." Journal of Intercultural Disciplines, vol. 14, Winter2014, pp. 27-44. EBSCOhost, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=101320325&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed April 5, 2017.
Sarnowski, Joe. "Destroying to Save: Idealism and Pragmatism in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use." Papers on Language & Literature, vol. 48, no. 3, Summer2012, pp. 269-286. EBSCOhost, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=79728955&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed April 5, 2017.
Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” Weber State University website. http://www.faculty.weber.edu/jyoung/english 6710/everyday use.pdf. Accessed on April 5, 2017.
Paper Proposal for “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
For this paper, I intend to use Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” as the basis for a Marxist critique. I believe that this story lends itself very well to the Marxist theory of criticism because it is a story born of class struggle of the black community in the mid-20th century South and the younger generation’s (Dee) struggle to create a new identity separate from Mama’s generation and the past. I propose to use the divisions of class and status in the story as a base on which to build this critique in a Marxist style. The struggles which Dee and Maggie’s mother go through raising them in the Jim Crow South and the atmosphere of oppression set upon African-Americans during the mid-20th century is to be a central theme of the critique. How Dee and Maggie’s mother must overcome her own gender and struggle to do not only her own womanly work but also to undertake the role of Dee and Maggie’s surrogate father. Dee’s seeming rise above her mother and Maggie shows the capitalist struggle for material wealth and oppression of the lower class will be clearly shown throughout the essay. My critique will also touch upon the change in status that Dee experiences when she adopts a Black-Muslim lifestyle with her companion Hakim de Barber.
To illustrate the above points, I am planning to include in my reference materials the following sources: (1) Joe Sarnowski’s "Destroying to Save: Idealism and Pragmatism in Alice Walker's "Everyday Use." – The concepts of idealism and pragmatism in this article will help to support the Marxist criticism of “Everyday Use” by pointing out how struggles of Mama and Maggie contrast with the Dee’s and how each cope with them. The pragmatism shown on Mama and Maggie’s part as they continue to live in the Jim Crow South and endure the oppression of the white-dominated society while Dee has escaped that struggle and is living a different life with college, her new friend Hakim de Barber, and a new religion, Black-Muslim. (2) Jennifer Martin’s "The Quilt Threads Together Sisterhood, Empowerment and Nature in Alice Walker's the Color Purple and "Everyday Use." – the overall themes of this work will fit well into the Marxist critique format because they relate to struggle, unity, and liberation from the shackles of the Jim Crow South as seen in Dee’s ascendance from her lowly beginnings to a much better class and status.
