Woven Together

In America many people can be classified as immigrants, unless one has Native American blood, but recognizing one’s heritage from a different country doesn’t mean that one should give up the history of being a citizen of the United States. Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, examines the Cultural Revolution that occurred in the 70’s for African Americans, and how one can embrace their ethnic heritage but not lose one’s family’s past. Walker represents the two points of view with how the two sisters are represented. Maggie is scarred, weak, and beaten down, but caring, and sweet. Dee is strong minded, a beauty, and is portrayed as larger-than-life, but she is also demanding and arrogant. Although one is not better than the other, Maggie is more sympathetic towards their American heritage, while Dee wants to throw it away to embrace a different heritage. Walker writes from the mother’s point of view to demonstrate her validation of the Mother’s choice of whom she passes on the quilts to.

Dee (Wangero) is an embodiment of the Cultural Revolution that was happening in the 70’s; she always seems to be more “knowledgeable than her mother and sister, and repeatedly “[shoves them] away at just the moment, like dimwits, [they] seem about to understand“(812). Knowing this leads the audience to understanding why she said this to her mother, “‘Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!’ she said. ‘She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use’. . . ‘Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they’d be in rags. Less than that’” (815).That scene is a demonstration of disregard of the true purpose of the quilts and what they represent. The quilts are the American part of the African American heritage, because slave...

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...t to change her name, then she has no right to the quilts. Alice Walker wrote the mother as the storyteller because she is faced with this decision, and the mother’s choice is how Alice Walker would have chosen.
“Everyday Use” a story of what is heritage and what does it truly mean. This story presents a conflict between embracing a ethnic heritage or honoring your family’s past. Dee embraces the African culture, but at the cost of abandoning her past; Maggie stays in her family’s past because she may find her ethnic background to overwhelming for her.Walker makes a point by juxtapositioning Maggie with Dee, so the story has the two point of views equally represented, but uses the mother to voice her opinion.

Works Cited

Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” The Art of the Short Story. Ed. Dana Gioia and R. S. Gwynn. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 810 - 816. Print.